Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade
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Reverted 1 edit by [[Special:Contributions/86.153.197.197|86.153.197.197]] identified as [[WP:VAND|vandalism]] to last revision by [[User:BigDunc|BigDunc]]. ([[WP:TW|TW]])
The '''East Tyrone Brigade''', ''Briogáid Thír Eoghain Thoir'', of the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) was one of the most active [[Irish republican|republican]] paramilitary groups in [[Northern Ireland]] over the course of [[the Troubles]]. They are believed to have drawn their membership from right across the eastern side of [[County Tyrone]] as well as north [[County Monaghan]] and south [[County Londonderry]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Urban | first = Mark | authorlink = | title = Big Boys' Rules | publisher = [[Faber and Faber]] | date = 1992 | pages = p. 220 | doi = | isbn = 0-571-16809-4}}</ref>
The east of the county has a long history of militant Republicanism from [[Tom Clarke]], [[Joseph McGarrity]], [[Liam Kelly (Irish republican)|Liam Kelly]], [[Gerry McGeough]], [[Tommy McKearney]], [[Bernadette Devlin McAliskey]] and [[Martin Hurson]]. The IRA's heaviest single loss of life since the 1920s involved the East Tyrone Brigade, when a group of eight [[Volunteer (Irish republican)|volunteers]] were ambushed and killed by the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[special forces]], the [[Special Air Service]] (SAS), during an attack on the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) station at [[Loughgall]] on [[8 May]] [[1987]].
[[Image:Mural of Loughgall Volunteers.gif|thumb|right|<center>Mural commemorating those killed in the Loughgall ambush]]
==Lynagh's strategy ==
In the 1980s, the IRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border, such as South Armagh, were following a [[Maoism|Maoist]] military theory devised for Ireland by [[Jim Lynagh]], the leader of the IRA in East Tyrone (but a native of [[County Monaghan]]). The theory involved creating "zones of liberation" that the security forces of Northern Ireland did not control and gradually expanding them to make the country ungovernable. Lynagh's strategy was to start off with one area which the British military did not control, preferably a Republican stronghold such as East Tyrone. 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 [[Improvised explosive device|roadside bombs]]. 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. The first phase of Lynagh's plan to drive out the British Security Forces from East Tyrone involved destroying isolated rural police stations and then intimidating or killing any building contracters who were employed to rebuild them.
== Previous attacks ==
The East Tyrone Brigade had previously carried out two attacks on RUC bases in East Tyrone, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars".<ref>''Big Boys' Rules'', Mark Urban, Faber and Faber (1992), p. 224, ISBN 0-571-16112-X</ref> Both attacks were begun by driving a [[J. C. Bamford|JCB]] digger with a 200 lb (91 kg) bomb in its bucket through the reinforced fences the RUC had in place around their bases, and then exploding the bomb and raking the police station with gunfire. On these two occasions the stations were destroyed, and most or all of the occupants killed. It was therefore with some confidence that the IRA tried the same tactics on the unmanned [[Loughgall]] RUC station on [[8 May]] [[1987]].<ref name="s2k">{{cite web | title = SAS shooting 'destroyed deadly IRA unit' | author = | url = http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/05/05/story11832.asp | publisher = BreakingNews.ie | date = [[5 May]], [[2001]] | accessdate = 2007-09-19}}</ref><ref>''Big Boys' Rules'', p. 227.</ref>
== The Loughgall ambush ==
[[Image:Loughgall political poster.jpg|thumb|right|Poster of "Loughgall Martyrs" which was produced after the killings]]
The SAS, however, had set a trap to destroy the unit. They had placed an SAS soldier inside the station, and deployed a squad of 24 soldiers split into six groups around the station building. It has been alleged, but never proved, that the RUC had an informer in the IRA group, and that he was killed by the SAS in the ambush.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Provos - The IRA & Sinn Féin | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | date = 1997 | pages = p. 276 | doi = | isbn = 0-7475-3818-2 }}</ref> However, in his book ''Big Boys' Rules'' Mark Urban points to the fact that an [[Ardboe]] woman, Colette O'Neill, was abducted by the IRA several weeks later, and he hypothesises that she may have been the informer.<ref>''Big Boys' Rules'', pp. 236-237.</ref> However she denied this and was released alive.
