[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. [26], In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the IRA elsewhere in Northern Ireland found that nine out of ten planned operations were aborted. [4], As well as paramilitary activity, the South Armagh Brigade has also been widely accused of smuggling across the Irish border. 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. "Orde visit seen as farewell to Army", by Phillp Bradfield. }; He was identified as the IRA's chief technical officer by the Central Intelligence Agency. }; [11], During the early 1970s, the brigade was mostly engaged in ambushes of British Army patrols. } 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. $553 (2019) Beds. const domain = '.independent.ie'; The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. } The owner of the farm was also arrested. return { [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. return 'none'; if (flipPayJsUrl) { The 'OC' is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh. mutations.forEach((mutation) => { bundle: 'none', 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. 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. Let the message from south Armagh ring loud and clear to the occupation forces. A further 75 civilians were killed in the area during the conflict,[6] as well as ten South Armagh Brigade members. 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. bundle: bundleValue, 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. The following August, two RUC constables were killed by a car bomb in Crossmaglen. return; } else { His body was recovered in Crossmaglen in south Armagh. He was the only IPLO member to die while attacking state forces. [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. McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56. Hodder & Stoughton. } The \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh. Raymond McCreesh, a South Armagh man, was among the ten republican hunger strikers who died for this goal in the 1981 hunger strike. The team, which included Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghin O Caolain\u0026#039;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. 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. ","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/"}]} [5] Between 1970 and 1997 the brigade was responsible for the deaths of 165 members of British security forces (123 British soldiers and 42 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers). [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. 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 (. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. 'none' : 'registration'; [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. [39] By 1994, the only way for the British army to travel safely across South Armagh and some border areas of Tyrone and Fermanagh was on board troop-carrying Chinook helicopters.[40]. let bodyAvailable = false; cookieValue = decodeURIComponent(cookieValue); [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. In one such ambush in August 1972, a Ferret armoured car was destroyed by a 600lb landmine, killing one soldier. 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. }; It exploded as they ran to a getaway car, causing the building to collapse. Although the British army has tried to block the region's 370-mile border with Ireland,. He was due to retire in five weeks. 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. [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. 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. 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. Hair tattoos becoming increasingly popular among men in Ireland. Earlier in the day two large no-warning car bombs left by the loyalist. 31 July 1993 - A British Army mobile checkpoint was fired at by an IRA sniper at Newtownhamilton, County Armagh. } There were no injuries on either side. window.dataLayer.push(vars); He was driving his minibus when a car pulled up beside it and a gunman opened fire on him. On 7 August of that year, Harry Thornton, a 29-year-old sewage worker from South Armagh was shot and killed by the British Army while staying in a car outside Springfield Road base in Belfast, he and his coworker Arthur Murphy having been mistaken for gunmen. 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. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, window.showSubscriberElements = true; He was from Ashley Heights in the city and was a leading member of the Orange Order. This led to angry scenes as elected DUP members refused to stand. 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. The 'OC' is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh. The South Armagh IRA. The helicopter crashed while taking evasive manoeuvres after being fired at from the east side of Edenappa road. observer.observe(document, { 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. vars.user.subscriptionStartDate = subscriberCookie.subscriptionStartDate || ''; He had charge of the IRA\u0026#039;s Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 1990s.The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army\u0026#039;s SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. Harnden was held to be in contempt of the Bloody Sunday tribunal for . 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). subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.sku_code, 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. [23] This incident was investigated by the Smithwick Tribunal into alleged collusion between the IRA and the Garda. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('print_annual') > -1) { The men were taken out of their minibus and then . show_spinner: false, if (!! 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'. premium_content: false, return { A new full inquest is to be held into the IRA massacre of 10 Protestant workers shot dead in South Armagh in 1976. subscriptionFinishDate: '1111-11-11T11:11:11Z', It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA 'active service unit' on armed operations. } 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. Tweets & replies. !gigyaID ? 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;. Robinson was a former member of the UDR. This page was last edited on 13 July 2022, at 18:49. 