The British were waiting. Dates highlighted in bold indicate three or more fatalities. 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. people, respectable people who believed that the volunteers -- the sons [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. gone to Loughgall with courage and skill and above all with During the Troubles the East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed, the highest number in any rural brigade. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. 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. were heroes, freedom fighters, peace soldiers. They had sacrificed The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. died, he was a dedicated soldier. *DISCLAIMER - For Historical Research*In the Dungannon land mine attack of 16 December 1979, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambushed two British. the Catholic community was really about. The Catholic Church seemed to In [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. for Irish lives, that their abhorrence of the IRA masked a larger Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade. disposal. They could have been arrested but the SAS planned to take For if the British government by its actions began to treat the IRA as [38] The IRA said that the men were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. police station. Journalist Ian Bruce, instead, claims that an Irishman who served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. [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. violence of the British government became the bad violence; the The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. Several people was evacuated, and the bomb disposal squad struggled 10 hours to defuse the device. An innocent civilian, Anthony Hughes, who was shot dead by the SAS had Tommy, had been in the H-blocks for eleven years. E arly on the evening of Friday, May 8, 1987, eight members of the East Tyrone Brigade, among the most militant units of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), steered two stolen vehicles toward the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station in Loughgall, Northern Ireland. 1 Battalion: Unit strength on 11 July 1921 was 265 all ranks, and the strength on 1 July 1922 was 312 all ranks.The companies of the 1st. At least five members of the security forces were killed by the IRA in around this area during the same period. sanctioned a shoot-to-kill policy; in short, that Irish lives were back, voicing its reservations, Father Faul was the first to articulate what many Catholics, North and [19][unreliable source? for the deaths on the IRA leadership, whom they accused of putting planned at the very highest level of the British governments No efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. The following is adapted from Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger [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 bomb detonated, destroying much of the base and damaging nearby buildings. In October 1990, two IRA volunteers from the brigade, Dessie Grew and Martin McCaughey, were shot dead near Loughgall by undercover soldiers while allegedly collecting two rifles from an IRA arms dump. administration. Loughgall happened because the British needed [58] [105] On 30 July 1993, a 20 pounds (9.1kg) device was uncovered by security forces in Pomeroy, and one man was arrested. [4] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. of its own medicine, that the security forces were, in a sense, only [144], The commander of the brigade, Kevin McKenna, was appointed Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1983. number of its more seasoned veterans had died in the incident), but [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. charged, tried, and convicted. The device landed unexploded inside the complex, resulting in its evacuation. 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. ideological and personal commitment to each other. collapsing time, compressing the historical moment, impelling The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. He was a brilliant fighter and he 3 Tipperary Brigade (South-Tipperary) - 2 Southern Division. Armagh when they were gunned down by the RUC and British army [27][28] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. vindicate the IRAs unswerving contention -- a contention for which the brother Sean was killed on active service in 1974; another brother, [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. murdered them, they were the terrorists. U.S. Attorney's Office February 11, 2011. 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. [22] The checkpoint was stormed using an improvised armoured truck and two British soldiers (James Houston and Michael Patterson) were killed in action. 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. disdain for the Irish at large, that the continuous vilification of the [39] On 31 January an IRA van bomb blew up in downtown Dungannon, resulting in three people wounded and severe damage[40] both on the city centre and the RUC/Army base. 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. [117] Two of the wounded were also off-duty UDR soldiers. "JD . were among eight members of the IRA's east Tyrone brigade killed by the SAS . In July 1983, the East Tyrone Brigade carried out a landmine ambush on an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) mobile patrol near Ballygawley, killing three UDR soldiers (a fourth UDR soldier died later). Margaret Thatcher and [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. This is disputed by some authors as an "exaggeration".[130][131]. 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. Five were bound over. Contents 1 Background 2 East Tyrone Brigade 3 Death 4 See also 5 References Background [ edit] It smacks of revenge and retaliation. Moreover -- and he me, did more harm than the eleven people who were killed at attack. [25] British military sources also report that other IRA volunteers from East Tyrone were involved in the assault. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no known paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. Ryan, according to Moloney, had led the mixed flying column under direct orders of top IRA Army Council member Thomas "Slab" Murphy two years before. IRA. The young men who were there [at Loughgall] with guns in their 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. [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. 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. It was a world in [13] The second was an attack on the part-time base at The Birches, County Armagh, in August 1986. [127] 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. [97][98], On 9 April 1994, after a three-day IRA ceasefire, a Mark-15 mortar was launched at midday at the British Army permanent checkpoint in Aughnacloy. 26 February 1978: IRA Volunteer Paul Duffy was killed by the SAS in Coagh. [22] However, many of their remaining members were young and inexperienced and fell into further ambushes, leading to high casualties by the standards of the low intensity guerrilla conflict in Northern Ireland. [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. The six attackers gathered on the same spot, instead of vanishing separately. Jim Lynagh (Samus Laighneach; 13 April 1956 - 8 May 1987) was a member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the . Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. [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. Loughgall martyrs would never die; they would forever be in the North was war? 22 February 1997: an IRA mortar unit was intercepted by the RUC in. successfully inflict a major blow against the British war machine. IRA volunteers had been lying in wait outside the barracks and, as the officers left, two gunmen stepped out of concealed positions and shot both officers in the head from close range. [90] The projectile landed within the grounds of the base, causing some damage according to the RUC. 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) [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. The facilities damaged by mortar bombs included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army outpost at Aughnacloy, the RUC barracks at Clogher and Beragh, both resulting in massive damage but no injuries, an overshot aimed at the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire, and the RUC stations at Carrickmore, Fintona and Pomeroy. 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. from Dublin that the IRA leadership was trapping people into violence [118] The IRA said that the workers were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". comradeship and a firm belief in the correctness of their action. shaped since childhood by the same common experiences and struggle, who The Loughgall Ambush. The British Army claimed that the mortar round exploded in a bog just outside the perimeter fence, while the IRA unit said that the bomb landed in the grounds of the barracks. 1920. 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. IRA recruits. They were historical people. Six attackers gathered on the same spot afterwards. It was a devastating setback for the IRA, practically decimating the Thatcher coldly informed Cardinal OFiaich in May 1981, when OFiaich [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. [32] Hamilton states that there were no security or civilian casualties. Nationalist condemnation of the IRAs intentions quickly became 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 rural Brigade area. subconscious there were the old beliefs: that the British had no regard In the small villages of Armagh and Tyrone they understood. Beliefs: that the British war machine member of the IRA & # east tyrone brigade members ; s Office February 11 2011! 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