east tyrone ira members
7 September 1981: two RUC officers (Mark Evans and Stuart Montgomery) were killed when their patrol vehicle struck an IRA landmine at Sessadonaghy, near. 22 February 1997: An IRA mortar unit was intercepted by the RUC in $3, on its way to carry out an attack on a British security facility. 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. [92], An explosive device fired at the RUC barracks in Dungannon on 9 July 1993, that according to the IRA was a Mark-15 mortar bomb,[85] prompted the evacuation of a nearby housing state. But somebody not being able to smuggle is not what revolutions are made out of. This is not a land of milk and honey under the European Union. 4 December 1983: Colm McGirr (23) and Brian Campbell (19), both members of the East Tyrone Brigade, were shot dead by an undercover British Army soldier whilst approaching an arms dump in a field near Coalisland. Simon Carswell. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. The IRA Northern Command, however, approved a scaled-down version of the strategy, aimed at hampering the repair and refurbishment of British security bases. They were active in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the Troubles, and for three of them much of that activity took place along the Border. [23], A major IRA attack in County Tyrone took place on 20 August 1988, barely a year after Loughall, which ended in the deaths of eight soldiers when a British Army bus was destroyed by a bomb at Curr Road, near Ballygawley. The New Irish Republican Army, or New IRA, . [17] The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. [32][33] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, across the border. Patrick Joseph Kelly (19 March 1957 - 8 May 1987), was the Commander of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the mid-1980s until his death in a Special Air Service ambush at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987. They don't throw away remarks like that. "It was never going to be delivered by the normal means, by the Irish themselves, but it could come about through the break-up of the so-called United Kingdom," he says as he sits in an armchair in his living room, in front of shelves of history books that reflect his past studies at Trinity College Dublin and his background in teaching. O'Donnell had been released without charges for possession of weapons on two different occasions in the past. He voted for Brexit in the hope that it would lead to a united Ireland through the disintegration of the UK. Former IRA gunrunner John Crawley says he used to meet Martin McGuinness in the 1980s in the Botanic Gardens in Dublin to discuss operations. On these two occasions the stations were destroyed, and, in the first case, two of the occupants killed. This was the last action by the Brigade before. An Phoblacht claimed the IRA men thwarted an ambush and at least two SAS members were killed. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. 26 March 1997: A grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland. IRA volunteers had been lying in wait outside the barracks and, as the officers left, two gunmen stepped out of concealed positions and shot both officers in the head from close range. The four, Peter Clancy, Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Sean O'Farrell and Patrick Vincent, were killed at Clonoe after an attack on the RUC station in Coalisland. The British Army claimed that the mortar round exploded in a bog just outside the perimeter fence, while the IRA unit said that the bomb landed in the grounds of the barracks. [50] The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen. (2000). (RAAD), an east Tyrone republican group, and a group of previously non-aligned republican dissidents from Belfast. [147], The commander of the brigade, Kevin McKenna, was appointed Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1983. Photographs: Simon Carswell. [42] Whereas the previous ambushes of IRA men had been well planned by Special Forces, the Clonoe killings owed much to a series of mistakes by the IRA men in question. The escape of former IRA chief of staff Seamus Twomey, Tyrone man Kevin Mallon and JB O'Hagan from north Armagh, caused a country-wide sensation and considerable embarrassment to the Dublin. The device landed unexploded inside the complex, resulting in its evacuation. 2 May 1974: Up to 40 members from the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade attacked the isolated 6 UDR Deanery base in Clogher, County Tyrone with machine gun and RPG fire resulting in the death of Private Eva Martin, a UDR Greenfinch, the first female UDR soldier to be killed by enemy action. Tommy's older brother Sean was killed in May 1974 when a bomb he was planting at a petrol station outside Dungannon exploded prematurely. [111] Nationalist politician Bernardette Devlin McAliskey suggested that the recovery of the machine gun was actually staged by the security forces as a publicity stunt. Simon Carswell. [28] On 16 September 1989, a British sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals (Kevin Froggett) was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. An inquest into their deaths. IRA member Liam Ryan and local man . The former IRA volunteer served 18 years in the Maze prison for the murder of a UVF man in Belfast in February 1976. 'United Ireland? In April 1987 the brigade shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main building contractors to the security forces in Northern Ireland. The European Union is as much of an imperial power as if not more than Britain at the moment, Lynagh says. One RUC officer was injured. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Somebody who might find it difficult to smuggle because of a Border post might go out and shoot a Border-post official? Another street fracas on 17 May between a King's Own Scottish Borderers platoon and a group of nationalist youths in Coalisland resulted in the theft of an army machine gun and a new confrontation with the paratroopers. See: 13 May 1974: Eugene Martin (18) and Sean McKearney (19), both, 22 September 1974: A helicopter came under fire while flying along the Tyrone-Monaghan border and was forced to land in a field. Why would article 50 change that? Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. 10 February 1997: A horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was an off-duty Royal Irish Rangers soldier. [49], On 3 June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Michael "Pete" Ryan, and Tony Doris, died in another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was riddled with gunfire. A third former republican paramilitary suggests that Ireland would be better off in an economic bloc with the UK rather than with the European Union. [120] The IRA said that the workers were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. [61], At least five members of the security forces were killed by the IRA in around this area during the same period. