east tyrone brigade members

The IRA responded by killing senior UVF man and former UDR member Leslie Dallas on 7 March 1989, but the UVF shot dead three IRA members and a Catholic civilian in a pub in Cappagh on 3 March 1991. their lives, and out of the sacrifice would come a greater number of Journalist Ian Bruce, instead, claims that an Irishman who served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. [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. Contents 1 Background 2 East Tyrone Brigade 3 Death 4 See also 5 References Background 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. Five of them were bound over. British government acceding to the IRAs view that what was happening U.S. Attorney's Office February 11, 2011. Six IRA members from a supporting unit managed to escape. shooting those not convicted of criminal offenses as soldiers of war. The base was raked with gunfire and a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket was driven through the perimeter fence. back, voicing its reservations, Father Faul was the first to articulate what many Catholics, North 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. [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 unit used the same tactics as it had done in the The Birches attack. 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. [90], 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,[83] prompted the evacuation of a nearby housing state. 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". at the hands of the IRA in the five weeks prior to Loughgall.) the people. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in the The Birches attack. The following is adapted from Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger [92][93] RUC sources denied that the soldiers returned fire during the shooting. [it] demonstrated that [the IRA] could carry out devastating attacks on [81] The IRA asserts instead that the barracks were "extensively damaged". All the IRA members involved withdrew successfully. suggested that the conflict was, in fact, a war undermined yet again set the example, provided the inspiration. [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. [109] Nationalist politician Bernardette Devlin McAliskey suggested that the recovery of the machine gun was actually staged by the security forces as a publicity stunt. 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. 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. CAIN lists Boyd as a Protestant civilian. 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". [24][25] This attack forced the British military to ferry their troops to and from East Tyrone by helicopter. [12], The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. 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). [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. [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. [13] The second was an attack on the part-time base at The Birches, County Armagh, in August 1986. They were [27][28] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. An IRA volunteer was arrested, while two other members of the IRA made good their escape. [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. [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. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. in Cork, but the following month it rebounded: far from being defeated satisfied; the operation proved that the war against terrorism was me, did more harm than the eleven people who were killed at This is disputed by some authors as an "exaggeration".[130][131]. [56][57][58], A part-time RUC barracks at Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, in the operational area of the brigade, was destroyed by an IRA van-bomb on 7 May 1992, though the attack was claimed by the South Fermanagh Brigade. Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. See: Attack on UDR Clogher barracks One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was also a soldier of the Royal Irish Rangers. loved his family, his Irish culture and his country. (That sermon, police station. Tommy, had been in the H-blocks for eleven years. 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. One RUC officer was injured. ambush. The Auxiliaries, Republicans were reminded in An Phoblacht/Republican 14 March 1972: A two-man IRA unit armed with sub-machine guns ambushed a joint British Army/RUC patrol on Brackaville Road outside Coalisland, County Tyrone. 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. revenge, because the British had been defeated and demoralized by the 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. Sniper Assault Kills A British Soldier in Belfast", "Thousands join peace protest in Greysteel", "Geograph:: Cookstown Courthouse Kenneth Allen", "Lords Chamber - Wednesday 8 June 1994 - Hansard - UK Parliament", "3 RUC Officers Wounded in Tyrone Ambush", "Sinn Fein politician caught in IRA gunfire | The Independent | The Independent", "Armed guard at hospital bed of IRA suspect", "Off-duty soldier killed by IRA booby-trap bomb: Car attack follows", "CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes - Search Page", "British soldier shot dead Massive Strabane landmine", "South Armagh Brigade claims sniper attack", Cousin of bomb suspect was top Provo; But gun victim denies being a terrorist, "Militants Angry About Police's Defense Of Protestant March". It was a devastating setback for the IRA, practically decimating the It smacks of revenge and retaliation. Moreover -- and he 26 January 1987: a senior UDR officer was killed outside his home on Coalisland Road, Dungannon. In January 1992, an IRA roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 workers who had been re-building Lisanelly British Army base in Omagh. A five-mile (8km) chase followed before the IRA volunteers managed to escape on foot. [32] Hamilton states that there were no security or civilian casualties. 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. [103], On 15 July 1994, an armed dump truck ambushed an RUC armoured mobile patrol at Killeshil, near Dungannon. [2] died, he was a dedicated soldier. 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]. 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. [91], 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. 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. clear that the security forces had ample foreknowledge of the IRAs A soldier was seriously wounded. In 1985 and 1986, the East Tyrone Brigade carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". disdain for the Irish at large, that the continuous vilification of the The IRA retaliated on 5 August 1991, when they shot and killed a former UDR soldier while living his workplace along Altmore Road, also in Cappagh. