Ed Moloney is an Irish journalist who frequently covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. An Phoblacht claimed the IRA men thwarted an ambush and at least two SAS members were killed. ], In 2012 a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. [115][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. 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. Since June 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, there has been much speculation about the risk to the Northern peace process. east tyrone brigade members. [38] The IRA said that the men were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". All the IRA members involved withdrew successfully. () 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. [58] [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. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. 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. Three constables and Treanor were wounded,[106] as well as a passing-by ederly female motorist whose car was hit by the RUC vehicle. 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 soldier was seriously wounded. A second IRA rifle team fired at a British Army Lynx helicopter sending in reinforcements to the area over the surroundings of Fivemiletown. [123] The IRA alleged that Dallas was a senior UVF member[124] but this was denied by his family, the police, and the UVF. [130] The latter attack led to loyalist allegations that the IRA was killing Protestant land-owners in Tyrone and Fermanagh[131] in an orchestrated campaign to drive Protestants out of the region, to the point that they drew an analogy with contemporaneous ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. [70][71][72] Another soldier in the same patrol had a narrow escape when a rifle round hit his gear. Both share left-wing views and believe that the interests of Border counties are not being well served by the European Union. No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. The base was raked with gunfire and a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket was driven through the perimeter fence. [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 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. 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. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. [76] A later IRA statement acknowledges that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". CAIN lists Boyd as a Protestant civilian. [23] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr road. Euroscepticism had a long history in the area, he says, before Ireland went into the EU. [80], 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. [121], IRA volunteers in Tyrone were the target of an assassination campaign carried out by the loyalist paramilitaries of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The next day the IRA threatened any contractor who took on repair of the station. The UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. (2000). But as a community willing to return to armed conflict, there just isnt an appetite for that., Lynagh adds, There is a vested interest in hyping up the political impact and the scare tactics that it is going to open a hornets nest of dissident activity against British rule. [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. [17] The checkpoint was stormed and two British soldiers killed in action. Brexit may prove a catalyst for a much earlier withdrawal, he says, as he knows Protestants who are soft Irish nationalists and farmers who do not want to lose EU subsidies. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. 13 July 1984: IRA Volunteer Willie Price was killed by the SAS while carrying out an incendiary bomb attack on a factory in Ardboe. The 12 May's riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. [7], Members of the East Tyrone Brigade had previously carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". [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. The bomb exploded ten minutes later, destroying the barracks. [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. He was sentenced to 20 years in 2011 but was released after two years, under the Belfast Agreement. [77], The commander in chief of the brigade,[78] Kevin MacKenna, was also appointed 'chief of staff' of the IRA in 1983. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. 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". [12], The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. [49] Another former UDR soldier was killed when an IRA bomb exploded underneath his car in Kildress, County Tyrone in April 1993; it was claimed that he had loyalist connections. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. Another British soldier was injured in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. I dont see any bloodshed coming from our side. 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 lifelong Irish republican even suggests that it could as easily be argued that breaking from the European Union and joining forces with the UK would make better economic sense for the country. Nevertheless, IRA activities continued in parts of Down, Fermanagh, north and mid-Armagh by August 1994. There were no injuries. Toggle navigation. In December 1973 he is badly injured in a premature bomb . [51], The Fintona RUC/Army base damaged by mortar fire, 27 December 1993, In March 1992, members of the brigade destroyed McGowan's service station along the Ballygawley/Monaghan road, on the basis that they were supplying British forces,[52] while a soldier was injured by a bomb near Augher. The escape of former IRA chief of staff Seamus Twomey, Tyrone man Kevin Mallon and JB O'Hagan from north Armagh, caused a country-wide sensation and considerable embarrassment to the Dublin. 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. Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. Death made heroes of the Loughgall eight. [107][108], There were also a number of roadside bomb and mortar attacks thwarted by the security forces in east and south Tyrone in this period. As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. The RUC patrol returned fire. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. Somebody who might find it difficult to smuggle because of a Border post might go out and shoot a Border-post official? [38] Hamilton stated that there were no security or civilian casualties. McKearney and Lynagh are dissenters, not dissidents; although they support the peace process they object to the policies pursued by Sinn Fin and some of their former comrades who moved into politics. [2], In the 1980s, the IRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border, such as South Armagh, were following a Maoist military theory[3] devised for Ireland by Jim Lynagh, a high-profile member of the IRA in east Tyrone (but a native of County Monaghan). The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. [129] A former UDR soldier (David Martin) was killed when an IRA bomb exploded underneath his car in Kildress, County Tyrone on 25 April 1993; it was claimed that he had loyalist connections. IRA member Liam Ryan and local man . [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. 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. [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. The armed vehicle crossed the border after the engagement. McGeough sees the Troubles as ostensibly a failure, but the UK government does not want a return to those days any more than anybody on our side does. "[20], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no known paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. 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. 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