Just after 7:00 p.m. on [[8 May]] [[1987]], Declan Arthurs drove the JCB carrying the bomb through the [[perimeter fence]] of the RUC station. The van carrying the rest of the IRA unit pulled up and they jumped out and opened fire on the station. The IRA just managed to detonate its 200 lb (900 kg) bomb, heavily damaging the police station, before the SAS opened fire.
The SAS riddled the JCB and the van with bullets. In addition, the car of passer-by Anthony Hughes was fired on by the SAS. Hughes, 36, was killed and his brother badly wounded.<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch87.htm CAIN timeline 1987]</ref> Subsequent security forces statements said with regret that they had been innocent passers-by caught in crossfire. All eight IRA guerrillas were killed, all from head wounds.<ref name="bbc">{{cite web | title = IRA deaths: The four shootings | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1312421.stm | publisher = ''BBC'' | date = [[4 May]] [[2001]] | accessdate = 2007-03-11}}</ref> The soldiers fired more than 600 rounds; the IRA men fired 70 rounds but did not hit any of the soldiers.<ref>{{cite web | title = Infamous IRA gang wiped out by heavily armed SAS | author = Ted Oliver | url = http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2001/05/05/story2223.asp | publisher = ''Irish Examiner'' | date = [[5 May]] [[2001]] | accessdate = 2007-03-26}}</ref> It was later alleged that one of the dead men was in fact an informant for the RUC, although this was denied by security sources, who claimed that the information on the IRA unit was gained from electronic surveillance.<ref>{{cite book | last = Moloney | first = Ed | authorlink = Ed Moloney | title = A Secret History of the IRA | publisher = [[Penguin Books]] | date = 2002 | pages = p. 316 | doi = | isbn = 0-141-01041-X}}</ref>
The British recovered eight IRA weapons from the scene – three [[Heckler & Koch]] [[G3 rifle]]s, one [[Fabrique Nationale de Herstal|FN]] rifle, two [[FN FNC|FNC]] rifles, a [[Ruger]] revolver and a [[Spas-12]] [[shotgun]]. The [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] linked the guns to 7 murders and 12 attempted murders in the mid Ulster area.<ref>''The Long War'', Brendan O'Brien (1995) p. 141.</ref> One of the guns had been taken from a reserve RUC constable killed two years earlier.<ref>{{cite book | last = Urban | first = Mark | authorlink = | title = Big Boys' Rules | publisher = [[Faber and Faber]] | date = 1992 | pages = p. 229 | doi = | isbn = 0-571-16809-4}}</ref>
The innocent civilian, Anthony Hughes, who was shot dead by the SAS, had been traveling in a car with his brother, Oliver, unaware of the ambush. Unfortunately, both were wearing blue overalls similar to those sometimes worn by IRA members on operations and so were mistaken for IRA men engaged in the attack.<ref>{{cite book | last = Urban | first = Mark | authorlink = | title = Big Boys' Rules | publisher = Faber and Faber | date = 1992 | pages = p. 276 | doi = | isbn = 0-571-16809-4}}</ref> As they attempted to reverse out of the gunfire, SAS troopers positioned nearby mistook them as part of the IRA unit and opened fire. Forty shots were aimed at the car, killing Anthony and wounding his brother. Hughes' widow later received compensation from the British Government for the death of her husband.<ref>''Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin, Peter Taylor (1997) pg274</ref>
===Aftermath of the ambush===
SAS operations against the IRA continued well into the 1990s. The IRA conducted a long investigation in search of the informer believed to have been in their ranks, although it has been suggested <!-- suggested by whom?? --> that the informer was killed in the 1987 ambush.
