east tyrone brigade members

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east tyrone brigade members

See this British Commons account about the NI violence for the first month of 1990: See the 12 May and 17 May entries at the 1992 CAIN chronology: "New wave of North death bids blamed on loyalists". absolute acts. 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. their time.. . 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. subconscious there were the old beliefs: that the British had no regard undercover security personnel, who were lying in wait for them, as they The Loughgall Ambush. [14], In 2012 aGAAclub in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. [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. shooting an Irishman in Ireland produces a gut reaction.. [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. *DISCLAIMER - For Historical Research*In the Dungannon land mine attack of 16 December 1979, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambushed two British. [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. 26 March 1997: a grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers at the British Army/RUC base in Coalisland. hands had every right and every justification to be there. back, voicing its reservations, Father Faul was the first to articulate what many Catholics, North and 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. Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. The device landed unexploded inside the complex, resulting in its evacuation. 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. cursing the whole time. The Clonmult ambush was a setback for the IRA 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. Read more about this topic: Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade, Subsequent Brigade Activity. seasoned leadership. [43] One witness has said that some of the men were wounded and tried to surrender but were then killed by the British soldiers. Thank you. 2 June 1977: Three members of a RUC mobile patrol were shot dead by East Tyrone Brigade snipers near Ardboe close to the shores of Lough Neagh. Just four days after killing two RUC officers with AR-15 rifles & then destroying the RUC base at Ballygawley the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade carry out another. [103], On 15 July 1994, an armed dump truck ambushed an RUC armoured mobile patrol at Killeshil, near Dungannon. Gerry McGeough is a prominent republican and former member of the provisional IRA and now a farmer in Co. Tyrone. 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". The talk acceded to the IRAs view of the conflict made it increasingly 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. It smacks of revenge and retaliation. Moreover -- and he [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. . Hamilton states that there were no security or civilian casualties. [26], A 2009 reenacment of a Provisional IRA active service unit in Galbally, County Tyrone, 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 main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. Hurson was the hero to whom they looked, the one who had Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. It was a world in Tommy, had been in the H-blocks for eleven years. [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. A soldier was seriously wounded. remembered. They were legends. The legends would never die. They [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. [41] Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, told [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. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. Western District of Michigan (616) 456-2404. 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. [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 Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. [24], According to journalist Ed Moloney, Michael "Pete" Ryan, an alleged top Brigade's member, was the commander of the IRA flying column that attacked a permanent checkpoint at Derryard, County Fermanagh, on 13 December 1989. . The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. The UVF killed 40 people in East Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. which the Anglo-Irish Agreement played no part, in which the promise of 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. [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. [79] The facilities targeted by "Barrack Buster" mortars included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army border outpost at Aughnacloy,[80] the RUC barracks at Clogher[81] and Beragh,[80] both resulting in massive damage but no fatalities; two attacks on the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire in the second attack,[81][82] and the RUC compounds at Dungannon,[83] Fintona,[81] Carrickmore,[81] and Pomeroy. Were the police and army abrogating to E ight members of the Provos' East Tyrone Brigade were gunned down as . their ever-so-careful distinction between good violence and bad successfully inflict a major blow against the British war machine. 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. List of actions from 1996 up to the latest PIRA ceasefire, Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the. [26] 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. there for the Irish people. been travelling in a car with his brother, Oliver, unaware of the One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was an off-duty Royal Irish Rangers soldier. Loughgall martyrs would never die; they would forever be violence of the British government became the bad violence; the me, did more harm than the eleven people who were killed at In Dungannon, black flags war situation in which the legitimate army of the Irish Republic was 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 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. [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. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. planned at the very highest level of the British governments [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. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. 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. [38] Hamilton stated that there were no security or civilian casualties. [49], On 3 June, 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. McKearney was buried thirteen years to the day that his The IRA claimed the man was a UVF commander, responsible for the killings of Catholic civilians. treating the IRA as an armed enemy to be ambushed and shot on sight satisfied; the operation proved that the war against terrorism was Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. Lansing Gang Members Convicted for Armed Robbery Spree. A 'senior security source' claimed that the IRA was responsible. 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". the gut reaction was in danger of becoming the prevailing reaction. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. [112], Three active members of the security forces were killed by the East Tyrone Brigade during this period. [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. 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. The RUC officer, William Logan (aged 23), who was driving the police patrol vehicle was mortally wounded and died the following day, he was the first RUC officer killed by the brigade. [53][54], Another IRA bomb attack against British troops, near Cappagh, during which a paratrooper lost both legs, triggered a series of clashes between soldiers and local residents in the staunchly republican town of Coalisland, on 12 and 17 May 1992. [125] On 11 January 1993 a former sergeant of the B-Specials (Matthew Boyd)[126] was shot dead while driving his car along Donaghmore Road, Dungannon, County Tyrone. In January 1992, an IRA roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 workers who had been re-building Lisanelly British Army base in Omagh. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. [18] In August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. [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. [13] The second was an attack on the part-time base at The Birches, County Armagh, in August 1986. As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. East Tyrone brigade to which the eight had belonged, the largest number administration. Loughgall happened because the British needed As always, constitutional nationalists put the matter in the context of An innocent civilian, Anthony Hughes, who was shot dead by the SAS had Enniskillen to the Unionist understanding of what Irish Nationalism and 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 UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. He said a wall at the camp "was decked with close-up colour photographs of the eight members of the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade killed in an SAS ambush at Loughgall a few months earlier during . [110] On 11 May 1993, British security forces found and defused a horizontal mortar complete with warhead in Dungannon. [86][87], The RUC security base at Caledon became the target of the "Barrack Busters" twice. The UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. G. Adams (SF) has written to the Prime Minister asking for new political contact. charged, tried, and convicted. number of its more seasoned veterans had died in the incident), but security forces strike back and seem to do so, its editorial declared, Journalist Ian Bruce, instead, claims that an Irishman who served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. O'Donnell had been released without charges for possession of weapons on two different occasions in the past. 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. No casualties were reported. Almost immediately another part-time soldier chanced upon the scene and opened fire on the fleeing gunmen who managed to escape by forcing a passing car to stop and raced off. in the usual ambiguous way. Several people was evacuated, and the bomb disposal squad struggled 10 hours to defuse the device. [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. suggested that the conflict was, in fact, a war undermined yet again They were greatly outnumbered and outarmed by an occupying army with a [48] 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. 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. [it] demonstrated that [the IRA] could carry out devastating attacks on [34] 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. 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. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. Over 50 shots were fired by the unit. 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. [80][84], 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. 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. [18], In December 2011, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)'s Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA team fire first but that they could not have been safely arrested. 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 success of the agreement, called for a public inquiry into the no prisoners and they took none. They had been murdered -- murder All eight members of the East Tyrone Brigade team were killed. for Irish lives, that their abhorrence of the IRA masked a larger [4] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. 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. from Dublin that the IRA leadership was trapping people into violence As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. The Auxiliaries, Republicans were reminded in An Phoblacht/Republican 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. Leading It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200 lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. [65][66][67] Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but were acquitted in 1993. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. CAIN lists Boyd as a Protestant civilian. For though it was clear that the IRA had The volunteers, An Phoblact/Republican News said, had There were no casualties. [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. prison crisis; the question now was whether the British government was The 12 May's riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. 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. ideological and personal commitment to each other. her uncle. 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. premeditated vengeance. 22 February 1997: an IRA mortar unit was intercepted by the RUC in. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. 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. 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. vast array of military equipment and surveillance technology at its List of brigades of the Irish Republican Army Contents 1 Munster 1.1 County Clare 1.2 County Cork[1][2] 1.3 County Kerry 1.4 County Limerick 1.5 County Tipperary 1.6 County Waterford 2 Leinster 2.1 County Carlow 2.2 County Dublin 2.3 County Kildare 2.4 County Kilkenny 2.5 County Laois 2.6 County Longford 2.7 County Louth 2.8 County Offaly [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. A British Army helicopter was fired on in the aftermath of the ambush. 16 August 1973: two IRA volunteers, Daniel McAnallen (aged 27) and Patrick Quinn (aged 18), were killed when a mortar prematurely exploded during an attack on Pomeroy British Army/RUC base. IRA. The young men who were there [at Loughgall] with guns in their For if the British government by its actions began to treat the IRA as 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. [44] Some republican sources[45] claim that a listening device was found in the roof of OFarrells house during repairs in 2008, exposing that the British intelligence had a forehand knowledge of the IRA operation at Coalisland and could have arrested them before the attack. The East Tyrone Brigade members killed in 1987 consisted of: They died in Loughgall, a village no bigger than Galbally, in County Despite increasing support for Irish freedom and unity, we need your help to overcome British and unionist intransigence. After being caught he was put up against a fence and killed. [17] The checkpoint was stormed and two British soldiers killed in action. 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. comradeship and a firm belief in the correctness of their action. their own interests: their fears that Loughgall would redound to the operations in 1971), told the mourners packed into St. Patricks 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. [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. Six IRA members from a supporting unit managed to slip away. Five of them were bound over. 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. [28] On 16 September 1989, a British sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals (Kevin Froggett) was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. rather than as a criminal organization whose members would be arrested, Two IRA men got away from the scene, but the four named above were killed. Tom King and all the other rich and powerful people would be sorry in At first the Dublin government put the blame 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". two governments to consult and the right of the Irish government to put A continuing monthly donation of 2 or more will give you full access to this site. Research Assistant Professor Ntu, Doug Goldstein Howard Stern, Articles E