Sinn Fein says sorry for IRA killing of Irish cops

DUBLIN - The Associated Press

AP photo

Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams has apologized for past Irish Republican Army killings of police officers and soldiers in the Republic of Ireland.

Adams expressed remorse during a parliamentary debate Tuesday about last week’s fatal shooting of a policeman in the border town of Dundalk. Detective Adrian Donohoe was shot in the head as he tried to stop a gang robbing a cash collection van outside a bank. An IRA faction based in neighboring Northern Ireland is suspected of involvement.

Donohoe was the first Republic of Ireland policeman to be fatally shot since 1996, when IRA members ambushed another cash-carrying van in Limerick and killed police guard Jerry McCabe.

Adams apologized to McCabe’s widow and the families of other Irish security-force members slain by the IRA.