However, he was brought up in . A British Army helicopter was fired on in the aftermath of the ambush. [107] On 30 July 1993, a 20 pounds (9.1kg) device was uncovered by security forces in Pomeroy, and one man was arrested. Maybe a lot of huff and puff but nothing is going to get blown down.. See this British Commons account about the NI violence for the first month of 1990: See the May 12 and May 17 entries at the 1992 CAIN chronology: Fortnight, Issues 324-334, Fortnight Publications, 1994, Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign 19691997, "SAS shooting 'destroyed deadly IRA unit'", http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/05/05/story11832.asp, http://sluggerotoole.com/2011/12/02/loughgall-terrorists-could-not-have-been-arrested/, http://www.midulstermail.co.uk/news/local/gaa-distances-itself-from-ira-commemorations-1-3753356, "Calculating, professional enemy that faces KOSB", http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/calculating-professional-enemy-that-faces-kosb-1.598672, "Land Mine Kills 7 British Soldiers on Bus in Ulster", http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/21/world/ira-claims-killing-of-8-soldiers-as-it-steps-up-attacks-on-british.html, "IRA Claims Killing of 8 Soldiers As It Steps Up Attacks on British", Ex-Para 'led attack by IRA which killed Scots soldiers', Fears of new IRA atrocity after attack on helicopter, CAIN - Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992-UTV news, 31 January 1992, CAIN - Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1993 - BBC news, 26 April 1993 and UTV news, 29 April 1993, CAIN - Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992 - BBC news, 5 March 1992, The Irish Emigrant - May 18, 1992: New Paratroop Controversy, "I.R.A. [18] In August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin. On 11 May 1993, an IRA militant pretending to be a motorist that had been asked to show his licence at the barracks left a van carrying a mortar outside the facilities. [10][11] It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. Lynagh is irked by the way political parties in the Brexit debate are portraying people in the Border counties as lawless Irish, similar to the people of Pakistans tribal areas, with a pathological predisposition to violence who will rush out and go to war again because they cant stand the sight of customs posts. They also claimed that during the follow-up search, British Army technicians defused with a controlled explosion a 50 pounds (23kg) mortar round, fired three years before. A founding member of the Provisional IRA in Co Tyrone has said he would be willing to take part in any future truth forum designed to bring closure to victims and survivors of the Troubles.. Next to the living-room window, with its panoramic views of the farmland and gorse-filled hedgerows of this part of the Border, is an imposing portrait that shows the tradition of agrarian agitation McGeough hails from. In October 1990, two more IRA men, Dessie Grew and Michael McGaughey were shot dead near Loughgall by undercover soldiers. Tusk has said that the EU will seek "flexible and creative solutions" to avoid a hard Border. Stephen Fuller (d. 1984), a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence and fought with Anti-Treaty forces during the Irish Civil War (1922-23). They are saying to us: if you want to go down that road we are not going to step in your way. Transforming the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: From Terrorism to Democratic Policies, IRA The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity, The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997, Loyal to the Core? [7], Members of the East Tyrone Brigade had previously carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". O'Donnell had been released without charges for possession of weapons on two different occasions in the past. 5 February 1997: an IRA unit fired a horizontal mortar at an RUC patrol on Newell Road in Dungannon. Ryan, according to Moloney, had led the mixed flying column under direct orders of top IRA Army Council member Thomas "Slab" Murphy two years before. 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. 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. I just mean in terms of chaos and upheaval political, economic and otherwise.. Taken: April 5th, 2017. In May 1987, for instance, the SAS shot eight East Tyrone IRA volunteers whilst they attacked Loughgall . [15][16] It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. [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. The air of foreboding he once sensed when crossing the river into the North doesnt exist today because the Border is imperceptible, he says. As for the warnings made by diplomats, bureaucrats and Eurocrats about the threats to the peace process from Brexit, McIntyre says it is similar to Sinn Fins use of the peace process to expand its political influence, where the process must always undermine the peace. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during the . [2], In the 1980s, the IRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border, such as South Armagh, were following a Maoist military theory[3] devised for Ireland by Jim Lynagh, a high-profile member of the IRA in east Tyrone (but a native of County Monaghan). [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. In July 1983, the East Tyrone Brigade carried out a landmine ambush on an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) mobile patrol near Ballygawley, killing three UDR soldiers (a fourth UDR soldier died later). 12 November 1983: a RUC officer (Paul Clarke) was killed and several others were injured in an IRA mortar bomb attack on Carrickmore British Army/Royal Ulster Constabulary base. The base was raked with gunfire and a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket was driven through the perimeter fence. 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. