To the army, South Armagh is 'Bandit Country', 200 square miles of the most dangerous and hostile terrain in Northern Ireland which has claimed the lives of 115 soldiers since 1969. He was finishing work building garages at the back of the Housing Executive offices on Dobbin Street when the gunman struck. He was returning from his shift at, 21 February 29-year-old on-duty RUC sergeant William Gordon Wilson is killed when a Provisional IRA bomb is detonated behind the door of a derelict pub in the nationalist Shambles area close to the city centre. const subscriberCookie = JSON.parse(getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'); Wed 17 Sep 2014 11.51 EDT. Burrows came from Ballinahone Avenue in the city. The fierceness of the republicanism expressed by people like the local historians I spoke to is unsettling. [47] The Omagh bombing of August 1998, a botched Real IRA operation which killed 29 civilians, was prepared by dissident republicans in South Armagh. 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. [25], South Armagh became the most heavily militarised area in Northern Ireland. } const onMutation = function (mutations) { 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. 18 April IPLO member Martin Corrigan from Railway Street in the city is shot dead by British Army soldiers at Kinnego, a few miles from Armagh. By the time of the final IRA ceasefire in August 1997, the South Armagh IRA leadership was already heavily involved in fuel and cigarette smuggling and 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. Ten workers were murdered after the IRA ambushed their van in 1976 By Linda Stewart Wed 17 May 2017 at 18:30 An inquest has heard how the south Armagh brigade of the Provisional IRA was. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired a heavy improvised mortar at the British Army base in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. return 'premium-plus'; !gigyaID ? He had charge of the IRA's Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 1990s. Media. 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. return { const subscriberCookieName = 'subscriber'; return key.indexOf('granted_by_') > -1; [33][34], The South Armagh Brigade was by far the most effective IRA brigade in shooting down British helicopters during the conflict. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. 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'. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. South Armagh IRA rocked as 'OC' is outed as a 'tout' - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk "I think we have to remember that in the vast majority of cases, the police and security forces acted with integrity, courage and professionalism." Theresa Villiers Se0samh Well-known member Joined Dec 8, 2011 Messages 15,782 Aug 8, 2016 #2 death or glory said: He had just left Drumadd Barracks and was on his way to nearby. return key.split('granted_by_')[1]; 7 September 61-year-old Catholic RUC man John Wasson is shot dead by the INLA outside his Duke's Grove home in a nationalist area of the city. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images "And almost overnight the smugglers of South Armagh, under the control of the IRA, started bulk-buying . vars.article.userWall = 'none'; There were also frequent gun attacks on foot patrols. } He retired as president of Ireland's District Court and in 2006 went on to lead a tribunal of inquiry into alleged Garda collusion in the 1989 murders of two RUC officers in south Armagh. subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_purchase.sku_code, }; return { meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. window.loadGTM(); To republicans, it is 'God's Country', the only area in the six counties where the occupiers have successfully been resisted. 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. 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;. }; A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. const subscriberCookieName = 'subscriber'; Sources say that shortly before they were captured, the team was given orders by the \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; not to carry any weapons when they were directed to a farm to collect their sniper rifle for an operation. // Regionals Container 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. [58][59] The IRA control over the roads across the border in South Armagh enabled them to impose 'taxes' on every cross-border illegal enterprise. vars.article.userWall = ! if (isGrantedBy('purchase')) { You'll receive access to exclusive information and early alerts about our documentaries and investigations. const grantedBy = Object.keys(purchase).filter(function (key) { 8 November Adrian Carroll, a 24-year-old. if (eventType === 'access_resolved' || eventType === 'access_resolved ') { A key player in a vicious IRA sniper squad in south Armagh will be freed from prison under the Good Friday agreement within 16 months, despite yesterday receiving one of . observer.disconnect(); He regarded as exceptions the East Tyrone IRA unit, led by Jim Lynagh who was killed in an SAS ambush during an IRA attack on Loughall RUC base in 1987, and the "tight as a drum" South Armagh . 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. He was among a group of youths who were asked for ID by the patrol, and when an argument then broke out between them and the UDR members he was shot once in the chest at point blank range. There were no injuries on either side. He was on bail at the time of his death charged with having petrol bombs for use in rioting, and was prominent in, 27 August Wilfred McIlveen, a 37-year-old Protestant and former member of the UDR, is killed when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car as he was leaving, 7 October Frederick Williamson, a 33-year-old member of the UDR from Orangefield Drive in the city, is killed along with 28-year-old prison officer Elizabeth Chambers from. 23 April 38-year-old Protestant John Robinson is shot dead by the Provisional IRA outside the Mullacreevie estate. Many men in the area served in the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (191921) and, unlike most of the rest of the Northern Ireland IRA, on the republican side in the Irish Civil War (192223). [15] In response, the British government stated that it was dispatching the Special Air Service (SAS) to South Armagh, although the SAS had been present in the area for many years. 