The loyalist gang operating in east Tyrone at the time used several weapons between 1988 to 1994, including R18837. The ambush took place outside the village of Pomeroy. 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. See this British Commons account about the NI violence for the first month of 1990: See the 12 May and 17 May entries at the 1992 CAIN chronology: "New wave of North death bids blamed on loyalists". Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. They concluded that the SAS were justified in opening fire. [81] The facilities targeted by "Barrack Buster" mortars included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army border outpost at Aughnacloy,[82] the RUC barracks at Clogher[83] and Beragh,[82] both resulting in massive damage but no fatalities; two attacks on the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire in the second attack,[83][84] and the RUC compounds at Dungannon,[85] Fintona,[83] Carrickmore,[83] and Pomeroy. () The Association is committed to a shared future based on tolerance for the different identities and cultural backgrounds of people who share this Community and this island. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. In June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Peter Ryan and Tony Dorris were lured into yet another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was raked with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. 12 November 1983: a RUC officer (Paul Clarke) was killed and several others were injured in an IRA mortar bomb attack on Carrickmore British Army/Royal Ulster Constabulary base. [119] Two of the wounded were also off-duty UDR soldiers. 25 April 1987: an off duty British soldier (William Graham) was shot dead by the IRA at his family's farm, off Gortscraheen Road, near Pomeroy. [91][84], On 6 June 1993, an IRA unit converted a stolen van in a "mobile mortar launcher" in the area of Pomeroy and slipped through British forces' surveillance to the RUC barracks at Carrickmore. [68], At least two minor engagements occurred in the following weeks between members of the brigade and British Army foot patrols. There were no casualties. There were no injuries. [10] The first was an assault on Ballygawley base in December 1985. [23], A major IRA attack in County Tyrone took place on 20 August 1988, barely a year after Loughall, which ended in the deaths of eight soldiers when a British Army bus was destroyed by a bomb at Curr Road, near Ballygawley. On 3 September 2012 prominent Real IRA member Alan Ryan was shot dead in Dublin. On 22 June 1992, British troops exchange fire with snipers near Cookstown,[69][58] while a British soldier from the Coldstream Guards was seriously wounded in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. Ed Moloney, Irish journalist and author of the Secret History of the IRA, states that the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles, the highest of any rural Brigade area. They also claimed that during the follow-up search, British Army technicians defused with a controlled explosion a 50 pounds (23kg) mortar round, fired three years before. "[20], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. Simon Carswell. [38] Hamilton stated that there were no security or civilian casualties. I think a lot of the concerns are exaggerated, says Tommy McKearney, an IRA volunteer originally from Moy, in Co Tyrone, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier in 1976. This is the only concern for this area: how can we pacify them and stop them engaging in any violent activity? [112] On 11 May 1993, British security forces found and defused a horizontal mortar complete with warhead in Dungannon. The base was raked with gunfire and a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket was driven through the perimeter fence. [9], Mural commemorating those killed in the Loughgall Ambush, On 8 May 1987, at least eight members of the brigade launched another attack on the unmanned Loughgall RUC base. 26 February 1978: IRA Volunteer Paul Duffy was killed by the SAS in Coagh. [28] On 16 September 1989, a British sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals (Kevin Froggett) was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. In 1985 and 1986, the East Tyrone Brigade carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". Anybody who has ever fought in the Provisional IRA, as distinct to those who hid in the Provisional IRA, or joined after the ceasefires, will never live to see a united Ireland, he says. 25 Feb/23. [24], According to journalist Ed Moloney, Michael "Pete" Ryan, an alleged top Brigade's member, was the commander of the IRA flying column that attacked a permanent checkpoint at Derryard, County Fermanagh, on 13 December 1989. He thinks it would be silly of the British to build a hard Border again and potentially stir up those tensions. east tyrone brigade members. [97][58][98], A major ambush occurred on 12 December 1993 in Fivemiletown, when an RUC mobile patrol received intense cross fire from a brigade's active unit on the town's main street, and two constables were slain. Ed Moloney, Irish journalist and author of the Secret History of the IRA, states that the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles - the highest of any Brigade area. [44] Some republican sources[45] claim that a listening device was found in the roof of OFarrells house during repairs in 2008, exposing that the British intelligence had a forehand knowledge of the IRA operation at Coalisland and could have arrested them before the attack. [107][108], There were also a number of roadside bomb and mortar attacks thwarted by the security forces in east and south Tyrone in this period. The Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA, or rIRA) was a republican militant group that operated during and after the Troubles in Northern Ireland. [8] In April 1987 they shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main contractors to the British Army and the RUC in Northern Ireland. Simon Carswell. Quinn was then a senior member of the IRA's East Tyrone brigade. All eight members of the East Tyrone Brigade team were killed. A former IRA leader in east Tyrone has disputed claims that loyalists and republicans reached an "understanding" after a secret meeting in the early 1990s. They dont throw away remarks like that.. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident since the days of the Anglo-Irish War (19191922). McIntyre sees the argument that unionists would be better off economically in a united Ireland within the EU than they would in a post-Brexit UK as a crass case of economic reductionism. [17] The checkpoint was stormed and two British soldiers killed in action. "It was never going to be delivered by the normal means, by the Irish themselves, but it could come about through the break-up of the so-called United Kingdom," he says as he sits in an armchair in his living room, in front of shelves of history books that reflect his past studies at Trinity College Dublin and his background in teaching. The cops and the security services have been so on top of the armed republican groups that have been operating in the wake of the Provisional IRA. [101][102] The East Tyrone Brigade reported that they took over the area between the checkpoint and the border, set a roadblock, then drove a tractor carrying the mortar to the firing point and issued a 30-minute warning. [29][30] On 24 March 1990, there was a gunbattle between an IRA unit and undercover British forces at the village of Cappagh, County Tyrone, when IRA members fired at a civilian-type car driven by security forces, according to Archie Hamilton, then Secretary of State for Defence. 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 East Tyrone IRA saw its activities decline by the 1990s following repeated SAS ambushes. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. He is now president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Co Tyrone. One soldier was seriously wounded. May has said that the British do not want a return to the Border of old. Why would article 50 change that? [19] [21] Additionally, most of the attacks which took place in County Fermanagh during this period of the Troubles were also launched from south Tyrone and Monaghan. The level of IRA activity in the area did not show any real decline in the aftermath: in the two years prior to the Loughgall ambush the IRA killed seven people in East Tyrone and North Armagh, and eleven in the two years following the ambush. The facilities damaged by mortar bombs included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army outpost at Aughnacloy, the RUC barracks at Clogher and Beragh, both resulting in massive damage but no injuries, an overshot aimed at the RUC base in $3, which was also hit by gunfire, and the RUC stations at Carrickmore, Fintona and Pomeroy. On 1 January 1991, a British Army outpost was fired on by an IRA unit at Aughnacloy. Somebody who might find it difficult to smuggle because of a Border post might go out and shoot a Border-post official? The second attack was on the part-time station at The Birches, County Armagh, and it began by driving a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) 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. 5 July 1997: An IRA volunteer shot and seriously wounded an RUC female officer in the town of Coalisland during an attack on an armoured vehicle beside the Army/RUC base. Major George Shaw, a 57-year-old father of two, worked full-time for the MOD and was a part-time soldier. Wheres the insurrectionary energy going to come from? [80], From mid-1992 up to the 1994 cease fire, IRA units in east and south Tyrone carried out a dozen bomb and mortar attacks against RUC and military bases and assets. [17] The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. 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