east tyrone ira members

This was in response to a complaint from Democratic Unionist Party Assemblyman William McCrea accusing the GAA of turning a blind eye to "republican terrorist" events in the last years. On 3 September 2012 prominent Real IRA member Alan Ryan was shot dead in Dublin. 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. [93], Other operations against security facilities in this period included a sniper and small arms attack on the British Army base of Killymeal, Dungannon, on 22 May 1993; the brigade claimed a subsequent exchange of fire between IRA volunteers in supporting role and British soldiers crewing an observation post. G Bill Gannon George Gilmore H Sean Hales Tom Hales Sen Hogan Charlie Hurley K 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. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. 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. The standout example is the SAS shooting of eight East Tyrone IRA members whilst the IRA attacked Loughgall RUC station in 1987. It is of his great-grandfather Henry McGeough, a member of the Ribbonmen, the 19th-century society of often violent Catholic rebels. [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. A soldier was seriously wounded. They see that threat as little more than a scare tactic to force the future of the 499km Border to the centre of the two-year Brexit negotiations. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. Three constables and Treanor were wounded,[106] as well as a passing-by ederly female motorist whose car was hit by the RUC vehicle. The Volunteers killed at Loughgall were Declan Arthurs (21), Tony Gormley (24), Eugene Kelly (25), Pdraig McKearney (32), Jim Lynagh (31), Gerard O'Callaghan (28), Seamus Donnelly (19) and unit commander Patrick Joseph Kelly (30). [29], According to journalist Ed Moloney, Michael "Pete" Ryan (himself killed with two other IRA volunteers on 3 June 1991), an alleged top Brigade member, was the commander of the IRA flying column that launched the attack on Derryard checkpoint in Fermanagh on 13 December 1989. 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. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic male civilians inside a betting shop on the Ormeau Road, Belfast. 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. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was an off-duty Royal Irish Rangers soldier. 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. 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". We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Over 50 shots were fired by the unit. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident since the days of the Anglo-Irish War (19191922). 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. The Irish . Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. A British Army helicopter was fired on in the aftermath of the ambush. [82][86], A brigade statement claims that late on the evening of 26 April 1993, a "variation" of the Mark-15 was fired at a British Army position on an open field near the river Fury, a few miles east of Clogher. Former IRA gunrunner John Crawley says he used to meet Martin McGuinness in the 1980s in the Botanic Gardens in Dublin to discuss operations. [97][58][98], 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. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. Six attackers gathered on the same spot afterwards. 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. Sean O'Farrell was wounded and attempted to escape. Not far from that Border town is the home of Gerry McGeough, a former IRA man who calls himself a traditional republican rather than a dissident. 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". [77], The commander in chief of the brigade,[78] Kevin MacKenna, was also appointed 'chief of staff' of the IRA in 1983. 26 March 1997: A grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland. The unit dispersed after setting on the mortar's timer. He does not see republican militarism rising up again over a post-Brexit hardening of the Border or a customs presence on country Border roads, although he does believe that it would hit an atavistic nerve among people who have grown accustomed to freedom of movement across the Border. The soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a military base near Omagh after returning from leave in England. Wheres the insurrectionary energy going to come from? Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. In July of 2005, The Sunday Times reported that Adams was replaced by Brian Arthurs, a former commander of the Provisional IRA's East Tyrone Brigade. [51], Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. Dates highlighted in bold indicate three or more fatalities. [90] 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. 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. The device exploded while he was driving on Carrydarragh road, near Moneymore, County Londonderry, on 31 May 1993, just a few miles from Cookstown. [39] On 31 January an IRA van bomb blew up in downtown Dungannon, resulting in three people wounded and severe damage[40] both on the city centre and the RUC/Army base. [38] The IRA said that the men were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". [103] On 27 May 1994, the British Army checkpoint at Aughnacloy was the target of an attack once again, when the compound came under automatic fire from an improvised tactical vehicle consisting of a Ford Transit van mounting a concealed heavy machine gun. jim martin death couples massage class san diego beaver falls football east tyrone brigade members. [19][unreliable source? 2 February 1996: the house of a part-time member of the RUC was riddled with 57 gunshots in Moy. Another brother, Kevin, and Tommy's uncle John, neither of whom was in the IRA, were killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Volunteer Force in an attack on the family's butcher's shop, in Moy, in January 1992. He recalls the EEC No signs that accompanied Brits Out graffiti around Monaghan when he was growing, up in the 1970s. Maybe a lot of huff and puff but nothing is going to get blown down.. However, he was brought up in . Ed Moloney is an Irish journalist who frequently covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Another British soldier was injured in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. [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. [24][25] This attack forced the British military to ferry their troops to and from East Tyrone by helicopter. 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]. I think a lot of the concerns are exaggerated, says Tommy McKearney, an IRA volunteer originally from Moy, in Co Tyrone, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier in 1976. The former IRA volunteer served 18 years in the Maze prison for the murder of a UVF man in Belfast in February 1976. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. [50] The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen. [134]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. There will always be a handful of people, but there is nothing can be done about that in any society. [12] The East Tyrone IRA saw its activities decline by the 1990s following repeated SAS ambushes. Six IRA members from a supporting unit managed to slip away. The level of IRA activity in the area did not show any real decline in the aftermath: in the two years before the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed seven people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and eleven in the two years following the ambush. They concluded that the SAS were justified in opening fire. From then onwards the Brigade was fighting for its life, and by the time of the IRA Ceasefire in 1997, PIRA's feared East Tyrone Brigade was a shadow of its former self. A second IRA rifle team fired at a British Army Lynx helicopter sending in reinforcements to the area over the surroundings of Fivemiletown. [104][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. The ambush that left Tyrone Volunteers Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Patrick Vincent, Sen O'Farrell and Peter . [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. The IRA claimed the man was a UVF commander, responsible for the killings of Catholic civilians. This is not a land of milk and honey under the European Union. [60], From mid-1992 up to the 1994 cease fire, IRA units in east and south Tyrone executed a total of eight mortar attacks against police and military facilities and were also responsible for at least 16 bombings and shootings. [117][115] 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][118]. East Tyrone IRA members Pete Ryan, Lawrence McNally and Tony Doris were shot dead in the village of Coagh in June 1991 in an operation believed to involve the SAS. 11 August 1986: The East Tyrone Brigade destroyed the RUC base at, 23 November 1986: six British soldiers were wounded after the Brigade launched seven mortars at a British Army barracks in. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. 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. 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