9 March James Hogg, a 23-year-old Protestant civilian and member of the Orange Order, was shot dead in what is thought to have been a sectarian revenge attack by the INLA. subscriptionStartDate: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.original_start_at, He was the 267th RUC officer to die in the Troubles. 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. The board of finance Wednesday voted 4-2 in favor of using $300,000 in funding to repair the Grange Pool.Repairs to the nearly 60-year-old pool have been estimated between $300,000 to $350,000. [38] The only successful IRA attack against an Army helicopter outside South Armagh was carried out by the East Tyrone Brigade near Clogher, County Tyrone, on 11 February 1990. Many of the major IRA bombs in England this decade, including Canary Wharf. userID: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.user_id, } She had gone to Belfast after spending some of the night drinking in Armagh, and had fallen in with a crowd of loyalist men and women who, realising that she was a Catholic from Armagh, took her to a house on Cregagh Street on the pretense of having a party. })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-KJF4'); [35] The shooting down of the Lynx in 1994 during a mortar attack on Crossmaglen barracks is regarded by Toby Harnden as the most successful IRA operation against a helicopter in the course of the Troubles. Most of the South Armagh IRA stayed within the Provisional movement, but there were reports of the brigade aiding the dissidents in different actions before the signing of the agreement, among them the bombings of Moira and Portadown, and mortar attacks on a security base at Forkhill and a watchtower at Glassdrumman. const domain = '.independent.ie'; if (flipPayJsUrl) { document.cookie = subscriberCookieName + "= ; path=/;domain=" + domain + ";expires = Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT"; [21] Three months later, a further four RUC officers were killed by a 900 lb roadside bomb at Killean, County Armagh.[22]. }; userID: purchase.granted_by_purchase.user_id, 15/11/1974 Michael McVerry O.C. A further 75 civilians were killed in the area during the conflict,[6] as well as ten South Armagh Brigade members. RM2HX09AC - File photo dated 7/8/2011 of Peter Smithwick, the senior judge who led an inquiry into claims of Garda/IRA collusion into the murder of two RUC officers, has died aged 85. (function () { His Catholic girlfriend was driving behind him in her car when the explosion happened. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. Overview of The Troubles in Armagh City, Northern Ireland, "Irish Police Face Peril of 'Murder Mile', "Issues: Violence McKittrick, Kelters, Feeney and Thornton (1999) Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles", "Madden and Finucane Closing Submissions (including excerpts from The Scarman Report)", "Five injured as Staffords are lured into Armagh booby trap", "Newton Emerson: Licensing next war is Adams's real legacy", "Calls for 'honesty' and inquiry over Troubles-related killings", "Paramilitary Feuds in Northern Ireland A Chronology of Events", "Gunmen Shoot Part-time Soldier, IRA Claims Responsibility", "Police inspector shot dead in Northern Ireland", "I.R.A. 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. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . His hands had been tied behind his back and his eyes taped closed at Central. if (!! } Photo caption # 10: Richard English, Armed Struggle, A History of the IRA, page 172, Transcripts of the Commons debate over the security situation in NI and the Cullaville incident (. // Push initial dataLayer values into object. "The fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead. const subscriberCookieStatus = getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'; 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. The second most senior IRA man in south Armagh is being protected amid claims that he worked as an agent for British intelligence, according to usually reliable security sources. window.showSubscriberElements) { } else { These bases acted as information-gathering centres and also allowed the British Army to patrol South Armagh more securely. 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. On 11 June 1993, the South Armagh Brigade attempted to shoot down a Puma helicopter taking off from the Crossmaglen base with an improvised mortar. } In 2006, the British and Irish authorities mounted joint operations to clamp down on smuggling in the area and to seize Thomas Murphy's assets. 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. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, [59], A memorial garden was unveiled on 3 October 2010 in the village of Mullaghbawn, near Slieve Gullion mountain, with the names of 24 members of the South Armagh Brigade who died from different causes over the years inscribed upon a marble monument, along a bronze statue of Irish mythological hero C Chulainn. @OCFireRescue. 24 March William Elliott, a-52-year old Protestant civilian from Ashley Gardens in the city is shot dead by the Provisional IRA in the village of, 15 August Norman Kerr, a 28-year-old Protestant from, 22 August The UVF's Glenanne Gang launched a gun and bomb attack on McGleenan's Bar on Upper English Street in the Shambles area of the city. Bases acted as information-gathering centres and also allowed the British Army to patrol South Armagh the. 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