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. 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". [107] On 30 July 1993, a 20 pounds (9.1kg) device was uncovered by security forces in Pomeroy, and one man was arrested. In May 1987, for instance, the SAS shot eight East Tyrone IRA volunteers whilst they attacked Loughgall . [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. 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. British military sources reported that other IRA volunteers from East Tyrone were involved in the assault. Maybe a lot of huff and puff but nothing is going to get blown down.. I dont see any bloodshed coming from our side. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. 26 March 1997: a grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers at the British Army/RUC base in Coalisland. [10] The first was an assault on Ballygawley base in December 1985. I think its all guff.. [77], The commander in chief of the brigade,[78] Kevin MacKenna, was also appointed 'chief of staff' of the IRA in 1983. [76] A later IRA statement acknowledges that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. The operation. The group were also responsible for the . Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. 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. All eight members of the East Tyrone Brigade team were killed. [19] A 'senior security source' claimed that the IRA was responsible. Quinn was then a senior member of the IRA's East Tyrone brigade. [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. 26 March 1997: A grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland. He pours cold water on the possibility of a nationalist majority in the North voting for Irish reunification in light of the unionists losing their majority for the first time in last months Assembly elections. One RUC officer was injured. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. As well as RAAD, the alliance includes an east Tyrone group thought to be responsible for killing PSNI officer Ronan Kerr in 2011, . Three other RUC officers who were in the building fled through a back door. The 12 May's riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. They are saying to us: if you want to go down that road we are not going to step in your way. Why would article 50 change that? 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. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. in Co Tyrone, on November 29 1989. 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. Three of the four are convicted killers or have served time in relation to a killing. [17] The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. [58] [114], Three active members of the security forces were killed by the East Tyrone Brigade during this period. Its all guff': Colm Lynagh, Anthony McIntyre, Gerry McGeough and Tommy McKearney Colm Lynagh, Anthony McIntyre, Gerry McGeough and Tommy McKearney. [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". Along with Lynagh and McKearney, the IRA gang included Gerard O'Callaghan, 29, Tony Gormley, 25, Eugene Kelly, 25, Patrick Kelly, 30, Seamus Donnelly, 19, and Declan Arthurs, 21. 'United Ireland? 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 heavy projectile landed at the rear of the small base without exploding, forcing the evacuation of Coronation Park housing state. Sean O'Farrell was wounded and attempted to escape. The SAS shot dead eight IRA members and a civilian who had accidentally driven into the ambush. The UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. east tyrone brigade members. Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. Their brothers, Pdraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, were among eight members of the IRAs east Tyrone brigade killed by the SAS during an attack on an RUC station in the Protestant village of Loughgall, in Co Tyrone, in May 1987. The genie is out of the bottle, so you are not going to put it back in again, and at this point in time we are in the uneasy calm before the potential storm. This is the story of the war in the fields, towns and villages of East Tyrone, as told by the people who fought it. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. Film report. 22 February 1997: an IRA mortar unit was intercepted by the RUC in. [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. 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Wheres the insurrectionary energy going to come from? 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 Tyrone republican believes that Sinn Fin is wrong to propose a special status for Northern Ireland within the European Union. We are faced with the possibility of two foreign powers implementing the partition of Ireland, and where is the demand in Ireland to say, What gives you the power to do this? , McKearney adds, It is economic imperialism we are dealing with, as opposed to the imperialism that was so raw and so in our face under British imperialism. fechar. The air of foreboding he once sensed when crossing the river into the North doesnt exist today because the Border is imperceptible, he says. 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. [65][66][67] Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but were acquitted in 1993. [83] The IRA asserts instead that the barracks were "extensively damaged". G. Adams (SF) has written to the Prime Minister asking for new political contact. He explains to Simon Carswell how Brexit is the best thing ever for Irish nationalists and republicans. 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". [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. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was also a soldier of the Royal Irish Rangers. 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. Interviewees suggest the vast countryside made rural IRA units particularly dangerous. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. Now he has a doctorate in political science and writes a lively blog, the Pensive Quill, firing off opinions on the peace process, among other topics, and offering a platform to others. The embarrassment is that a customs man might arrive and show that there is a Border.. . [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. [23] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr road. [52] 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, no efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. 15 March 1974: Patrick McDonald (21) and Kevin Murray (27), both. One British soldier was wounded. The device exploded while he was driving on Carrydarragh road, near Moneymore, County Londonderry, on 31 May 1993, just a few miles from Cookstown. East Tyrone appears an outlier in rural areas by the 1990s. There were no casualties. [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. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. Toggle navigation. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in The Birches attack. 8 July 1997: A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, leading to a bomb alert. [12] They concluded that the SAS were justified in opening fire. 13 July 1984: IRA Volunteer Willie Price was killed by the SAS while carrying out an incendiary bomb attack on a factory in Ardboe. 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. [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. The loyalist gang operating in east Tyrone at the time used several weapons between 1988 to 1994, including R18837. 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]. IRA member Liam Ryan and local man . Fresh claims about the meeting have. 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. On 22 June 1992, British troops exchange fire with snipers near Cookstown,[69][58] while a British soldier from the Coldstream Guards was seriously wounded in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. Five of them were bound over. [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. I dont think we are going to see that again.. 5 July 1997: An IRA volunteer shot and seriously wounded an RUC female officer in the town of Coalisland during an attack on an armoured vehicle beside the Army/RUC base. The ambush that left Tyrone Volunteers Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Patrick Vincent, Sen O'Farrell and Peter . They don't throw away remarks like that. Lynagh is irked by the way political parties in the Brexit debate are portraying people in the Border counties as lawless Irish, similar to the people of Pakistans tribal areas, with a pathological predisposition to violence who will rush out and go to war again because they cant stand the sight of customs posts. Orangeism and Britishness in Northern Ireland. Former IRA gunrunner John Crawley says he used to meet Martin McGuinness in the 1980s in the Botanic Gardens in Dublin to discuss operations. The unit, moving on two vehicles from the townland of Turnabarson, managed to snake into a heavy patrolled area to the firing point on Station Road and launched the shell by timer from a range of 70 yards (64m). Taken: April 5th, 2017. 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 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. [88][89], The RUC security base at Caledon became the target of the "Barrack Busters" twice. [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. They brought peanuts and fed the squirrels, he says.. [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. [92], 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,[85] prompted the evacuation of a nearby housing state. Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall on 8 May 1987. There will always be a handful of people, but there is nothing can be done about that in any society. 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. 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", "The road to violence. G Bill Gannon George Gilmore H Sean Hales Tom Hales Sen Hogan Charlie Hurley K Lynagh and McKearney were the driving force behind most IRA murders in Tyrone and many others in the neighbouring counties for at least a decade prior to the Loughgall incident. [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]. Tommy's older brother Sean was killed in May 1974 when a bomb he was planting at a petrol station outside Dungannon exploded prematurely. What have they achieved? There were no casualties. [14], On 8 May 1987, at least eight members of the brigade launched another attack on the unmanned Loughgall RUC base. [110] The RUC claim that the machine gun stolen in Coalisland and other arms were recovered from a farmhouse near Cappagh on 29 May 1992. Sniper Assault Kills A British Soldier in Belfast", "South Armagh Brigade claims sniper attack", http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/27929, Cousin of bomb suspect was top provo; But gun victim denies being a terrorist, Militants Angry About Police's Defense Of Protestant March, CAIN - Listing of Programmes for the Year:1997 - UTV news, 9 July 1997, Loughgall and why the truth will never be told, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia. Operating in East Tyrone IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Caledon became the target of attack... 'S riots ended with the paratroopers ' assault on three bars, they! Republican believes that Sinn Fin is wrong to propose a Special Air Service ( SAS ) unit the small without... [ 58 ] [ 114 ], the IRA asserts instead that the mortar bomb had `` failed detonate. Military sources reported that other IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland driven into the ambush on the bus! 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