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. Anybody who has ever fought in the Provisional IRA, as distinct to those who hid in the Provisional IRA, or joined after the ceasefires, will never live to see a united Ireland, he says. The IRA men were intercepted by the SAS as they were trying to dump the lorry and escape in cars in the car park of Clonoe Roman Catholic church, whose roof was set on fire by Army flares. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". [13], In December 2011, the Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA team fire first but that they could not have been safely arrested. Talk of a united Ireland is all guff, according to another. It is of his great-grandfather Henry McGeough, a member of the Ribbonmen, the 19th-century society of often violent Catholic rebels. The East Tyrone IRA saw its activities decline by the 1990s following repeated SAS ambushes. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. The loyalist gang operating in east Tyrone at the time used several weapons between 1988 to 1994, including R18837. The Irish . 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. Dates highlighted in bold indicate three or more fatalities. The South Armagh area was considered to be a liberated zone already, since British troops and the RUC could not use the roads there for fear of roadside bombs and long-range harassing fire. [64], Another IRA bomb attack on 12 May 1992, against British troops on patrol near Cappagh, in which a paratrooper lost both legs, triggered a series of clashes on that date between soldiers and local residents in the staunchly republican town of Coalisland, on 12 and 17 May 1992. The Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA, or rIRA) was a republican militant group that operated during and after the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a military base near Omagh after returning from leave in England. We are an unruly people, and if there is an opportunity to be unruly again we will take it, but it will not be violence, he says. They dont throw away remarks like that.. One British soldier was wounded. [26], On 11 February 1990 the brigade managed to shoot down a British Army Gazelle helicopter near Clogher by machine gun fire and wounding three soldiers, one of them seriously. The IRA claimed the man was a UVF commander, responsible for the killings of Catholic civilians. 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". He explains to Simon Carswell how Brexit is the best thing ever for Irish nationalists and republicans. In the 1980s, the IRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border, such as South Armagh, were following a Maoist military theory[8] devised for Ireland by Jim Lynagh, a high-profile member of the IRA in East Tyrone (but a native of County Monaghan). [101][102] The East Tyrone Brigade reported that they took over the area between the checkpoint and the border, set a roadblock, then drove a tractor carrying the mortar to the firing point and issued a 30-minute warning. Toggle navigation. That was a security situation. The IRA responded by killing senior UVF man and former UDR member Leslie Dallas on 7 March 1989,[46][47] but the UVF shot dead three IRA members and a Catholic civilian in a pub in Cappagh on 3 March 1991. His elder brother, a civilian contractor to the Ministry of Defence, had died in a South Armagh Brigade[64] mortar attack one year before, while working inside an Army base near Keady, County Armagh.[65]. The UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. (2000). The Tyrone republican believes that Sinn Fin is wrong to propose a special status for Northern Ireland within the European Union. 15 March 1974: Patrick McDonald (21) and Kevin Murray (27), both. Leading `Real IRA' member is shot dead in Ballymurphy. fechar. The European Union is as much of an imperial power as if not more than Britain at the moment, Lynagh says. Death made heroes of the Loughgall eight. Her extradition from Northern Ireland was eventually denied in 2007 due to discrepancies in the claims against her. No casualties were reported. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was an off-duty Royal Irish Rangers soldier. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. 7 February 1976: Two Protestant teenagers, Rachel and Robert McLernon (aged 18 and 16, respectively), were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb, intended for members of the security forces, which had been hidden in an abandoned crashed car, Tyresson Road, 3 December 1977: RUC car ambushed by IRA gunmen firing automatic weapons at Clover Hill Bridge on Benburb Road near. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. Anybody who has ever fought in the Provisional IRA, as distinct to those who hid in the Provisional IRA, or joined after the ceasefires, will never live to see a united Ireland, Dissidents who backed Brexit with the objective of destabilising the UK are not going to wage an armed campaign, he says. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in The Birches attack. In April 1987 the brigade shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main building contractors to the security forces in Northern Ireland. There were no injuries. A 'senior security source' claimed that the IRA was responsible. The fear that a hard Border along the UK's only land frontier with the EU could stir tensions in Northern Ireland has focused minds not only in Belfast, Derry and Dublin but also in London and Brussels. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". [147], The commander of the brigade, Kevin McKenna, was appointed Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1983. This page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at 19:23. Both share left-wing views and believe that the interests of Border counties are not being well served by the European Union. [6] Journalist Kevin Toolis states that from 1985 onwards, the brigade led a five-year campaign that left 33 security facilities destroyed and nearly 100 seriously damaged. [16] Additionally, most of the attacks which took place in County Fermanagh during this period of the Troubles were also launched from south Tyrone and Monaghan. [73], The brigade was the first to use the Mark-15 Barrack-Buster mortar in an attack on 5 December 1992 against the RUC station in Ballygawley. [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. IRA member Liam Ryan and local man . But these four veterans of the Provisional IRAs armed campaign, who are all now critics of Sinn Fin policy, do not think that Brexit will derail the peace process. Quinn was then a senior member of the IRA's East Tyrone brigade. According to the brigade report, the van, fitted with a Mark-15 mortar, was left besides a military sangar. Even a few customs posts stopping HGVs crossing the Border would not change that, McKearney says. Since June 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, there has been much speculation about the risk to the Northern peace process. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic male civilians inside a betting shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. [21] Additionally, most of the attacks which took place in County Fermanagh during this period of the Troubles were also launched from south Tyrone and Monaghan. [123] The IRA alleged that Dallas was a senior UVF member[124] but this was denied by his family, the police, and the UVF. Lynagh and McKearney were the driving force behind most IRA murders in Tyrone and many others in the neighbouring counties for at least a decade prior to the Loughgall incident. The bomb detonated, destroying much of the base and damaging nearby buildings. [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. They were killed as they approached the station with. 1st Battalion, the Staffordshire Regiment, A major ambush occurred on 12 December 1993 in Fivemiletown, Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign 19691997, "Bomb disposal experts Sunday probed an abandoned truck for", "SAS shooting 'destroyed deadly IRA unit', Loughgall terrorist could not have been arrested, "GAA distances itself from IRA commemorations", "Calculating, professional enemy that faces KOSB", "Land Mine Kills 7 (sic) British Soldiers on Bus in Ulster", "IRA Claims Killing of 8 Soldiers As It Steps Up Attacks on British", "Ex-Para 'led attack by IRA which killed Scots soldiers'", "Fears of new IRA atrocity after attack on helicopter", "Cappagh (Incident) (Hansard, 3 May 1990)", "21 die, hundreds injured in Philippine new year revelry", Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992-UTV news, CAIN Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992 BBC News, 5 March 1992, "I.R.A. [87] On 30 April, a heavy horizontal mortar was fired at an RUC patrol vehicle near Ballygawley roundabout; the round missed its target and hit a wall. [32] Hamilton states that there were no security or civilian casualties. We are faced with the possibility of two foreign powers implementing the partition of Ireland, and where is the demand in Ireland to say, What gives you the power to do this? , McKearney adds, It is economic imperialism we are dealing with, as opposed to the imperialism that was so raw and so in our face under British imperialism. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. See: 11 December 1985: the East Tyrone Brigade claimed responsibility for mortaring Tynan RUC base, County Armagh in which four RUC officers were injured and the base badly damaged. [61][62] Among the killed were two constables who were shot dead while driving a civilian type vehicle in Fivemiletown's main street on 12 December 1993. 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. I dont see any bloodshed coming from our side. The ambush took place outside the village of Pomeroy. Orangeism and Britishness in Northern Ireland. [17] The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. These are among the surprising views expressed by a number of former hard men of republicanism, interviewed by The Irish Times for their unique insights into the thorny issues of Brexit and Northern Irelands future. Ed Moloney is an Irish journalist who frequently covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland. What would it achieve? McIntyre says in his home, on an estate in Drogheda, Co Louth. Three other RUC officers who were in the building fled through a back door. [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. All the IRA members involved withdrew successfully. [115][64] Among them there were Constable Andrew Beacom and Reserve Constable Ernest Smith, the two RUC members ambushed and shot dead while driving a civilian type vehicle in Fivemiletown's main street on 12 December 1993. [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. They are saying to us: if you want to go down that road we are not going to step in your way. [19] [22] The checkpoint was stormed using an improvised armoured truck and two British soldiers (James Houston and Michael Patterson) were killed in action. This is the story of the war in the fields, towns and villages of East Tyrone, as told by the people who fought it. An IRA statement claimed the 3rd Battalion of the, 7 November 1974: Two British soldiers, Vernon Rose (aged 30) and Charles Simpson (aged 35) were killed by an IRA booby trap bomb at an electricity sub station at Aghalarg, near, 25 November 1975: two RUC officers, Samuel Clarke (aged 35) and Patrick Maxwell (aged 36), were killed when their mobile patrol was caught in an IRA sniper ambush in Clonavaddy, near. The SAS shot dead eight IRA members and a civilian who had accidentally driven into the ambush. Thus it was from there that the IRA East Tyrone Brigade attacks were launched, with most of them occurring in east Tyrone in areas close to south Armagh, which offered good escape routes. [88][89], The RUC security base at Caledon became the target of the "Barrack Busters" twice. 26 January 1987: a senior UDR officer was killed outside his home on Coalisland Road, Dungannon. 