The IRA group became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among [[Irish Republicanism|Republicans]], because the men's deaths were considered to be part of a deliberate [[Shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland|shoot-to-kill policy]] by the security forces.<ref name="s2k"/><ref>{{cite web | title = True tale of IRA 'martyrs' revealed | author = | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,801151,00.html | publisher = ''[[The Guardian]]'' | date = [[29 September]], [[2002]] | accessdate = 2007-09-19}}</ref>
Thousands of people attended the funerals of the dead IRA men, the biggest republican funerals in Northern Ireland since those of the IRA hunger strikers of 1981. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} [[Gerry Adams]] in his graveside oration said the British Government understood that it could buy off the government of the [[Republic of Ireland]], which he described as the "shoneen clan" (pro-British), but "it does not understand the Jim Lynaghs, the Pádraig McKearneys or the [[Séamus McElwaine]]s. It thinks it can defeat them. It never will."<ref>(Quoted in the ''Secret History of the IRA'', Ed Moloney, 2002, page 325) </ref>
In 2001 the [[European Court of Human Rights]] ruled that ten IRA members, including the eight killed at Loughgall, had their human rights violated by the failure of the [[British government]] to conduct a proper investigation into the circumstances of their deaths.<ref name="bbc"/>
===Membership of the Loughgall Unit===
The East Tyrone Brigade members killed at Loughgall in 1987 consisted of:
* [[Patrick Joseph Kelly|Commander Patrick Kelly]] (aged 30)
* [[Jim Lynagh]] (aged 31)
* [[Pádraig McKearney]] (aged 32)
* [[Declan Arthurs]] (aged 21)
* [[Seamus Donnelly]] (aged 19)
* [[Eugene Kelly (Irish republican)|Eugene Kelly]] (aged 25)
* [[Gerry O'Callaghan]] (aged 29)
* [[Tony Gormley]] (aged 25)
===Song===
An Irish rebel song was written as a tribute to the IRA members, entitled "Loughall Martyrs". Its lyrics state that the Provisionals were "brave volunteers" and that Lynagh was a "gallant soldier". The SAS are described as "butchers" and are accused of using disproportionate force, as well as not offering the opportunity to surrender. The final verse pays tribute to the eight men by name.
The ambush is alluded to in [[The Pogues]]' 1988 song '''[[Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six]]''' where the SAS are described as the "whores of the [[British Empire|empire]]".<ref>{{cite web | title= Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six | url = http://www.shanemacgowan.com/lyrics/streets.shtml |publisher = ShaneMacGowan.com | quote = May the whores of the empire lie awake in their beds,
And sweat as they count out the sins on their heads.
While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead,
Kicked down and shot in the back of the head}}</ref>
==Subsequent Brigade activity==
The SAS ambush had no noticeable effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. In the two years prior to the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed 7 people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and 11 in the two years following the ambush.<ref>{{cite book | last = Urban | first = Mark | authorlink = | title = ''Big Boys' Rules'' | publisher = Faber and Faber | date = 1992 | pages = p. 242 | doi = | isbn = 0-571-16809-4}}</ref> [[Ed Moloney]], Irish journalist and author of the ''[[A Secret History of the IRA]]'', states that the East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles - the highest of any Brigade area. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992.<ref>p. 319, ''The Secret History of the IRA'', [[Ed Moloney]]</ref>
In August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin as they tried to kill an off-duty [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] member.<ref>[http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2003/sep12_DUP_protest_IRA_commemoration.php DUP slams GAA club IRA commemoration] Newshound September 27 2003</ref> Michael "Pete" Ryan, an alleged top Brigade's member <!-- Is this the same Pete Ryan who was killed in 1991?? -->, led an IRA ''[[flying column]]'' during a large operation against a checkpoint at [[Attack on Derryard checkpoint|Derryard]], in December 1989. Two British soldiers were killed in action.<ref>p. 333, ''The Secret History of the IRA'', [[Ed Moloney]] </ref> On [[11 February]], [[1990]] the Brigade managed to shoot down a [[Westland Lynx|Lynx]] helicopter near [[Clogher]] by machine gun fire.<ref>See this British Commons account about the NI violence for the first month of 1990:
*http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-07-10/Writtens-8.html
For some details on the helicopter downing, go to this archive page of the ''New York Times'':
*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D8143DF931A25751C0A966958260#prof ''Copter forced down in Ulster'']</ref> In October 1990, two more IRA men, [[Dessie Grew]] and [[Martin McCaughey]], were shot dead near Loughgall by undercover soldiers. In June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Peter Ryan and Tony Doris, died in another SAS ambush at [[Coagh]], where their car was raked with gunfire.<ref>p. 318, ''A Secret History of the IRA'', [[Ed Moloney]]</ref> The RUC stated the men were on their way to mount an ambush on Protestant workmen.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/3/newsid_2495000/2495753.stm 1991: IRA men shot dead by British army]BBC news</ref>
