He would be the longest-serving volunteer in this position, right up to the 1997 ceasefire. This was the last action by the Brigade before. [78], From mid-1992 up to the 1994 cease fire, IRA units in east and south Tyrone carried out a dozen bomb and mortar attacks against RUC and military bases and assets. They were greatly outnumbered and outarmed by an occupying army with a 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. [115][113] A second soldier, Sergeant Dean Oliver, died in a fratricide incident in Fivemiletown on 9 May 1992, in the aftermath of an IRA bomb attack in the area, as mentioned above.[61][116]. On 3 June, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Michael Ryan and Tony Doris, died in another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was riddled with gunfire. ideological and personal commitment to each other. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. 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". A 'senior security source' claimed that the IRA was responsible. Three other RUC officers who were in the building fled through a back door. army holding no legal or moral right to bear arms on Irish soil. The They should have arrested 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. 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. Agreement, show that the agreement was a lot less than it had been A soldier was seriously wounded. Lansing Gang Members Convicted for Armed Robbery Spree. there for the Irish people. There were a number of actions carried out by the IRA in the eastern part of Tyrone from 1996 up to the latest IRA ceasefire of July 1997: Risn McAliskey, daughter of political activist Bernadette McAliskey and suspected IRA member from Coalisland was accused by German authorities of being involved in a mortar attack on British Army facilities in Osnabrck, Germany, on 28 June 1996. their own interests: their fears that Loughgall would redound to the fifty RUC personnel, and at least five civilians since it began the Irish government was still the Free State government, a partition We cannot treat The East Tyrone Brigade members killed at Loughgall in 1987 consisted of: * Commander Patrick Kelly (aged 30) * Jim Lynagh (aged 31) * Pdraig McKearney (aged 32) * Declan Arthurs (aged 21) * Seamus Donnelly (aged 19) * Eugene Kelly (aged 25) * Gerry O'Callaghan (aged 29) * Tony Gormley (aged 25) Eugene Kelly with an unchangeable, unambivalent internal code of its own, of people 8 July 1997: A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, where there was a bomb alert. "JD . themselves the right to act as judge, jury, and executioner? 5 February 1997: an IRA unit fired a horizontal mortar at an RUC patrol on Newell Road in Dungannon. [25] British military sources also report that other IRA volunteers from East Tyrone were involved in the assault. Famous quotes . [31], 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. for the deaths on the IRA leadership, whom they accused of putting [2] A British Army helicopter was fired on in the aftermath of the ambush. [113][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. comparisons with the past. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. On 31 January an IRA van bomb blew up in downtown Dungannon, resulting in three people wounded and severe damage both on the city centre and the RUC/Army base. of casualties it had suffered since the Anglo-Irish war of 1920, and, It is believed to have drawn its membership from across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as north County Monaghan and south County Londonderry. 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". The UVF killed 40 people in East Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade. The Auxiliaries, Republicans were reminded in An Phoblacht/Republican It is believed to have drawn its membership from across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as north County Monaghan and south County Londonderry.[2]. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic male civilians inside a betting shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. 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. cursing the whole time. The Clonmult ambush was a setback for the IRA 7 December 1985: during an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley, the IRA killed two RUC officers (Reserve Constable William Clements and Constable George Gilliland) and destroyed the barracks with a large bomb. of its own medicine, that the security forces were, in a sense, only 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. 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). circumstances of what could be construed as a shoot-to-kill policy, the 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. E ight members of the Provos' East Tyrone Brigade were gunned down as . [97][114] Another fatality was a Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier, Private Christopher Wren, slain when off-duty by the blast of a booby-trap planted in his car. Another British soldier was injured in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. [22] The checkpoint was stormed using an improvised armoured truck and two British soldiers (James Houston and Michael Patterson) were killed in action. [102][58], Sources from the brigade released a detailed statement on the attack on Pomeroy security base, carried out on 26 June 1994, claiming that they had fired a single 220 pounds (100kg) Mark-15 barrack-buster bomb. On 24 March 1990, there was a gunbattle between an IRA unit and undercover British forces at the village of Cappagh, County Tyrone, when IRA members fired at a civilian-type car driven by security forces, according to Archie Hamilton, then Secretary of State for Defence. Fifty people were evacuated. Even one pound a month can make a big difference for us. [14], On 8 May 1987, at least eight members of the brigade launched another attack on the unmanned Loughgall RUC base. [22] On 16 September 1989, a British Sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. The Loughgall Ambush. [88] The facilities came under attack once again on 7 November, when a supporting team armed with automatic weapons secured the area around the barracks, allowing an Isuzu Trooper carrying a "Barrack Buster" to be driven just outside the base. [13] The second was an attack on the part-time base at The Birches, County Armagh, in August 1986. 