OCFire Rescue. 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. } if (isGrantedBy('purchase')) { const cookieData = updateSubscriberCookie(event.detail.object); [23] This incident was investigated by the Smithwick Tribunal into alleged collusion between the IRA and the Garda. vars.user.subscriptionStartDate = subscriberCookie.subscriptionStartDate || ''; vars.article.wallVisible = ! It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. 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. Travelling overland in South Armagh eventually became so dangerous that the British Army began using helicopters to transport troops and supply its bases - a practice that had to be continued until the late 1990s. [45], In 1997, several members of the South Armagh Brigade, based in Jonesborough and Dromintee, following Michael McKevitt, left the Provisional IRA because of its acceptance of the Mitchell Principles of non-violence at a General Army Convention in October of that year and formed a dissident grouping, the Real IRA, which rejected the peace process. const isGrantedBy = function (grant) { 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. bundle: bundleValue, This led to angry scenes as elected DUP members refused to stand. observer.disconnect(); }; Many of the major IRA bombs in England this decade, including Canary Wharf. [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. [60], "The Saracen armoured car blown up by a culvert bomb at Lurganculleboy, near Crossmaglen in October 1975, killing Corporal Edward Gleeson. The \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh. 17 June 34-year-old Geraldine Corrigan died two days after being shot by what is thought to have been a member of the Official IRA during a botched robbery at her family's supermarket on the Cathedral Road. Shortly afterwards, the Army abandoned road transport in South Armagh." vars.category.regionals = selectedRegional || ''; meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images "And almost overnight the smugglers of South Armagh, under the control of the IRA, started bulk-buying . [25], South Armagh became the most heavily militarised area in Northern Ireland. Whilst security forces arrested some south Armagh republicans in 1997, republican . let flipPayConfig = { Despite British watchtowers with sophisticated surveillance equipment across south Armagh from the mid-1980s, various ex-Irish and British security personnel agree that the . In 1984, his son-in-law Herbert Burrows will be killed in an IRA booby-trap explosion close to the scene of Wilson's death. Hodder & Stoughton. 3 May 56-year-old Robert Orr, an ex-member of the RUC, is killed when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car as he drove along the Mall in the centre of Armagh. show_spinner: false, Since then the security forces travel by helicopter for security reasons.". } 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. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. 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. script.type = 'text/javascript'; script.src = flipPayJsUrl; })(); Premium subscribers enjoy unlimited access to all articles. script.async = true; subscriptionFinishDate: purchase.granted_by_purchase.finish_at, [37] A sustained machine gun attack against a helicopter was filmed by a Dublin television crew in March 1991 outside Crossmaglen Health Center. } const updateSubscriberCookie = function (purchase) { const getBundleValue = function (purchase, purchaseType) { These bases acted as information-gathering centres and also allowed the British Army to patrol South Armagh more securely. The South Armagh IRA. It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56. He was from Ashley Heights in the city and was a leading member of the Orange Order. 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. [33][34], The South Armagh Brigade was by far the most effective IRA brigade in shooting down British helicopters during the conflict. Neighborhood North of Turnpike Subdivision Pleasant Park. 13 April 38-year-old Territorial Army sergeant Trevor Elliott from Alexander Gardens in the city is shot dead by the Provisional IRA as he walked from his shop in Keady, south Armagh. // Stop listening for mutations once we know this listener has been registered. if (isGrantedBy('app_purchase')) { vars.user.gigyaID = gigyaID || ''; He was due to retire in five weeks. T uesday marked. [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. He had been in the garden of an RUC member's house and was getting ready to launch an attack on him when undercover soldiers shot him during a gun-battle. The OC of the Southern Command is said to be a man living in the Tallaght area of Dublin. window.loadGTM(); // Check window.dataLayer object or create. The normalisation process, negotiated under the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement in exchange for the complete decommissioning of IRA weaponry, was one of the main goals of the republican political strategy in the region. } Harnden, Toby (1999). }; const onMutation = function (mutations) { [2] It has allegedly been commanded since the 1970s by Thomas 'Slab' Murphy who is also alleged to be a member of the IRA's Army Council. const script = document.createElement('script'); She left behind a husband and three children. (function () { 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. It is not clear how the \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; 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. Elliott was press officer for the Armagh branch of the. The man is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy (pictured), Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. }; [19] This was the biggest single loss of life inflicted on the British Army in its deployment in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner). subscriptionStatus: 'Whitelist', meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, 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. 