Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car, a red Vauxhall Cavalier, was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, whom the policemen had taken to be British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was forced to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.
At around 3.40 p.m they crossed the Northern Ireland border at Border Check Point 10 on the Edenappa Road. It was a dark, overcast wintry day.Yards up ahead, at the top of a hill on a tree-lined section of the road just south of Jonesborough, armed members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade waited to carry out the ambush.The site the IRA chose was in "dead ground", meaning that they could not be seen by the nearby British Army observation post. The secluded back road was considered to be one of the most dangerous in south Armagh and as such, a "no-go area" for the security forces as it was regularly patrolled by the local IRA. According to the Cory Collusion Inquiry Report, as Buchanan reached the hilltop he was flagged down by an armed IRA man standing in the middle of the road wearing Army battle fatigues and camouflage paint on his face. Another armed man, dressed likewise, stood in a ditch by the roadside by four cars he ordered to stop and their drivers to position so only one car could pass the road at a time and slowly at that. Buchanan, because of the location and dress of the two armed men would have had difficulty in ascertaining if it was an IRA or a British Army checkpoint, slowed down and stopped. At that moment, a stolen cream-coloured Litace van, which had been following behind his car, overtook and pulled into the laneway of an empty house opposite. Four more armed IRA men wearing battle fatigues and balaclavas leapt out of the van. They approached the Cavalier and immediately began shooting, mainly at the driver's side, hitting the two officers. Buchanan made two frantic attempts to reverse and escape but his car stalled on each attempt and he was likely already dead before his car came to a rest. Examination of the car the following day found it still to be in reverse gear with Buchanan's foot fully pressed against the accelerator. Breen, despite his gunshot wounds, managed to stumble out of the car, waving a white handkerchief at the gunmen in an apparent gesture of surrender. According to eyewitnesses, one of the gunmen walked over to him, told him to lie on the ground and fired a shot into the back of his head, killing him instantly. Another gunman then approached Buchanan's already dead body in the car and shot him again in the side of the head at point-blank range.
After removing security documents relevant to the meeting with Garda from the Cavalier and personal belongings of the two officers including notes for a history of his church Buchanan had been writing, and a diary containing the contact details of informers and an RUC assistant Chief Constable (whose house was later bombed) from Breen, the IRA gunmen drove away from the scene of the killings. They were heard by witnesses to have cheered and shouted "Hurrah" as the van sped northwards
The Jonesborough ambush took place on 20 March 1989 near the Irish border outside the village of Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, were shot dead in an ambush by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. Breen and Buchanan were returning from an informal cross-border security conference in Dundalk with senior Garda officers when Buchanan's car, a red Vauxhall Cavalier, was flagged down and fired upon by six IRA gunmen, whom the policemen had taken to be British soldiers. Buchanan was killed outright whilst Breen, suffering gunshot wounds, was forced to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head after he had left the car waving a white handkerchief. They were the highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during the Troubles.
At around 3.40 p.m they crossed the Northern Ireland border at Border Check Point 10 on the Edenappa Road. It was a dark, overcast wintry day.Yards up ahead, at the top of a hill on a tree-lined section of the road just south of Jonesborough, armed members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade waited to carry out the ambush.The site the IRA chose was in "dead ground", meaning that they could not be seen by the nearby British Army observation post. The secluded back road was considered to be one of the most dangerous in south Armagh and as such, a "no-go area" for the security forces as it was regularly patrolled by the local IRA. According to the Cory Collusion Inquiry Report, as Buchanan reached the hilltop he was flagged down by an armed IRA man standing in the middle of the road wearing Army battle fatigues and camouflage paint on his face. Another armed man, dressed likewise, stood in a ditch by the roadside by four cars he ordered to stop and their drivers to position so only one car could pass the road at a time and slowly at that. Buchanan, because of the location and dress of the two armed men would have had difficulty in ascertaining if it was an IRA or a British Army checkpoint, slowed down and stopped. At that moment, a stolen cream-coloured Litace van, which had been following behind his car, overtook and pulled into the laneway of an empty house opposite. Four more armed IRA men wearing battle fatigues and balaclavas leapt out of the van. They approached the Cavalier and immediately began shooting, mainly at the driver's side, hitting the two officers. Buchanan made two frantic attempts to reverse and escape but his car stalled on each attempt and he was likely already dead before his car came to a rest. Examination of the car the following day found it still to be in reverse gear with Buchanan's foot fully pressed against the accelerator. Breen, despite his gunshot wounds, managed to stumble out of the car, waving a white handkerchief at the gunmen in an apparent gesture of surrender. According to eyewitnesses, one of the gunmen walked over to him, told him to lie on the ground and fired a shot into the back of his head, killing him instantly. Another gunman then approached Buchanan's already dead body in the car and shot him again in the side of the head at point-blank range.
After removing security documents relevant to the meeting with Garda from the Cavalier and personal belongings of the two officers including notes for a history of his church Buchanan had been writing, and a diary containing the contact details of informers and an RUC assistant Chief Constable (whose house was later bombed) from Breen, the IRA gunmen drove away from the scene of the killings. They were heard by witnesses to have cheered and shouted "Hurrah" as the van sped northwards