In January 1992, East Tyrone Brigade members killed eight building workers and severely injured another six, with a landmine at Teebane near [[Omagh]]. One of the workers killed, Robert Dunseath, was also a member of the [[Royal Irish Rangers]].<ref>[http://www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Royal%20Irish%20Rangers%20(V).htm Palace Barracks Memorial Garden]</ref>
The men were working to re-build British Army bases damaged by IRA bombs. The men were all Protestants and this was widely perceived as a [[sectarian]] attack.<ref>pp. 219-220, ''The Long War'', Brendan O'Brien</ref>
Another four IRA members were killed in February 1992. The four, Peter Clancy, Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Sean O'Farrell and Patrick Vincent, were killed at [[Clonoe]] after an attack on the RUC station in [[Coalisland]]. Whereas the previous ambushes of IRA men had been well planned by British special forces, the Clonoe killings owed much to the inexperience of the IRA men in question. They had mounted a heavy [[DShK]] machine gun on the back of a stolen lorry, driven to the RUC/British Army station and opened fire with [[tracer]] ammunition at the fortified base. They then drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". This gave ample time for the British Army to respond. The IRA men were intercepted by the British Army as they were trying to dump the lorry and escape in cars in the car park of Clonoe [[Roman Catholic]] church. Two IRA men got away from the scene, but the four named above were killed. One witness has said that some of the men were wounded and tried to surrender but were then killed by British soldiers.<ref>{{cite book | last = O'Brien | first = Brendan | authorlink = Brendan O'Brien (Irish journalist) | title = ''The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin'' | publisher = O'Brien Press | date = 1999 | pages = pp. 232-235 | doi = | isbn = 0-86278-606-1}}</ref>
In addition, the IRA in Tyrone was the victim of an assassination campaign carried out by the loyalist paramilitaries of the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF). The UVF killed 40 people in east Tyrone between 1988 and 1994. Of these, most were Catholic civilians with no paramilitary connections but six were [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] members. Three of them were killed in a pub in [[Cappagh]] in March 1991. The IRA responded by killing senior UVF man and former UDR member [[Leslie Dallas]].<ref>p. 322, ''A Secret History'', [[Ed Moloney]]</ref><ref>[http://www.palacebarracksmemorialgarden.org/Ex%20Ulster%20Defence%20Regiment.htm#prof Palace Barracks Memorial Garden]</ref>
[[Image:FintonaMortarAttack.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Fintona]] RUC/Army base damaged by mortar fire, 27 December 1993.]]
An IRA bomb attack against British Paratroopers, also near Cappagh, during which a soldier lost both legs, triggered a series of clashes between troops and local residents in mid-May 1992. The riots lasted for several days, ending with the paratroopers' assault on three [[Bar (establishment)|bar]]s, where they injured seven civilians. Another street fracas between a [[King's Own Scottish Borderers]] platoon and Republican sympathizers in Coalisland resulted in the theft of an army machine gun, later recovered nearby.<ref>See the May 12 and May 17 entries at the 1992 CAIN chonology:
*[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm#prof May 1992]</ref>
Six Paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but they were later acquitted.
The Brigade was the first to use the ''Mark 15'' [[Barrack buster|Barrack-Buster mortar]] in an attack on 5 December 1992 against a police station in [[Ballygawley]].<ref>Smith, Steve (2006), ''3-2-1 Bomb Gone: Fighting Terrorist Bombers in Northern Ireland'', Sutton Publishing.</ref>
From mid-1992 up to the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army#Ceasefires and decommissioning of arms|1994 cease fire]], the Brigade was still able to keep pressure on British forces in the region, despite its heavy losses. The East Tyrone unit executed a total of eight mortar attacks against British security facilities and was also responsible for at least sixteen bombings and shootings, killing four members of the security forces during the same period.<ref>[http://www.uhb.fr/langues/Cei/chron93.htm#prof UHB], [http://www.uhb.fr/langues/Cei/chron94.htm#prof UHB]</ref>
==See also==
*[[Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Sources==
* Brendan O'Brien, ''The Long War-the IRA and Sinn Féin'', O'Brien Press (1999), ISBN 0-86278-606-1.
* [[Ed Moloney]], ''Secret History of the IRA'', W. W. Norton and Company (2002), ISBN 0-14-101041-X.
* Mark Urban, ''Big Boys' Rules'', Faber and Faber (1992), ISBN 0-571-16112-X
== External links ==
* [http://www.geocities.com/irishrebelmusic/111loughallambush.htm Folk song about the "Loughgall Martyrs"]
* [http://www.seamusrobinsonsongs.com/OLD%20%20CLONOE.htm Old Clonoe: ballad]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1312421.stm BBC News: IRA deaths: The four shootings]
* [http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/arts2001/pt-5-05-1.htm ''Daily Mail'' article]
[[Category:Provisional Irish Republican Army actions]]
[[Category:The Troubles in County Tyrone]]
[[Category:Provisional Irish Republican Army]]