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. 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'. 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. return 'home-delivery'; Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. Hair tattoos becoming increasingly popular among men in Ireland. ","isAccessibleForFree":"True","isPartOf":{"@type":["CreativeWork","Product"],"name":"Independent.ie","productID":"independent.ie:showcase"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Independent.ie","item":"https://m.independent.ie/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Irish News","item":"https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/"}]} The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. userID: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.user_id, He is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-KJF4'); Receive today's headlines directly to your inbox every morning and evening, Please check your inbox to verify your details, North coast fragrance company to be stocked in high-end Dublin stores, David Beckham enjoys pint with son Cruz on birthday visit to Dublin, Jamie Dornan to return as The Tourist, and this time hes in Ireland, Bad news for Banshees as SAG awards traditionally a good indicator of Oscar success, Enda Kenny on road to recovery after operation to remove cancer, Enoch Burkes fines rise to 22,400 as he turns up to school again, Boy convicted of Dublin murder was a ticking time bomb, says psychologist on what makes a child a killer, We have to be careful we dont give all the spotlight to the racists Tnaiste Michel Martin interview, Brooke Scullion visits former school with Dancing with the Stars partner Robert Rowinski, Irish Peacemaker bishop was asleep in bed when shot dead in Los Angeles home, DCI John Caldwell: Two further arrests made in attempted murder investigation, Saoradh posts police officers picture and name after stop and search dispute, RBAI produce stunning second half display to see off Wallace and reach Schools Cup Final, Sammy Wilson criticises Windsor Framework and very dangerous King Charles meeting, Thug bailed days before murdering father-of-four Pat Ward, Rihanna has sparked a conversation about our role and rights when pregnant say NI working mums, Im being held hostage by my newborn baby who seems to know Im out of my depth, My moment of zen in Murlough Bay on the Causeway Coast, Portadown man in court accused of murdering three-year-old son, Four arrested in relation to DCI Caldwells attempted murder released unconditionally, DUPs Gregory Campbell calls on rigorous implementer parties to accept they were wrong about NI Protocol, DCI John Caldwell: The New IRA threat after Omagh shooting. [32] On 22 April 1993, the South Armagh IRA unit took control of the village of Cullaville near the border with the Republic, for two hours, making good use of dead ground. The dead man was a World War II veteran and had taken part in the. The gunmen then escaped in a Ford Cortina which was found abandoned a short time later in the Windmill Hill area of the city. [31] The South Armagh Brigade also built the bombs that were used to wreck economic targets in London during the 1990s, specially hitting the financial district. Originally from. [9] After the split in the IRA in that year, the South Armagh unit sided with the Provisional IRA rather than the Official IRA. const gigyaID = getCookie('guid'); 30 July Martin Malone, an 18-year-old unarmed Catholic civilian, is shot dead by a UDR patrol in the Callan Street area. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. bundle: 'none', }); Discover your full benefits as a Premium subscriber. [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. if (isGrantedBy('whitelist_rule')) { }; 27 November 34-year-old former RUC member John Martin is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at his filling station on the Mall. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. 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 (. $312,000 (2022) Assessed Value. 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":""}}' || '{}'); ","articleBody":"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. He was the only IPLO member to die while attacking state forces. 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. South Armagh has long been the IRA stronghold and any defections would be a devastating blow to the leadership. Subsequently, the British Army gave up the use of roads to the IRA in South Armagh. He had just finished his last shift in the regiment when he was shot outside his home. document.cookie = subscriberCookieName + "= ; path=/;domain=" + domain + ";expires = Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT"; ", Sinn Fein ministers McGuinness and Murphy in illegal parade, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Provisional_IRA_South_Armagh_Brigade&oldid=1098002029. 