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 (window.GTMLoaded === true) { The workers' bus was stopped and the one Catholic worker taken aside before the others were killed. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. show_spinner: false, When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. The South Armagh IRA were recognised as an independent entity by Provisionals from the mid-1970s, with the area notoriously dangerous for police and army operations. 3 April 1993 - A British soldier was shot and injured by the IRA near Crossmaglen, South Armagh. } He had just finished his last shift in the regiment when he was shot outside his home. In July last year Wilson and south Armagh man Sean Gerard Hughes were returned for trial to face counts of belonging to a proscribed organisation and addressing a meeting to encourage support for . return { !gigyaID ? Fri 19 Mar 1999 23.07 EST. He was the only IPLO member to die while attacking state forces. He along with another man were apparently intending to break into the supermarket when Harker was shot by members of a UDR patrol. 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. } else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('epaper-access') > -1) { 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. [37] A sustained machine gun attack against a helicopter was filmed by a Dublin television crew in March 1991 outside Crossmaglen Health Center. 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. The incident caused outrage among South Armagh residents, provided the IRA with many new recruits and created a hostile climate where local people were prepared to tolerate the killing of security force members. 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. OCFire Rescue. meteredAccess: purchase.metered_paywall, On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [21] Three months later, a further four RUC officers were killed by a 900 lb roadside bomb at Killean, County Armagh.[22]. const domain = '.independent.ie'; console.log('observer.observe failed:', e); 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. }; const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; return key.indexOf('granted_by_') > -1; Wed 17 Sep 2014 11.51 EDT. On 30 December 1990, Sinn Fin member and IRA volunteer,[30] Fergal Caraher, was killed by Royal Marines near a checkpoint in Cullyhanna. [59], A memorial garden was unveiled on 3 October 2010 in the village of Mullaghbawn, near Slieve Gullion mountain, with the names of 24 members of the South Armagh Brigade who died from different causes over the years inscribed upon a marble monument, along a bronze statue of Irish mythological hero C Chulainn. 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. He was married and had nine children. Raymond McCreesh, a South Armagh man, was among the ten republican hunger strikers who died for this goal in the 1981 hunger strike. [27] However, the South Armagh Brigade continued to carry out varied and high-profile attacks in the same period. return { Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. return grantedBy.indexOf(grant) > -1 return; [50], After the Provisional IRA announced its intention to disarm and accept peaceful methods in July 2005, the British government announced a full demilitarisation plan which included the closing of all British Army bases in South Armagh by 2007. Although from Armagh city, he was a member of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade. if (cookieValue) { The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army's SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. 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. 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. From that point onwards, the South Armagh \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25pc of their earnings to the \u0026#039;movement\u0026#039;. He was eventually killed during an attack on the RUC barracks in Keady in November 1973. [18] In August 1979, a South Armagh unit killed 18 soldiers in the Warrenpoint ambush. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . })(); Premium subscribers enjoy unlimited access to all articles. const cookieData = updateSubscriberCookie(event.detail.object); userID: '', 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. vars.user.subscriptionFinishDate = subscriberCookie.subscriptionFinishDate || ''; const cookieData = getSubscriptionStatus(purchase); window.showSubscriberElements) { 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. A sniper rifle and other weapons were recovered. 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. return { Orange County; Winter Garden; Seminole Street; 537 Seminole Street Winter Garden, FL 34787. vars.article.userWall = ! 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. window.loadGTM = function () { }; [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. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. 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. 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'. The customs building itself was later destroyed in an IRA bomb attack in 1986. South Armagh, however, where the close rural community and family connections of IRA men diminished the risk of infiltration, retained its larger "battalion" structure. There was no reaction from British security although the RUC/Army base was just 50 yards away. Neighborhood North of Turnpike Subdivision Pleasant Park. 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 (. The County of Orange closed the application period for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program on April 30, 2021. [47] The Omagh bombing of August 1998, a botched Real IRA operation which killed 29 civilians, was prepared by dissident republicans in South Armagh. The patrol then immediately fled the scene, the police (once informed) took over 4 hours to respond. It is within the Ring of Gullion and in the 2011 Census it had a recorded population of 498. 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? 24 February - Anne Marie Smyth, a 26-year-old Catholic mother of two from the Longstone estate in Armagh is murdered in east Belfast by the UVF after she attended what was meant to be a party in a loyalist area. This was the last action of the IRA Armagh Sniper teams. vars.article.wallVisible = 'false'; In 2014, an article appeared in the Sinn Fin newspaper, 17 December The Officer Commanding (OC) of the Armagh city Provisional IRA, 33-year-old Sean McIlvenna, is killed by the RUC in, 17 February Catholic prison officer Patrick Kerr is shot dead by the Provisional IRA on his 37th birthday as he left 10.30 a.m Mass with his children at, 21 February 30-year-old Catholic RUC member Frank Murphy is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at the gates of Drumsallen Primary School on the Battleford Road just outside Armagh city. if (flipPayJsUrl) { 8 November 17-year-old Protestant Trevor Foster dies in a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explosion meant for his father, a member of the UDR. subscriptionStartDate: purchase.granted_by_purchase.original_start_at, It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. 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. Unlike other operations in which the SAS were involved, members of the sniper team were not killed. 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. 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. subscriptionFinishDate: purchase.granted_by_purchase.finish_at, for (let i = 0, parts; (parts = cookies[i] && cookies[i].split('=')); i++) { const element = mutation.target; const updateSubscriberCookie = function (purchase) { [9] After the split in the IRA in that year, the South Armagh unit sided with the Provisional IRA rather than the Official IRA. document.body.addEventListener('fp_user_event', function (event) { He is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. 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. But the snipers also lost a number of their most skilled members, such as Mchel Caraher, who were arrested and imprisoned just weeks before the second ceasefire. He had just left Drumadd Barracks and was on his way to nearby. 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. 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. 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). window.dataLayer.push(vars); [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. The helicopter crashed while taking evasive manoeuvres after being fired at from the east side of Edenappa road. 24 March William Elliott, a-52-year old Protestant civilian from Ashley Gardens in the city is shot dead by the Provisional IRA in the village of, 15 August Norman Kerr, a 28-year-old Protestant from, 22 August The UVF's Glenanne Gang launched a gun and bomb attack on McGleenan's Bar on Upper English Street in the Shambles area of the city. 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