“I would certainly not attempt to justify any action in which civilians are killed. I naturally regret very much all such deaths.” But, he continued, “since it is not the policy of the IRA to kill civilians, I could not, by the same token, condemn them for accidental killings.” Such calibrated sophistry became another Adams signature, always delivered with unwavering certainty, in his unflustered brogue, and many Adams critics came to loathe his caveated expressions of “regret.”
