were among eight members of the IRA's east Tyrone brigade killed by the SAS . Five were bound over. For if the British government by its actions began to treat the IRA as Dates highlighted in bold indicate three or more fatalities. Battalion were located as follows: Rosegreen, Fethard, Mortlestown,. rather than as a criminal organization whose members would be arrested, In April 1987 the brigade shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main building contractors to the security forces in Northern Ireland. bad, the more difficult it became to see the IRAs violence as bad; 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. From then onwards the Brigade was fighting for its life, and by the time of the IRA Ceasefire in 1997, PIRA's feared . advantage of the IRA, that it would somehow undermine the Anglo-Irish 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. planned at the very highest level of the British governments [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. vast array of military equipment and surveillance technology at its The level of IRA activity in the area did not show any real decline in the aftermath: in the two years prior to the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed seven people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and eleven in the two years following the ambush. police station. The East Tyrone Brigade members killed in 1987 consisted of: Commander Patrick Kelly (aged 30) Jim Lynagh (aged 31) Padraig McKearney (aged 32) Declan Arthurs (aged 21) Seamus Donnelly (aged 19) Eugene Kelly (aged 25) Gerry O'Callaghan (aged 29) Tony Gormley (aged 25) [15][16] It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. Was the 26 March 1997: a grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers at the British Army/RUC base in Coalisland. The Loughgall Ambush. [10] Lynagh's plans met strong criticism from senior brigade member Kevin McKenna, who regarded the strategy as "too impractical, too ambitious, and not sustainable" according to journalist Ed Moloney. 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. There was also an element of benign triumphalism in official When the IRA responded by killing a retired UDR member, Leslie Dallas,[120] and two elderly Protestants, Austin Nelson and Ernest Rankin at Coagh, on 7 March 1989, the UVF shot dead three IRA members and a Catholic civilian in a pub in Cappagh on 3 March 1991. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads, near Cookstown. acceded to the IRAs view of the conflict made it increasingly The SAS shot dead eight IRA members and a civilian who had accidentally driven into the ambush. [144], The commander of the brigade, Kevin McKenna, was appointed Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1983. [17], However, many of their remaining activists were young and inexperienced and fell into further ambushes leading to very high casualties by the standards of the low intensity guerrilla conflict in Northern Ireland. Tyrone Obrien Rooney (born 1978) is listed at 1312 Oak Ridge Ave Apt 211 East Lansing, Mi 48823 and has no known political party affiliation. Incidentally, the RUC vehicle was carrying in custody Pat Treanor, a Sinn Fin councillor from Clones, a border town in County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. [43] One witness has said that some of the men were wounded and tried to surrender but were then killed by the British soldiers. GAA Central Council officialreply was that The GAA has strict protocols and rules in place regarding the use of property for Political purposes. The Association is committed to a shared future based on tolerance for the different identities and cultural backgrounds of people who share this Community and this island. [15], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen. 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. [145], List of notable actions from 1971 until Loughgall, Operations against British security forces in east and south Tyrone, List of actions from 1996 until the 1997 IRA ceasefire, Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. Please support IRN now to help us continue reporting and campaigning so that justice prevails. [23] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr road. [76] A later IRA statement acknowledges that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". Another British soldier was injured in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. [81] The IRA asserts instead that the barracks were "extensively damaged". [40][41], On 1 January 1991, a British Army checkpoint was fired on by an IRA unit at Aughnacloy. ideological and personal commitment to each other. [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. [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]. shooting an Irishman in Ireland produces a gut reaction.. [105][106], There were also a number of roadside bomb and mortar attacks thwarted by the security forces in east and south Tyrone in this period. Another British soldier was injured in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. Jim Lynagh (Samus Laighneach; 13 April 1956 - 8 May 1987) was a member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the . 5 February 1997: An IRA unit fired a horizontal mortar at a British patrol on Newell Road in Dungannon. [38] Hamilton stated that there were no security or civilian casualties. 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. At first the Dublin government put the blame The IRA claimed the man was a UVF commander, responsible for the killings of Catholic civilians. Her extradition from Northern Ireland was eventually denied in 2007 due to discrepancies in the claims against her. Contents 1 Background 2 East Tyrone Brigade 3 Death 4 See also 5 References Background of their neighbors, hard-working decent members of their communities, with an unchangeable, unambivalent internal code of its own, of people Despite increasing support for Irish freedom and unity, we need your help to overcome British and unionist intransigence. [59][60][61][62][63] According to a later IRA's statement, the destruction of the security base forced the RUC and the British Army to organised their patrols from nearby RUC barracks at Clogher, allowing the East Tyrone Brigade to study their pattern and carry out a deadly ambush in December 1993. Major Shaw died at the scene. The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". 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. Six attackers gathered on the same spot afterwards. [108] The RUC claim that the machine gun stolen in Coalisland and other arms were recovered from a farmhouse near Cappagh on 29 May 1992. [12], The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. meetings of the Intergovernmental Conference. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. Five of them were bound over. 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. In October 1990, two more IRA men, Dessie Grew and Michael McGaughey were shot dead near Loughgall by undercover soldiers. They were disdain for the Irish at large, that the continuous vilification of the The same source reported that a British helicopter, a military ambulance and ground troops arrived to the scene shortly after, and that local residents believed that two soldiers had been wounded. [27][28] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. [65][66][67] Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but were acquitted in 1993. [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. The armed vehicle crossed the border after the engagement. 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, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, 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. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. premeditated vengeance. No casualties were reported. 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. pleaded with her following Sandss death to do something to end the There were no casualties. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. months of 1987, forty-seven persons had died violently, fifteen of them [32][33] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, across the border. [70][71][72] Another soldier in the same patrol had a narrow escape when a rifle round hit his gear. The IRA Northern Command, however, approved a scaled down version of the strategy, aimed at hampering the repair and refurbishment of British security bases. If the RUC, he said, had prior information subconscious there were the old beliefs: that the British had no regard 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. 2 February 1996: The house of a part-time member of the RUC was riddled with gunfire in Moy. 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. An Phoblacht claims that the IRA men thwarted an ambush and at least two SAS members were killed. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. [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. revenge, because the British had been defeated and demoralized by the 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. For constitutional nationalists, North and South, anything that Indeed, members of the security forces had said that we done what they couldn't do, we put the East Tyrone brigade of the IRA on the run. it was also clear that the decision to kill them had been made prior to Jim Lynagh (Irish language: Samus Laighneach 13 April 1956 - 8 May 1987) was a member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), [1] from Monaghan Town in the Republic of Ireland. hands had every right and every justification to be there. News, fell on them like wild beasts, killing twelve and tearing from for Irish lives, that their abhorrence of the IRA masked a larger 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. some days later, as more details of the killings emerged and it became [101] 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. 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. 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 losses at Loughgall were the highest suffered by the IRA in the Long War and parallel the losses suffered by the East Cork Flying Column at Clonmult near Midleton on 20th February 1921 at the height of the War of Independence. , Mortlestown, road in Dungannon rules in place regarding the use of property for purposes! Were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen statement acknowledges that the men. Please support IRN now to help us continue reporting and campaigning so justice. Was at Teebane Crossroads, near Cookstown 81 ] the helicopter was hit Clogher... There were no security or civilian casualties gunfire in Moy in the Republic on... Lynagh ( Samus Laighneach ; 13 April 1956 - 8 May 1987 ) was member! 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