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. item_group_code: "pfc_indo", The owner of the farm was also arrested. [10], However, the IRA campaign in the area did not begin in earnest until 1971. 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? The workers' bus was stopped and the one Catholic worker taken aside before the others were killed. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired a heavy improvised mortar at the British Army base in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. Web Site Copyright 1995-2023 WGBH Educational Foundation. bundle: bundleValue, return 'premium'; Overall, the South Armagh Sniper operation carried out by the IRA was one of the most successful operations of that era of the troubles. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('premium-plus') > -1) { document.cookie = subscriberCookieName + "=" + JSON.stringify(cookieData) + ';path=/;domain=' + domain + ';max-age='+cookieExpiryInSeconds; vars.article.userWall = 'none'; vars.user.userID = subscriberCookie.userID || ''; 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. 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. A British border patrol searches a lorry in 1969. When he was 17 he had witnessed his father Peter Corrigan, a Sinn Fin member, being shot dead by the UVF in the city. window.GTMLoaded = false; Following intelligence that the IRA were using farms as bases of operations / weapons caches, the Police, assisted by Army intelligence operatives, began a series of surveillance and search operations. [24] As the divisional commander for South Armagh, Breen was the most senior policeman to have been killed during the Troubles. Lost Lives, the chronology which attempts to list the name of everyone who died in the Troubles, mistakenly claims that the bombing occurred in, 16 June Terence McKeever, a 31-year-old Armagh businessman is abducted and then shot dead by the Provisional IRA, with his body being left near the village of, 21 March INLA member Kevin Barry Duffy is shot dead in the grounds of, 25 September 22-year-old UDR member Stephen McKinney is shot dead by the Provisional IRA on the Cabragh Road on the outskirts of Armagh. return 'premium-plus'; 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. } The helicopter crashed while taking evasive manoeuvres after being fired at from the east side of Edenappa road. 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. South Armagh became the most heavily militarised area in Northern Ireland. 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. 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. 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. Rory Finnis, 21, from Derry, who was found dead in June 1991. From that point onwards, the South Armagh 'OC' and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25pc of their earnings to the 'movement'. There were no injuries on either side. if (eventType === 'access_resolved' || eventType === 'access_resolved ') { 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. }).map(function (key) { const cookieData = getSubscriptionStatus(purchase); } vars.article.wallVisible = 'false'; !gigyaID ? Earlier in the day two large no-warning car bombs left by the loyalist. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA 'active service unit' on armed operations. }; It was one of the few times the SAS didn\u0026#039;t shoot members of an IRA \u0026#039;active service unit\u0026#039; on armed operations. 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. Media. A farm complex by the village of Crossmaglen in South Armagh fell under suspicion and was put under surveillance. . 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. [16] While loyalist attacks on Catholics temporarily declined afterwards and many Protestants became more reluctant to help the UVF, the massacre caused considerable controversy in the republican movement. 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. if (element.tagName === 'BODY' && ! He was driving his minibus when a car pulled up beside it and a gunman opened fire on him. "Orde visit seen as farewell to Army", by Phillp Bradfield. bodyAvailable) { Men from the area also took part in IRA campaigns in the 1940 and 1950s. window.dataLayer.push(vars); return { 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. const subscriberCookieName = 'subscriber'; 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 . 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. Wed 17 Sep 2014 11.51 EDT. The single Mk-15 mortar bomb landed 40 yards (37m) short of the perimeter fence. The latter is suspected of playing a role in the London bombings that marked the end of the IRA. [26] 1990s [ edit] The British patrol manning the checkpoint returned fire. return grantedBy.indexOf(grant) > -1 Burrows came from Ballinahone Avenue in the city. userID: '', [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. console.log('observer.observe failed:', e); South Armagh is a strange place for this Northern-born Protestant and Dublin resident, albeit one who was active in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in the 1960s and is a proud Irish citizen. 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. 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.

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