south armagh ira oc

meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, Belton was shot and injured by other members of the patrol, but managed to flee to the Republic. A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman confirmed that an investigation was underway, but also stated that both Sinn Fin Ministers and everyone attending the parade were unaware that "the proper paperwork hadn't been submitted". Paul Reece of the, 16 October 25-year-old Tony McClelland, from the Drumarg estate in Armagh city, died during a, 2 April 23-year-old RUC man Kenneth Acheson from Ballynahone Drive in the city dies when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car as he drives home from. The man, who has the official title of officer commanding South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the Northern Command, which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. [53], Senior IRA figures in South Armagh, notably Thomas Murphy, are alleged to have been involved in large-scale smuggling across the Irish border and money-laundering. John McGleenan (45), Patrick Hughes (30) and Thomas Morris (22), all, 25 January David McDowell, a 26-year-old member of the UDR from Alexander Park in the city, is accidentally shot dead by a member of the, 9 April 73-year-old Catholic pensioner Michael Sweeney is killed when the UVF launch a bomb attack on Lenny's Bar in the Railway Street area of the city, which also injuries 14 other people. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. [51][52], Since the army wind-down in 2007, security in the area is the sole responsibility of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. 24 February - Reginald Williamson, a 46-year-old RUC member from Armagh, is killed when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car near the village of Loughgall. At that moment, a gun battle was taking place on the ground between British soldiers and members of the South Armagh Brigade. return { He had left the UDR the year before. window.loadGTM(); About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . 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He was from Ashley Heights in the city and was a leading member of the Orange Order. Then, in January 1976, after a series of loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attacks on Catholic civilians in the border areas (including the Reavey and O'Dowd killings the previous day), the group shot and killed ten Protestant workmen in the "Kingsmill massacre" near Bessbrook. [24] As the divisional commander for South Armagh, Breen was the most senior policeman to have been killed during the Troubles. bodyAvailable = true; It is believed that the British struck a deal whereby the IRA leaders could continue to benefit from the illicit trade so long as no further attacks on security forces or bomb attacks on commercial targets took place. Burrows came from Ballinahone Avenue in the city. Orange County, Florida ocfrd.com Joined May 2013. vars.article.wallVisible = ! The team, which included Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain's brother-in-law - Bernard McGinn from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan - were sentenced to lengthy jail terms, but released in 2000 under the Good Friday Agreement. He was married and had nine children. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. for (let i = 0, parts; (parts = cookies[i] && cookies[i].split('=')); i++) { if (isGrantedBy('whitelist_rule')) { const domain = '.independent.ie'; vars.category.regionals = selectedRegional || ''; [11], During the early 1970s, the brigade was mostly engaged in ambushes of British Army patrols. }; Shortly afterwards, the Army abandoned road transport in South Armagh." Three British soldiers and a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) member were wounded. South Armagh, however, where the close rural community and family connections of IRA men diminished the risk of infiltration, retained its larger "battalion" structure. return 'premium-plus'; if (window.GTMLoaded === true) { Since then the security forces travel by helicopter for security reasons.". The South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated during the Troubles in south County Armagh. A further 75 civilians were killed in the area during the conflict,[6] as well as ten South Armagh Brigade members. } It is not clear how the 'OC' came to be exposed as an agent but he is believed to have been recruited by British Intelligence in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Official information from Orange County Fire Rescue's Public Information Office. He had charge of the IRA\u0026#039;s Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 1990s.The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army\u0026#039;s SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. The IRA ceasefire of 1994 was a blow to the South Armagh Brigade, in that it allowed the security forces to operate openly in the area without fear of attack and to build intelligence on IRA members. The man, who has the official title of \u0026#039;officer commanding\u0026#039; South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the \u0026#039;Northern Command\u0026#039;, the ruling body which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. 3 March Herbert Burrows, a 37-year-old Protestant civilian, is killed when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb which was attached to a door at his Alexander Road funeral parlour exploded, killing him instantly. Inside the council chambers that night Charles Armstrong had called for councillors to stand for a minute's silence for Adrian Carroll, who had been shot dead six days earlier in the city. listenForFlipPayEvents(); [48] Thomas Murphy and the leadership of the IRA in the area have allegedly since re-asserted their control, expelling dissidents from the district under threat of death. The culmination of Harnden's work in Northern Ireland was the publication of Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh (Hodder & Stoughton 1999), which sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide and is considered essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the Irish Troubles. document.head.append(script); When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. 18 April 1992 Brendan McWilliams (50), a Catholic civilian employee of the British Army, was shot and killed by the IRA at his home at Nialls Crescent, off the Killylea Road. })(); Premium subscribers enjoy unlimited access to all articles. Despite British watchtowers with sophisticated surveillance equipment across south Armagh from the mid-1980s, various ex-Irish and British security personnel agree that the . Martin was from Knockamell Park in the city and was a neighbour of Charles Spence, who was had been shot dead by the IRA two weeks previously. The man, who has the official title of 'officer commanding' South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the 'Northern Command', the ruling body which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, [20], During the mid-1980s, the brigade focused its attacks on the RUC, killing 20 of its members between 1984 and 1986. }; A British border patrol searches a lorry in 1969. userID: purchase.granted_by_whitelist_rule.user_id, According to author Toby Harnden, the decision was taken shortly after a Saracen armoured vehicle was destroyed by a culvert bomb near Crossmaglen, on 9 October 1975. Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('print_annual') > -1) { The capture of the sniper team was the single major success for the security forces in South Armagh in more than a decade,[44] and was arguably among the most important of the Troubles,[45] but by then, the IRA and Sinn Fin had achieved huge political gains towards their long-term goals. The incident caused outrage among South Armagh residents, provided the IRA with many new recruits and created a hostile climate where local people were prepared to tolerate the killing of security force members. [47] The Omagh bombing of August 1998, a botched Real IRA operation which killed 29 civilians, was prepared by dissident republicans in South Armagh. subscriptionStartDate: '0000-00-00T00:00:00Z', This page was last edited on 13 July 2022, at 18:49. From that point onwards, the South Armagh \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25pc of their earnings to the \u0026#039;movement\u0026#039;. Let the message from south Armagh ring loud and clear to the occupation forces. bundle: bundleValue, His killing happened one day before his 30th birthday. 29 April Thomas McGeary, a 48-year-old Catholic civilian, is killed by a booby-trap bomb planted in his car just outside Armagh city. The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. 16 April 1997 - A group of sixteen undercover SAS members restrained four IRA members, part of one of the two sniper teams which operated in South Armagh and gave them to the RUC, after tracking the IRA men to a farm complex. There was no reaction from British security although the RUC/Army base was just 50 yards away. Fri 19 Mar 1999 23.07 EST. He is said to have given the order for the brutal beating, which turned into the murder of Paul Quinn, the innocent 21-year-old who happened to have been involved in a violent row with another local Provo who had assaulted a young woman in October 2007. '&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= The new Irish Sea Border: What does it mean? 26 October Joseph Wilson, a 53-year-old part-time member of the UDR is shot dead by a Provisional IRA gunman in the supermarket he worked at in the nationalist Shambles area of the city. A group calling itself 'The Irish Freedom Fighters' claimed responsibility for his death, claiming that McGeary was a 'collaborator', but the killing was widely blamed on the Provisional IRA, who were accused of using a cover name to try and deflect blame for an unpopular action. }); In 1975 and 1976, as sectarian violence increased in Northern Ireland, the South Armagh Republican Action Force, allegedly a cover-name for the South Armagh Brigade, carried out two attacks against Protestants. } } const getBundleValue = function (purchase, purchaseType) { document.body.addEventListener('fp_user_event', function (event) { Although from Armagh city, he was a member of the IRA's, 31 July George Walsh, a 51-year-old member of the RUC, was shot dead when two INLA gunmen opened fire on the car he was sitting in outside, 2 August Two British soldiers are killed in a Provisional IRA landmine explosion on the Cathedral Road. cookieValue = decodeURIComponent(cookieValue); if (flipPayJsUrl) { 18 October 67-year-old Protestant Herbert John Anderson is shot dead by the Provisional IRA who ambushed his taxi on the Armagh to, 19 April Agnes Wallace (40), a Prison Officer, was killed and three female colleagues were injured in an, 2 June Alan Dunne (36), an off-duty member of the RUC, and David Stinson (32), a, 9 June Peadar McElvenna, a 24-year-old Provisional IRA member from Convent Close in the city, is shot dead after an IRA attack on the RUC barracks in Keady, south Armagh. [3] Compared to other brigades, the South Armagh IRA was seen as an 'independent republic' within the republican movement, retaining a battalion organizational structure and not adopting the cell structure the rest of the IRA was forced to adopt after repeated intelligence failures. 24 February - Anne Marie Smyth, a 26-year-old Catholic mother of two from the Longstone estate in Armagh is murdered in east Belfast by the UVF after she attended what was meant to be a party in a loyalist area. [10], However, the IRA campaign in the area did not begin in earnest until 1971. const isGrantedBy = function (grant) { She was then carried out of the house and taken away in the boot of a car to Ballarat Street where she had her throat slashed back to the spine. 10 November Charles Neville, a 56-year-old Protestant and former member of the UDR, is killed in a Provisional IRA gun and grenade attack on his car at the Loughgall Road. He was later acquitted of any charges, but he eventually agreed in 2006 to pay 500,000 for cross-border smuggling. if (vars.article.wallType === 'registration') { window.IMP = window.IMP || {}; // Push initial dataLayer values into object. [9] After the split in the IRA in that year, the South Armagh unit sided with the Provisional IRA rather than the Official IRA. 27 November 34-year-old former RUC member John Martin is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at his filling station on the Mall. [8], At the beginning of the Northern Ireland Troubles in August 1969, rioters, led by IRA men, attacked the RUC barracks in Crossmaglen, in retaliation for the attacks on Catholic/nationalist areas in Belfast in the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. 15/11/1974 Michael McVerry O.C. } subscriptionFinishDate: '0000-00-00T00:00:00Z', if (!! meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.sku_code, [26], In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the IRA elsewhere in Northern Ireland found that nine out of ten planned operations were aborted. observer.observe(document, { Murphy was lightly wounded and arrested by the RUC. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, 20 December Austin Smith, a 44-year-old Catholic member of the UDR, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA as he returned to his home on the Windmill estate in a heavily nationalist part of the city. if (vars.article.wallType === 'premium') { The dead man was a World War II veteran and had taken part in the. His father-in-law, Joseph Wilson, a member of the UDR, had been shot dead by the Provisional IRA a short distance away in 1976. } The Sunday Independent has learned that the South Armagh 'OC' was outed as a 'tout' earlier this year and that shortly afterwards an IRA bodyguard team was sent from Belfast to ensure that no attack was made on the man in order to save embarrassment for the 'movement'.

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south armagh ira oc