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 . Says It Killed Tory M.P. He had charge of the IRA's Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 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. if (subscriberCookieStatus === "undefined") { He is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. const flipPayJsUrl = 'https://cdn.flip-pay.com/clients/inm/flip-pay.js'; const observer = new MutationObserver(onMutation); The mortar round hit and shot down the helicopter, serial number ZD275, [1] while it was hovering over the helipad. } subscriptionStartDate: '0000-00-00T00:00:00Z', if (isGrantedBy('purchase')) { }); Despite British watchtowers with sophisticated surveillance equipment across south Armagh from the mid-1980s, various ex-Irish and British security personnel agree that the . ","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. 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. Murphy was lightly wounded and arrested by the RUC. 23 April 38-year-old Protestant John Robinson is shot dead by the Provisional IRA outside the Mullacreevie estate. }; McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56. } subtree: true, The British patrol manning the checkpoint returned fire. 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. A . Michael McKevitt and his wife Bernadette were evicted from their home near Dundalk. A unit of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade fired a heavy improvised mortar at the British Army base in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The fierceness of the republicanism expressed by people like the local historians I spoke to is unsettling. 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 . 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. The South Armagh Brigade retaliated for the deaths of the hunger strikers by killing five British soldiers with a mine that destroyed their armoured vehicle near Bessbrook. 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Wed 19 Mar 2003 20.45 EST. Wed 17 Sep 2014 11.51 EDT. ", Sinn Fein ministers McGuinness and Murphy in illegal parade, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Provisional_IRA_South_Armagh_Brigade&oldid=1098002029. If you have already submitted an application for the ERA Program, a regional provider will follow-up with you directly and provide guidance on . const bundleValue = getBundleValue(purchase, 'app_purchase'); Neighborhood North of Turnpike Subdivision Pleasant Park. A British border patrol searches a lorry in 1969. }; [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. 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. Media. 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. The County of Orange closed the application period for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program on April 30, 2021. } document.head.append(script); const listenForFlipPayEvents = function () { try { script.type = 'text/javascript'; 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. (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': 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. The new Irish Sea Border: What does it mean? window.GTMLoaded = true; 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. 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 gigyaID = getCookie('guid'); 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. He along with another man were apparently intending to break into the supermarket when Harker was shot by members of a UDR patrol. Bandit Country. He was the 267th RUC officer to die in the Troubles. const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; [28] By 1991, the RUC acknowledged that no mobile patrols had operated in South Armagh without Army support since 1975.[29]. At that moment, a gun battle was taking place on the ground between British soldiers and members of the South Armagh Brigade. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('premium-plus') > -1) { Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images "And almost overnight the smugglers of South Armagh, under the control of the IRA, started bulk-buying . 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. bodyAvailable) { 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. } userID: purchase.granted_by_corporate_account.user_id, The patrol then immediately fled the scene, the police (once informed) took over 4 hours to respond. subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_purchase.sku_code, [60], "The Saracen armoured car blown up by a culvert bomb at Lurganculleboy, near Crossmaglen in October 1975, killing Corporal Edward Gleeson. Whilst security forces arrested some south Armagh republicans in 1997, republican . if (window.GTMLoaded === true) { His hands had been tied behind his back and his eyes taped closed at Central. 24 February - Reginald Williamson, a 46-year-old RUC member from Armagh, is killed when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car near the village of Loughgall. 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. 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. In September 1975 they attacked an Orange lodge in Newtownhamilton, killing five members of the lodge. userID: '', return 'premium'; 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. return cookieValue; } Watch: Peter Crouch sings the Fields of Athenry with Liverpool fans in Dublin pub, Senior Tory begrudgingly backs Sunaks bitter pill Brexit deal as DUP split over support, 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. Elliott was press officer for the Armagh branch of the. observer.disconnect(); [9] After the split in the IRA in that year, the South Armagh unit sided with the Provisional IRA rather than the Official IRA. 15/11/1974 Michael McVerry O.C. [25], South Armagh became the most heavily militarised area in Northern Ireland. Around this time IRA engineers in South Armagh pioneered the use of home-made mortars which were relatively inaccurate but highly destructive.[14]. It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. if (vars.article.wallType === 'registration') { South Armagh, however, where the close rural community and family connections of IRA men diminished the risk of infiltration, retained its larger "battalion" structure. South Armagh IRA rocked as 'OC' is outed as a 'tout', 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 man is said to have bought another substantial portion of farmland in Armagh. vars.article.wallVisible = 'false'; Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan were returning from a meeting with the Garda Sochna in the Republic of Ireland, where they had been discussing a range of issues including ways of combating IRA attacks on the cross-border rail link, when they were ambushed. Orange County, Florida ocfrd.com Joined May 2013. 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. [10], However, the IRA campaign in the area did not begin in earnest until 1971. 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.