[12] IRA volunteer amon McGuire, a former Aer Lingus senior engineer, and his team claim that they were responsible for getting the British Army "off the ground and into the air" in South Armagh. return 'home-delivery'; subscriptionStatus: 'Whitelist', window.loadGTM = function () { The dead man was from Knockamell Park in Armagh city. 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. var p = purchase['granted_by_' + purchaseType]; return; In September 1975 they attacked an Orange lodge in Newtownhamilton, killing five members of the lodge. Other alleged illegal activities involve fraud through embezzlement of agricultural subsidies and false claims of property loss. observer.observe(document, { The men were taken out of their minibus and then . }; 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 . Three British soldiers and a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) member were wounded. 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. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('premium-plus') > -1) { In an area with a population of 23,000, the British Army stationed around 3,000 troops in support of the RUC to contain an unknown number of paramilitaries. 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. } 9 February Michael Beswick (21), a member of the British Army, was killed in Cathedral Road, Armagh, when a remote-controlled bomb hidden by the Provisional IRA in a wall exploded as an army foot patrol was passing by. By the 1990s, the South Armagh Brigade was thought to consist of about 40 members,[1] roughly half of them living south of the border. 1,168 Following. He was the only IPLO member to die while attacking state forces. Orange County; Winter Garden; Seminole Street; 537 Seminole Street Winter Garden, FL 34787. An IRA unit had taken over a house in Ogle Street and waited until the RUC foot patrol came into range of the 5 lb device. 23 April 38-year-old Protestant John Robinson is shot dead by the Provisional IRA outside the Mullacreevie estate. {"gigya.api.key":"4_CO8231Ix1RbYi2EmMbsrlw","gigya.screenset":"Default-RegistrationLogin","gigya.mobile.screenset":"Default-RegistrationLogin","gigya.authFlow.redirect":"true","gigya.check.enabled":"true","gigya.check.host":"gigya-check.independent.ie","competitions.submit.endpoint":"https://competitions-api.independent.ie/entries","competitions.api.key":"0b15feaa-62b2-45a2-8244-723a9e80748e","subscriptionwall.cookie-domain":".independent.ie","subscriptionwall.metered.missing.fields":"data.occupation,data.phone,data.salutation,data.yearofbirth,profile.firstName,profile.lastName","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.home-delivery":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/home-delivery/","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.premium-plus":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/premium-plus/","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.premium":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/premium/","kaching.enabled":"true","outbrain.kaching.enabled":"true","quantcast.enabled":"false","didomi.enabled":"true","newsletter.subscribe_url":"https://member.independent.ie/quicksubscribe/IN:Daily/subscribe","social-embed-consent-wall.enabled":"true","homepage.regional.sections.mapping":"Cork:regionals/corkman/:corkman,Dublin:regionals/dublin/:dublin,Kerry:regionals/kerryman/:kerryman,Louth:regionals/louth/:louth,Sligo:regionals/sligochampion/:sligochampion,Wexford:regionals/wexford/:wexford,Wicklow:regionals/wicklow/:wicklow","active_cmp":"didomi"} {"url":"https://shared.mediahuis.be/ka-ching/independent/ka-ching.umd.js?20210830","adunit":"m.independent.ie/Irish_News","targeting":{"art_id":"34944633","article_id":"34944633","kw":["South","Armagh","IRA","rocked","as","OC","is","outed","as","a","tout"],"gs_channels":["gs_notprocessed"],"article_type":"standard"},"platform":"MOB","pageType":"Article","lazyload":true} {"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"South Armagh IRA rocked as \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; is outed as a \u0026#039;tout\u0026#039;","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Independent.ie","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://m.independent.ie/theme/_base/"},"@id":"independent.ie"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.independent.ie/incoming/65cdb/34944440.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/provos.jpg","height":"700","width":"1240"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.independent.ie/"},"dateCreated":"2016-08-06T22:16:02.000Z","dateModified":"2016-08-06T22:40:34.000Z","datePublished":"2016-08-07T01:30:00Z","keywords":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://www.independent.ie/incoming/65cdb/34944440.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/provos.jpg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jim Cusack"},"description":"The second most senior IRA man in South Armagh is being \u0026#039;protected\u0026#039; amid claims that he worked as an agent for British intelligence, according to usually reliable security sources. return; 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. const script = document.createElement('script'); 24 July 1990 Joshua Willis (35), William Hanson (37) and David Sterritt (34), all members of the RUC, and, 1 March 24-year-old Paul Sutcliffe, who came from. 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). 15.5K Followers. Martin McGuinness, then deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, gave the main oration, while Conor Murphy, then Minister for Regional Development, introduced the families of the dead IRA members. 