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. [94][95] RUC sources denied that the soldiers returned fire during the shooting. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. CAIN Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1997 UTV News, 9 July 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Provisional_IRA_East_Tyrone_Brigade&oldid=1137091264, Provisional Irish Republican Army Brigades, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 14 September 1971: a British soldier (John Rudman, aged 21) was shot dead while on mobile patrol, Edendork, near. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. [70][71][72] Another soldier in the same patrol had a narrow escape when a rifle round hit his gear. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was also a soldier of the Royal Irish Rangers. Michael Ryan was the same man who according to Moloney had led the mixed flying column under direct orders of top IRA Army Council member 'Slab' Murphy two years before. 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 second attack was on the part-time station at The Birches, County Armagh, and it began by driving a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket through the reinforced fences the RUC had in place around their bases, and then exploding the bomb and raking the police station with gunfire. Euroscepticism had a long history in the area, he says, before Ireland went into the EU. 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. The armed vehicle crossed the border after the engagement. e The Troubles The Coagh Ambush was a controversial incident that took place on 3 June 1991, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit from the East Tyrone Brigade was ambushed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the village of Coagh, County Tyrone. [14], In 2012 aGAAclub in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. Their brothers, Pdraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, were among eight members of the IRAs east Tyrone brigade killed by the SAS during an attack on an RUC station in the Protestant village of Loughgall, in Co Tyrone, in May 1987. Anthony McIntyre, an IRA man turned writer and historian who is another supporter of the peace process but critic of Sinn Fin, fails to see how a hard Brexit would fuel any new armed campaign, given that it was not the Border that brought the Provisional IRA into existence but the response in Belfast and Derry to the British armys behaviour when it came to the North. Photograph: Simon Carswell Taken: March 31st, 2017. Simon Carswell. Loughgall ambush 8th of May 1987 SAS Ambush Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS. Now he has a doctorate in political science and writes a lively blog, the Pensive Quill, firing off opinions on the peace process, among other topics, and offering a platform to others. [55][56][57], Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but they were acquitted in 1993. The bomb exploded ten minutes later, destroying the barracks. . One RUC officer was injured. Fresh claims about the meeting have. Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall on 8 May 1987. ], In 2012 a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. [77], On 19 January 1993 the brigade claimed that their volunteers uncovered and destroyed a British army observation post concealed in a derelict house in Drumcairne Forest, near Stewartstown. Lynagh, a fellow republican, served eight years, from 1982 to 1990, in Portlaoise Prison over a charge related to the killing of a nightclub bouncer in Monaghan in 1981. [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. [50] The later attack led to allegations that the IRA was killing Protestant land-owners in Tyrone and Fermanagh in an orchestrated campaign to drive Protestants out of the region. Ed Moloney, Irish journalist and author of the Secret History of the IRA, states that the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles, the highest of any rural Brigade area. The operation. [17] The checkpoint was stormed and two British soldiers killed in action. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. [129] A former UDR soldier (David Martin) was killed when an IRA bomb exploded underneath his car in Kildress, County Tyrone on 25 April 1993; it was claimed that he had loyalist connections. As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. [22] I know from the old days there were very few people willing to do the business of fighting. 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, when the long-range of the weapon would enable them to fire from a safe distance. He voted for Brexit in the hope that it would lead to a united Ireland through the disintegration of the UK. [95] The fortified[96] courthouse in Cookstown was meanwhile damaged by two bombs planted there on 15 October 1993. 22 February 1997: an IRA mortar unit was intercepted by the RUC in. [127] On 11 January 1993 a former sergeant of the B-Specials (Matthew Boyd)[128] was shot dead while driving his car along Donaghmore Road, Dungannon, County Tyrone. There were no casualties. [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 embarrassment is that a customs man might arrive and show that there is a Border.. He considers threats of a return of the British army to Border towns like Aughnacloy as a cheap shot and the recent pantomime of mock Border checkpoints and anti-Brexit protesters dressing up in customs-officer uniforms as the hysterical interpretation of what may happen. [125][126] The IRA retaliated on 5 August 1991 by shooting and killing a former UDR soldier leaving his workplace along Altmore Road, Cappagh. 10 February 1997: A horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. Ed Moloney, Irish journalist and author of the Secret History of the IRA, states that the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles - the highest of any Brigade area.

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