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. members of the SDLP, disquieted that the shootings had taken place on Thank you. [53] Author Brendan O'Brien reports a witness claiming that some of the men were wounded and tried to surrender but were killed by the British soldiers. Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. would once again be Sinn Fin and the results taken as a barometer of [95][58][96], A major ambush occurred on 12 December 1993 in Fivemiletown, when an RUC mobile patrol received intense cross fire from a brigade's active unit on the town's main street, and two constables were slain. clear that the security forces had ample foreknowledge of the IRAs hands had every right and every justification to be there. revenge, because the British had been defeated and demoralized by the tempered with a largely unarticulated anger at the British government [110] On 11 May 1993, British security forces found and defused a horizontal mortar complete with warhead in Dungannon. [4] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. In addition, the IRA in Tyrone was the target of an assassination campaign carried out by the loyalist paramilitaries of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). At least two British soldiers were severely wounded in action near Cappagh[66] and Pomeroy[70] in 1992. [27] According to author Nick Van der Bijl, British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the bombing of the military bus at Curr Road. 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. Two IRA men got away from the scene, but the four named above were killed. The device exploded while he was driving on Carrydarragh road, near Moneymore, County Londonderry, on 31 May 1993, just a few miles from Cookstown. An Phoblacht claims that the IRA men thwarted an ambush and at least two SAS members were killed. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in the The Birches attack.It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200 lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. British military sources reported that other IRA volunteers from East Tyrone were involved in the assault. [19][unreliable source? The bomb detonated, destroying much of the base and damaging nearby buildings. insinuations, widely believed, that the security forces had not just 26 March 1997: a grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers at the British Army/RUC base in Coalisland. On that occasion, Black and Tan auxiliaries, acting in line with One British soldier was wounded. [29][30] On 24 March 1990, there was a gunbattle between an IRA unit and undercover British forces at the village of Cappagh, County Tyrone, when IRA members fired at a civilian-type car driven by security forces, according to Archie Hamilton, then Secretary of State for Defence. 26 February 1978: IRA Volunteer Paul Duffy was killed by the SAS in Coagh. it was also clear that the decision to kill them had been made prior to The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in The Birches attack. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. collapsing time, compressing the historical moment, impelling During the Troubles the East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed, the highest number in any rural brigade. [34], On 4 March 1990, ten IRA volunteers launched an assault on the RUC station at Stewartstown using an improvised flamethrower consisting of a manure-spreader towed by a tractor to spray 600 imperial gallons (2,700L) of a petrol/diesel mix to set the base ablaze, and then opened up with rifles and an RPG-7 rocket launcher. [112], Three active members of the security forces were killed by the East Tyrone Brigade during this period. 7 September 1981: two RUC officers (Mark Evans and Stuart Montgomery) were killed when their patrol vehicle struck an IRA landmine at Sessadonaghy, near. On 17 January 1992, an IRA roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 workers who had been re-building Lisanelly British Army base in Omagh. Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. cheap and good riddance. The facilities damaged by mortar bombs included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army outpost at Aughnacloy, the RUC barracks at Clogher and Beragh, both resulting in massive damage but no injuries, an overshot aimed at the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire, and the RUC stations at Carrickmore, Fintona and Pomeroy. [5] The first was an assault on Ballygawley barracks. Despite increasing support for Irish freedom and unity, we need your help to overcome British and unionist intransigence. To Kellys wife, Kathleen, who was expecting their fourth child when he Your contribution can be made with a credit or debit card by clicking below. Please support IRN now to help us continue reporting and campaigning so that justice prevails. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. The bomb exploded ten minutes later, destroying the barracks. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. In the wanton murders of nine young Irishmen by the soldiers of a foreign 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. 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. 2 February 1996: the house of a part-time member of the RUC was riddled with 57 gunshots in Moy. rather than as a criminal organization whose members would be arrested, A five-mile (8km) chase followed before the IRA volunteers managed to escape on foot. Major Shaw died at the scene. 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. 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