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. More people could be killed or forced from their homes in a feud between factions of the Provisional IRA in south Armagh, republicans and security chiefs warned . [4], As well as paramilitary activity, the South Armagh Brigade has also been widely accused of smuggling across the Irish border. They had been for a night out in the, 28 April - Eric Smyth, a 40-year-old ex-member of the UDR, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at the front of his home on Salter's Grange Road, on the outskirts of Armagh. A British border patrol searches a lorry in 1969. Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army, was attacked by an IRA unit near Jonesborough, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan, took control of the village of Cullaville, deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, "Tribunal to investigate murders of RUC officers", BBC On This DAY - 20 March 1989 "Senior RUC men die in gun attack", "Governments must end immoral indulgence of Sinn Fin/IRA", Commons debate, 8 June 1993, columns 192-197, Commons debate, 8 June 1993, columns 180-191, The only way to travel across bandit country, "Final British Watchtowers being removed", "No democrat will shed tears at demise of RIR and its bases", "North-south crackdown on IRA's hidden wealth", "Is 'Slab' Murphy's bloody reign drawing to an end? It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA active service unit on armed operations. The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army's SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. if (isGrantedBy('app_purchase')) { 10 November Charles Spence, a 44-year-old part-time UDR man, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at the customs offices where he worked on the Monaghan Road in the city. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. window.IMP = window.IMP || {}; This led to angry scenes as elected DUP members refused to stand. 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. if (window.GTMLoaded === true) { When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. !gigyaID ? window.dataLayer.push(vars); His younger brother, a member of the UDR, had lost both legs in an IRA attack on the Mall in 1982. The truck bombs were sent to England by ferry. , South Armagh IRA is killed on active service during an attack on Keady barracks. return cookieData; console.log('observer.observe failed:', e); [10], However, the IRA campaign in the area did not begin in earnest until 1971. A new full inquest is to be held into the IRA massacre of 10 Protestant workers shot dead in South Armagh in 1976. premium_content: false, He had left the UDR the year before. The team, which included Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain's brother-in-law, Bernard McGinn from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, were sentenced to lengthy jailed terms but released in 2000 as part of the prisoner amnesty. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. Sources say that shortly before they were captured, the team was given orders by the 'OC' not to carry any weapons when they were directed to a farm to collect their sniper rifle for an operation. When he was 17 he had witnessed his father Peter Corrigan, a Sinn Fin member, being shot dead by the UVF in the city. Men from the area also took part in IRA campaigns in the 1940 and 1950s. document.head.append(script); $553 (2019) Beds. One USC Constable was killed in this attack and in revenge the USC descended upon Killylea in Armagh and began to burn down Nationalist homes; they also shot and wounded two civilians. She left behind a husband and three children. Belton was shot and injured by other members of the patrol, but managed to flee to the Republic. Tweets & replies. [46] The last major action of the brigade before the last IRA ceasefire was a mortar attack on Newtownhamilton RUC/Army barracks, on 12 July 1997. 24 January Tony Harker, a 21-year-old Catholic civilian, is shot dead by the UDR in disputed circumstances outside a supermarket on the Keady Road. const updateSubscriberCookie = function (purchase) { 27 August 1992 - An unsuccessful attack was launched by a sniper on a British Army patrol at Carran Road, Crossmaglen, County Armagh. 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. const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; const subscriberCookie = JSON.parse(getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'); He is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. subscriptionStatus: '', subscriptionStartDate: '', Originally from. subscriptionStatus: 'Corporate', vars.article.wallVisible = 'false'; subscriptionFinishDate: purchase.granted_by_purchase.finish_at, When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. In one such ambush in August 1972, a Ferret armoured car was destroyed by a 600lb landmine, killing one soldier. After that a struggle ensued in which Corrigan was shot at point-blank range in the head. 8 November Adrian Carroll, a 24-year-old. }; } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('epaper-access') > -1) { Orange County, Florida ocfrd.com Joined May 2013. Welcome! // Check window.dataLayer object or create. subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.sku_code, listenForFlipPayEvents(); 25 July 1994 - A British soldier was shot and wounded by the IRA in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. 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. 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. 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. (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': But the snipers also lost a number of their most skilled members, such as Mchel Caraher, who were arrested and imprisoned just weeks before the second ceasefire. subscriptionFinishDate: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.finish_at, vars.article.wallVisible = ! Nine of these were killed in the February 1985 Newry mortar attack. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, 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. 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