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. The area was previously secured by a group of armed volunteers. Three constables and Treanor were wounded,[106] as well as a passing-by ederly female motorist whose car was hit by the RUC vehicle. He recalls the EEC No signs that accompanied Brits Out graffiti around Monaghan when he was growing, up in the 1970s. In January 1992, an IRA roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 workers who had been re-building Lisanelly British Army base in Omagh. IRA veterans Brexit feature - pix Colm Lynagh and Tommy McKearneyFormer republican prisoner Colm Lynagh (left) and former Provisional IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney in Monaghan Town. At least two British soldiers were severely wounded in action near Cappagh[66] and Pomeroy[70] in 1992. [83] The IRA asserts instead that the barracks were "extensively damaged". [49] Another former UDR soldier was killed when an IRA bomb exploded underneath his car in Kildress, County Tyrone in April 1993; it was claimed that he had loyalist connections. Why would article 50 change that? says McKearney. [5] Lynagh's plans met strong criticism from senior brigade member Kevin McKenna, who regarded the strategy as "too impractical, too ambitious, and not sustainable" in the words of journalist Ed Moloney. [38] Hamilton stated that there were no security or civilian casualties. Taken: April 5th, 2017. Gerry McGeough, who is now a farmer, served time in German, US and Northern Irish prisons for paramilitary-related offences, including trying to buy Stinger surface-to-air missiles in 1983 with the aim of taking down British army helicopters. While Brexit raises uncertainty around how the UK manages trade across a frontier running through those former battlefields, McKearney and Lynagh believe that the climate and conditions the anti-Catholic discrimination and economic inequality that ignited the Troubles no longer exist. The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade[1] was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". The ambush took place outside the village of Pomeroy. Lynagh's strategy was to start off with one area which the British military did not control, preferably a republican stronghold such as east Tyrone. 13 July 1984: IRA Volunteer Willie Price was killed by the SAS while carrying out an incendiary bomb attack on a factory in Ardboe. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. But as a community willing to return to armed conflict, there just isnt an appetite for that., Lynagh adds, There is a vested interest in hyping up the political impact and the scare tactics that it is going to open a hornets nest of dissident activity against British rule. He believes that the British had intended to withdraw from Ireland around the late 2030s, by when demographic trends would have led to an overwhelming nationalist majority. This is the infrastructure that the European Union has created, and concentrating on a customs post in Aughnacloy is taking us off the core argument.. Lynagh refers to the high proportion of social-welfare recipients in Monaghan, the county's "low-wage and no-wage economy" and his work distributing charity food to families. [81] The facilities targeted by "Barrack Buster" mortars included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army border outpost at Aughnacloy,[82] the RUC barracks at Clogher[83] and Beragh,[82] both resulting in massive damage but no fatalities; two attacks on the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire in the second attack,[83][84] and the RUC compounds at Dungannon,[85] Fintona,[83] Carrickmore,[83] and Pomeroy. The first phase of Lynagh's plan to drive out the British security forces from east Tyrone involved destroying isolated rural police stations and then intimidating or killing any building contractors who were employed to rebuild them. Nevertheless, IRA activities continued in parts of Down, Fermanagh, north and mid-Armagh by August 1994. Sniper Assault Kills A British Soldier in Belfast", "South Armagh Brigade claims sniper attack", http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27929, Cousin of bomb suspect was top provo; But gun victim denies being a terrorist, Militants Angry About Police's Defense Of Protestant March, CAIN - Listing of Programmes for the Year:1997 - UTV news, 9 July 1997, Loughgall and why the truth will never be told, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia. Paddy Fox is an IRA man on the run - not from the RUC or the British Army, but from his old comrades. [51], Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. [113] An IRA man was taken in custody in Newtownstewart, west Tyrone, on 10 July 1993, after being injured during a mishap while testing an improvised mortar in a barn near Dungannon. [52] They had mounted a heavy DShK machine gun on the back of a stolen lorry, driven right to the RUC/British Army station and opened fire with tracer ammunition at the fortified base at point-blank range, no efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. [20][21] This attack forced the British military to ferry their troops to and from East Tyrone by helicopter. [26] Peter Taylor, instead, says that only Mullin was suspected, and that plans for the SAS operation were already underway at the time of the IRA roadside bomb attack. [4] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic male civilians inside a betting shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. The ambush that left Tyrone Volunteers Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Patrick Vincent, Sen O'Farrell and Peter . . [26] On 30 August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment member near Carrickmore. UTV News Report: In Pomeroy an IRA horizontal mortar hit an RUC car but failed to explode. [63] Another fatality was a Royal Irish Regiment soldier from Cookstown who was abducted and shot dead while on leave; his body was later found in the outskirts of Armagh town on 21 May 1994. [30] Journalist Ian Bruce claims that an unidentified Irishman who had served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. East Tyrone appears an outlier in rural areas by the 1990s. Talk of a united Ireland is all guff, according to another. The soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a military base near Omagh after returning from leave in England. The fourth was imprisoned for offences that included attempted murder. Another street fracas five days later, on 17 May, between a King's Own Scottish Borderers platoon and a group of nationalist youths in Coalisland resulted in the theft of an army machine gun and a new confrontation with the paratroopers. Ira unit hit an RUC car but failed to explode the stations were destroyed and! Stations were destroyed, and, in the 1980s in the hope that it would to. [ 83 ] the eight volunteers killed in the hope that it lead. Kevin McKenna, was appointed Chief of Staff of the workers killed Robert... Fermanagh, north and mid-Armagh by August 1994, an east Tyrone appears an in! British soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a united Ireland through the disintegration the. Ruc car but failed to explode the brigade, Kevin McKenna, appointed. 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