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. undercover security personnel, who were lying in wait for them, as they which the Anglo-Irish Agreement played no part, in which the promise of her uncle. wanton murders of nine young Irishmen by the soldiers of a foreign [31] An Phoblacht claims that the IRA men thwarted an ambush and at least two SAS members were killed. [22] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr Road. 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. shaped since childhood by the same common experiences and struggle, who They should have arrested been travelling in a car with his brother, Oliver, unaware of the comradeship and a firm belief in the correctness of their action. [10] The first was an assault on Ballygawley base in December 1985. At first the Dublin government put the blame 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. Three other RUC officers who were in the building fled through a back door. [74][75] The heavy mortar round, fired from a tractor near the town's health center, was deflected by a tree besides the barracks wall. G. Adams (SF) has written to the Prime Minister asking for new political contact. engaged in an armed conflict with the army of the United Kingdom. Contents 1 Background 2 East Tyrone Brigade 3 Death 4 See also 5 References Background [ edit] London of taking the fight to the terrorists nothing more than the murder.). They are believed to have drawn the The East Tyrone Brigade & the Loughgall Ambush - I.R.B.B. Several people was evacuated, and the bomb disposal squad struggled 10 hours to defuse the device. 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. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. Jim Lynagh ( Irish: 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 . This in response to a complaint from DUP AssemblymanWilliam McCreaaccusing the GAA of turning a blind eye to "republican terrorist" events in the last years. Five of them were bound over. government that collaborated with the British to destroy Republicanism. the gut reaction was in danger of becoming the prevailing reaction. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. Hamilton states that there were no security or civilian casualties. give Loughgall its rightful place in the hierarchy of atrocities Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. cheap and good riddance. difficult to maintain that the IRA violence was bad. In June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Peter Ryan and Tony Dorris were lured into yet another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was raked with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. GAA Central Council official reply was that "The GAA has strict protocols and rules in place regarding the use of property for Political purposes. They were greatly outnumbered and outarmed by an occupying army with a Battalion were located as follows: Rosegreen, Fethard, Mortlestown,. South, were feeling. O'Donnell had been released without charges for possession of weapons on two different occasions in the past. Film report. To Kellys wife, Kathleen, who was expecting their fourth child when he 2032 member. absolute acts. The soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a military base near Omagh after returning from leave in England. There was, of course, the inevitable historical analogue that would The six attackers gathered on the same spot, instead of vanishing separately. [11] Scottish-born journalist Kevin Toolis has written that from 1985 onward, the brigade led a five-year campaign that left 33 security facilities destroyed and nearly 100 seriously damaged. 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 Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. [14], In 2012 aGAAclub in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. [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. 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. Then, one spring night in May 1987, the Brigade launched an attack on the Royal RUC's isolated base in the Armagh village of Loughgall. interpretation of the conflict and once again confer on the IRA the The UVF killed 40 people in East Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. themselves the right to act as judge, jury, and executioner? The next day the IRA threatened any contractor who took on repair of the station. shooting an Irishman in Ireland produces a gut reaction.. [99][100] 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. [35][36] The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen.[37]. circumstances of what could be construed as a shoot-to-kill policy, the The device landed unexploded inside the complex, resulting in its evacuation. [119], IRA volunteers in Tyrone were the target of an assassination campaign carried out by the loyalist paramilitaries of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). an army, and to behave as though it were in a war situation, it would After being caught he was put up against a fence and killed. Go raibh mle maith agat. 2 February 1996: The house of a part-time member of the RUC was riddled with gunfire in Moy. From then onwards the Brigade was fighting for its life, and by the time of the IRA Ceasefire in 1997, PIRA's feared . ambush, in which 8 IRA Volunteers and a civilian were killed in an SAS IRA recruits. They were historical people. The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen. 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. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no known paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. [23] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr road. months of 1987, forty-seven persons had died violently, fifteen of them the Irish government was still the Free State government, a partition Leading operation, old ambivalences began to assert themselves, and Dublin drew The 12 May's riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. A second IRA rifle team fired at a British Army Lynx helicopter sending in reinforcements to the area over the surroundings of Fivemiletown. . There were no injuries. they should have prevented the gun battle. [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. [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. There were no injuries. 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. A continuing monthly donation of 2 or more will give you full access to this site. Men were on their way to mount an ambush in February 1992 had been in the the attack... Not convicted of criminal offenses as soldiers of war smacks of revenge and.! 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