Adams: SF doesn't know who killed Garda Adrian Donohoe

The probe continues into the killing of Garda Adrian Donohoe

The probe continues into the killing of Garda Adrian Donohoe

Gerry Adams

The probe continues into the killing of Garda Adrian Donohoe

January 24 2014 11:44 AM

SINN FEIN leader Gerry Adams has denied that his party have any knowledge of the identity of the murderer of Detective Adrian Donohue.

“I do not know who killed Adrian Donohoe," Adams said this morning. "I read in the media that the gardai know. I have listened to well placed journalists saying that one of these people is in Australia and that one of these people is in the US.

"There is no doubt - because the gardai have not denied it – that they know who was involved. I think everyone should co-operate with the gardai and the PSNI so that they are subject to due process."

The leader of Sinn Fein said that he believed the gardai may know who were involved in the detective's murder outside the Lordship credit union at Bellurgan, Jenkinstown, Co Louth last year.

Garda Donohoe was shot dead outside the credit union at Bellurgan, Jenkinstown, Co Louth, on the evening of January 25 last year.

He was hit with a shotgun blast to the head as he stepped out of his patrol car to investigate why another vehicle was blocking the exit from the credit union car park.

Adams was speaking on Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning, and he said that Sinn Fein was doing everything in its power to help bring the killer of the garda to justice

“I am very disappointed at the suggestion that I am not using my influence or that Sinn Fein is not using its influence. To depict that the people of the border region is protecting or are covering the people who killed Adrian Donohue is wrong. We have made it clear that this gang should turn themselves in. We think that anyone with any information should bring it forward to the PSNI or the gardai.”

However, a former garda colleague of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe has said that Sinn Fein and the IRA know who murdered the garda but will not break the code of silence protecting his killers in south Armagh.

Mayor of Drogheda Richie Culhane, a former detective who worked with Det Gda Donohoe, accused Gerry Adams's condemnation of the officer's murder as "hypocrisy".

However, Adams said he was “disappointed” by the comments made by Fine Gael councillor Culhane.

In an interview for a special report on Independent.ie the Fine Gael councillor said: "There is nothing that happens in Crossmaglen and nothing that happens in South Armagh that Sinn Fein and the IRA don't know about."

He said that Sinn Fein and the IRA also covered up the truth about the horrific murder of local man Paul Quinn (21), who was beaten to death in 2007.