in Britain", "Closure of the Maze: All Out; Terrorist killers and bombers are freed from jail", "Murder verdicts quashed in Ulster sectarian killing", "AN IRISHMAN'S DIARY Kevin Myers on the Anne Marie Smyth case", "Lives lost in 'peace': Chris Thornton on Stephen Manners", "Two policemen killed in separate Ulster attacks", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Troubles_in_Armagh&oldid=1118192779, All Wikipedia articles written in Hiberno-English, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 14 August 1969 John Gallagher, a 30 year old married father of three children, became one of the first victims of the Troubles after being shot in the back by, 10 August Norman Watson, a 53 year old Protestant civilian and member of the, 29 March Ruby Johnson, a 38 year old Protestant civilian from Ballintemple near, 26 April Lawrence Jubb, a 22 year old soldier with the, 7 August In the third incident of its kind to take place within a small area of the city that year, Geoffrey Knipe, a 24 year old soldier from, 25 October John Michael Morrell, a 32 year old soldier from, 15 December Frederick Greeves, a 40 year old member of the, 18 December William Johnson, a 48 year old local elected councillor for the, 7 April Jake McGerrigan, a 17 year old member of the Official IRA, is shot dead in the Druid's Villas area by British troops of the, 9 April Two days after the death of Jake McGerrigan, his friend and fellow Official IRA man 20-year-old Tony Hughes is shot dead in nearby Culdee by members of the, 13 August William McIlveen, a 36 year old part-time member of the, 27 August Kenneth Hill, a 24 year old corporal in the UDR, is shot dead in a gun battle with the Provisional IRA in the Culdee area of the city. [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. He was married and had nine children. [19] This was the biggest single loss of life inflicted on the British Army in its deployment in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner). 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. '&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= window.GTMLoaded = false; if (isGrantedBy('whitelist_rule')) { 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 truck bombs were sent to England by ferry. [23] This incident was investigated by the Smithwick Tribunal into alleged collusion between the IRA and the Garda. [21] Three months later, a further four RUC officers were killed by a 900 lb roadside bomb at Killean, County Armagh.[22]. const selectedRegional = localStorage.getItem('selectedRegionals'); The owner of the farm was also arrested. 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. Other alleged illegal activities involve fraud through embezzlement of agricultural subsidies and false claims of property loss. When there, Ms Smyth was followed upstairs by five men, who savagely beat and strangled her. 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. const grantedBy = Object.keys(purchase).filter(function (key) { Wed 19 Mar 2003 20.45 EST. IN A SHOW OF SOLIDARITY with the McCabe family, republicans from across the country travelled to south Armagh to tell the criminals behind the attack which left Francis McCabe Junior badly injured last week that their activities are a disgrace. He had left the RUC 15 years previously and the police rejected an IRA claim that he had been identified as a UDR member who had taken part in recent house searches in the city. [28] By 1991, the RUC acknowledged that no mobile patrols had operated in South Armagh without Army support since 1975.[29]. [4], As well as paramilitary activity, the South Armagh Brigade has also been widely accused of smuggling across the Irish border. 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. The County of Orange closed the application period for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program on April 30, 2021. [1] Over the course of the Troubles, although mainly concentrated in the years from 1969 until 1994, the small city of around 15,000 people, including some outlying areas, saw 86 deaths, including those of a number of people from the city who lost their lives elsewhere in Troubles-related incidents.[2]. script.type = 'text/javascript'; } 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. Michael McKevitt and his wife Bernadette were evicted from their home near Dundalk. } else { Men from the area also took part in IRA campaigns in the 1940 and 1950s. Watch: Peter Crouch sings the Fields of Athenry with Liverpool fans in Dublin pub, Teachers union claims it was excluded from new pay talks, Jay Blades made chancellor of former university and receives honorary doctorate, Badenoch clashes with MPs over menopause discrimination law, Search teams using every resource they can in hunt for Constance Martens baby. (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': The new Irish Sea Border: What does it mean? return grantedBy.indexOf(grant) > -1 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. console.log('observer.observe failed:', e); @OCFireRescue. There was no reaction from British security although the RUC/Army base was just 50 yards away. 8 November Adrian Carroll, a 24-year-old. cookieValue = decodeURIComponent(cookieValue); Sources say that shortly before they were captured the team was given orders by the man not to carry any weapons when they were directed to a farm to collect their sniper rifle for an operation. 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. The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. return { 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. } [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. 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'. const getSubscriptionStatus = function (purchase) { 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. Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. A number of South Armagh IRA members were imprisoned by the end of the 1970s and took part in the blanket protest and dirty protest in pursuit of political status for IRA prisoners. })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-KJF4'); [24] As the divisional commander for South Armagh, Breen was the most senior policeman to have been killed during the Troubles. "The last armoured patrol in South Armagh, attacked in Crossmaglen October 1975 killing Cpl Gleeson. document.head.append(script); 28 March In an identical attack to the one that killed Derek Monteith, 58-year-old RUC member George Starrett is shot dead in the kitchen of his home on the Newry Road by the Provisional IRA. The latter is suspected of playing a role in the London bombings that marked the end of the IRA. const subscriberCookie = JSON.parse(getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'); [36] while in 1994 another Lynx and an RAF Puma were shot down in March and July respectively. } In case of an emergency, do not send message, dial 911. }; let cookieValue = parts.join('='); const subscriberCookieStatus = getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'; A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . 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. vars.user.subscriptionStatus = subscriberCookie.subscriptionStatus || ''; new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], 22 January Derek Monteith, a 35-year-old inspector in the RUC, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA in the kitchen of his home in Kilburn Park off the Portadown Road in the city. } 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. [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. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. const eventType = event.detail.event_type; Wed 17 Sep 2014 11.51 EDT. 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. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, [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. He had just left children back to the school after they had attended a quiz the, 1 January 1986 James McCandless (39) and Michael Williams (24), both members of the RUC, were killed by a Provisional IRA remote controlled bomb hidden in a litter bin in Thomas Street and detonated when their foot patrol passed by at one minute into the new year. The fierceness of the republicanism expressed by people like the local historians I spoke to is unsettling. return key.indexOf('granted_by_') > -1; 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. subtree: true, After that a struggle ensued in which Corrigan was shot at point-blank range in the head. According to Lost Lives, it is assumed that he was killed in retaliation for a UVF gun attack on a Catholic man in the city earlier that day. Fri 19 Mar 1999 23.07 EST. Welcome! if (parts.shift() === key) { script.src = flipPayJsUrl; 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. His body was recovered in Crossmaglen in south Armagh. } Five men, including one who was described by police in court as the UVF's East Belfast commander, and two women, were later jailed on various charges in connection with her death. This led to angry scenes as elected DUP members refused to stand. } 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. Robinson was a former member of the UDR. He is a close associate of the Provos\u0026#039; Border boss, Thomas \u0026#039;Slab\u0026#039; Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein.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.The Sunday Independent has learned that the South Armagh \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; was outed as a \u0026#039;tout\u0026#039; 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 \u0026#039;movement\u0026#039;. These squads were responsible for killing seven soldiers and two RUC members until the Caraher team was finally caught by the Special Air Service in April 1997. window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; His Catholic girlfriend was driving behind him in her car when the explosion happened. } He had just left Drumadd Barracks and was on his way to nearby. } [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. 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. The barrack buster, fired from the back of a local baker's delivery van, exploded on the helipad shortly after the pilot had managed to take off. Stock image. }; let flipPayConfig = { subscriptionStatus: 'Whitelist', It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA active service unit on armed operations. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, 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. [56][57] Some sources claim that the smuggling activities not only made the South Armagh brigade self-sustained, but also provided financial support to most of the IRA operations around Northern Ireland. const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; Dates in bold indicate a death by a sniper. // Regionals Container return; bundle: bundleValue, The IRA claimed that he was a member of the UDR, something that was denied by the police and army. Around this time IRA engineers in South Armagh pioneered the use of home-made mortars which were relatively inaccurate but highly destructive.[14]. 1,168 Following. Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. 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. const vars = JSON.parse('{"attributes":{"inmproduct":"amp","virtualview":"false"},"category":{"pageType":"Article","primaryCategory":"Irish News","regionals":"","sectionId":"77","subCategory1":"n\/a","subCategory2":"n\/a","subCategory3":"n\/a","subCategory4":"n\/a"},"page":{"pageName":"In:Irish News:South Armagh IRA rocked as \u0027OC\u0027 is outed as a \u0027tout\u0027","pageTitle":"South Armagh IRA rocked as \u0027OC\u0027 is outed as a \u0027tout\u0027","publication":"Independent.ie"},"user":{"gigyaID":"","subscriptionStatus":"","subscriptionStartDate":"","subscriptionFinishDate":"","userID":""},"article":{"articleID":"34944633","articleType":"News","articleLayout":"standard","author":"Jim Cusack","createdAt":"2016-08-06 22:16:02","modifiedAt":"2016-08-06 22:40:34","publishedAt":"2016-08-07 01:30:00","wallType":"none","wallVisible":"false","relatedContent":{"gallery":0,"news":3,"photos":1,"soundcloud":0,"videos":0},"source":"Sunday Independent","tags":"","topics":""}}' || '{}'); Message, dial 911 Crossmaglen in South Armagh, attacked in Crossmaglen in South Armagh }... 2003 20.45 EST local historians I spoke to is unsettling a death by a sniper,! 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