[121], IRA volunteers in Tyrone were the target of an assassination campaign carried out by the loyalist paramilitaries of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He voted for Brexit in the hope that it would lead to a united Ireland through the disintegration of the UK. The same source reported that a British helicopter, a military ambulance and ground troops arrived to the scene shortly after, and that local residents believed that two soldiers had been wounded. A soldier was seriously wounded. [22] On 16 September 1989, a British Sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. [99][116] Another fatality was a Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier, Private Christopher Wren, slain when off-duty by the blast of a booby-trap planted in his car. McGeough is a supporter of the peace process and now president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Co Tyrone. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. The bomb exploded ten minutes later, destroying the barracks. 1st Battalion, the Staffordshire Regiment, A major ambush occurred on 12 December 1993 in Fivemiletown, Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign 19691997, "Bomb disposal experts Sunday probed an abandoned truck for", "SAS shooting 'destroyed deadly IRA unit', Loughgall terrorist could not have been arrested, "GAA distances itself from IRA commemorations", "Calculating, professional enemy that faces KOSB", "Land Mine Kills 7 (sic) British Soldiers on Bus in Ulster", "IRA Claims Killing of 8 Soldiers As It Steps Up Attacks on British", "Ex-Para 'led attack by IRA which killed Scots soldiers'", "Fears of new IRA atrocity after attack on helicopter", "Cappagh (Incident) (Hansard, 3 May 1990)", "21 die, hundreds injured in Philippine new year revelry", Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992-UTV news, CAIN Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992 BBC News, 5 March 1992, "I.R.A. Three of the four are convicted killers or have served time in relation to a killing. Photographs: Simon Carswell. 7 February 1976: Two Protestant teenagers, Rachel and Robert McLernon (aged 18 and 16, respectively), were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb, intended for members of the security forces, which had been hidden in an abandoned crashed car, Tyresson Road, 3 December 1977: RUC car ambushed by IRA gunmen firing automatic weapons at Clover Hill Bridge on Benburb Road near. [77], The commander in chief of the brigade,[78] Kevin MacKenna, was also appointed 'chief of staff' of the IRA in 1983. 8 July 1997: A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, leading to a bomb alert. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. Her extradition from Northern Ireland was refused in 2007. [88][89], The RUC security base at Caledon became the target of the "Barrack Busters" twice. [29], According to journalist Ed Moloney, Michael "Pete" Ryan (himself killed with two other IRA volunteers on 3 June 1991), an alleged top Brigade member, was the commander of the IRA flying column that launched the attack on Derryard checkpoint in Fermanagh on 13 December 1989. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. . [16] 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. [60], From mid-1992 up to the 1994 cease fire, IRA units in east and south Tyrone executed a total of eight mortar attacks against police and military facilities and were also responsible for at least 16 bombings and shootings. [78], On 30 March 1993, one of the brigade units claimed they thwarted a British undercover operation by detonating an explosive device in the Glen, between Loughmacrory and Mountfield, near the spot where the British personnel were hidden. Patrick Joseph Kelly (19 March 1957 - 8 May 1987), was the Commander of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the mid-1980s until his death in a Special Air Service ambush at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987. That was not to do with economics. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. [39] A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. 4 December 1983: Colm McGirr (23) and Brian Campbell (19), both members of the East Tyrone Brigade, were shot dead by an undercover British Army soldier whilst approaching an arms dump in a field near Coalisland. They brought peanuts and fed the squirrels, he says.. He recalls the EEC No signs that accompanied Brits Out graffiti around Monaghan when he was growing, up in the 1970s. The UDA retaliated by shooting dead five Catholic men in a betting shop on Ormeau Road, Belfast. The Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA, or rIRA) was a republican militant group that operated during and after the Troubles in Northern Ireland. List of aircraft of the Malaysian Armed Forces, List of actions from 1996 up to the latest PIRA ceasefire, Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the. In the aftermath of the bombing, on 9 May, a sergeant mayor of the 1st Battalion, the Staffordshire Regiment was shot and killed by a soldier of his company in a blue-on-blue incident at the same spot, while taking part of a security detail around the devastated base. [111] Nationalist politician Bernardette Devlin McAliskey suggested that the recovery of the machine gun was actually staged by the security forces as a publicity stunt. Tommy's older brother Sean was killed in May 1974 when a bomb he was planting at a petrol station outside Dungannon exploded prematurely. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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. But they wanted to form a rival force that could have wrecked all peace hopes, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 25 Feb/23. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". Next to the living-room window, with its panoramic views of the farmland and gorse-filled hedgerows of this part of the Border, is an imposing portrait that shows the tradition of agrarian agitation McGeough hails from. Three other RUC officers who were in the building fled through a back door. CAIN lists Boyd as a Protestant civilian. No casualties were reported. He would later serve as a member of Fianna Fil during the 1930s. [26] On 30 August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment member near Carrickmore. Major Shaw died at the scene. These are among the surprising views expressed by a number of former hard men of republicanism, interviewed by The Irish Times for their unique insights into the thorny issues of Brexit and Northern Irelands future. Death made heroes of the Loughgall eight. They were active in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the Troubles, and for three of them much of that activity took place along the Border. 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. Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. [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. 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. Six IRA members from a supporting unit managed to escape. You might have someone taking a potshot sometime, but if you are talking about a serious insurgency or a serious campaign, anything that remotely emulates the Provisional IRAs campaign, it is not going to happen. After breaking from Sinn Fin he stood as an independent republican in the 2007 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. I dont see that., It is going to be very embarrassing for a lot of Irish political parties that almost pretended that partition was going. The standout example is the SAS shooting of eight East Tyrone IRA members whilst the IRA attacked Loughgall RUC station in 1987. [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. [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. That same year, the Sinn. In the 1980s, the IRA in East Tyrone and other areas close to the border, such as South Armagh, were following a Maoist military theory[8] devised for Ireland by Jim Lynagh, a high-profile member of the IRA in East Tyrone (but a native of County Monaghan). Certainly, I think we can rule out the idea of a hard Border with British troops on the Border. e The Troubles The Coagh Ambush was a controversial incident that took place on 3 June 1991, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit from the East Tyrone Brigade was ambushed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in the village of Coagh, County Tyrone. The operation. Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. The 12 May riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. That was a security situation. 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. The group were also responsible for the . Why would article 50 change that? says McKearney. The New Irish Republican Army, or New IRA, . [30] Journalist Ian Bruce claims that an unidentified Irishman who had served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. There were four members of the Provisionals from East Tyrone searching my house, and they . [95] The fortified[96] courthouse in Cookstown was meanwhile damaged by two bombs planted there on 15 October 1993. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. Wheres the insurrectionary energy going to come from? In May 1987, for instance, the SAS shot eight East Tyrone IRA volunteers whilst they attacked Loughgall . 7 December 1985: during an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley, the IRA killed two RUC officers (Reserve Constable William Clements and Constable George Gilliland) and destroyed the barracks with a large bomb. [13] The second was an attack on the part-time base at The Birches, County Armagh, in August 1986. We have been neglected, McKearney says, citing patchy broadband in parts of Co Monaghan as an example. [55][56][57], Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but they were acquitted in 1993. [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. [18] In August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin. [5] The first was an assault on Ballygawley barracks. The. It is believed to have drawn its membership from across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as north County Monaghan and south County Londonderry.[2]. The fourth was imprisoned for offences that included attempted murder. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in The Birches attack. Lynagh, a fellow republican, served eight years, from 1982 to 1990, in Portlaoise Prison over a charge related to the killing of a nightclub bouncer in Monaghan in 1981. However, he was brought up in . Fresh claims about the meeting have. [113] An IRA man was taken in custody in Newtownstewart, west Tyrone, on 10 July 1993, after being injured during a mishap while testing an improvised mortar in a barn near Dungannon. "[20], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. Orangeism and Britishness in Northern Ireland. Anthony McIntyre, an IRA man turned writer and historian who is another supporter of the peace process but critic of Sinn Fin, fails to see how a hard Brexit would fuel any new armed campaign, given that it was not the Border that brought the Provisional IRA into existence but the response in Belfast and Derry to the British armys behaviour when it came to the North. He is now president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Co Tyrone. 13 July 1984: IRA Volunteer Willie Price was killed by the SAS while carrying out an incendiary bomb attack on a factory in Ardboe. IRA veterans Brexit feature - pix Colm Lynagh and Tommy McKearneyFormer republican prisoner Colm Lynagh (left) and former Provisional IRA hunger striker Tommy McKearney in Monaghan Town. The unit dispersed after setting on the mortar's timer. He does not see republican militarism rising up again over a post-Brexit hardening of the Border or a customs presence on country Border roads, although he does believe that it would hit an atavistic nerve among people who have grown accustomed to freedom of movement across the Border. [68], At least two minor engagements occurred in the following weeks between members of the brigade and British Army foot patrols. McGeough points to the "huge statement" last week by David Davis, the UK's Brexit secretary formally, secretary of state for exiting the European Union who said that Northern Ireland would not have to reapply for EU membership as a new state if it voted for reunification with the Republic. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. The South Armagh area was considered to be a liberated zone already, since British troops and the RUC could not use the roads there for fear of roadside bombs and long-range harassing fire. The fear that a hard Border along the UK's only land frontier with the EU could stir tensions in Northern Ireland has focused minds not only in Belfast, Derry and Dublin but also in London and Brussels. [92] The projectile landed within the grounds of the base, causing some damage according to the RUC. [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. We are an unruly people, and if there is an opportunity to be unruly again we will take it, but it will not be violence. GAA Central Council official reply was that "The GAA has strict protocols and rules in place regarding the use of property for Political purposes. 8 July 1997: A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, where there was a bomb alert. [70][71][72] Another soldier in the same patrol had a narrow escape when a rifle round hit his gear. As well as RAAD, the alliance includes an east Tyrone group thought to be responsible for killing PSNI officer Ronan Kerr in 2011, . [12], The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. [5] Lynagh's plans met strong criticism from senior brigade member Kevin McKenna, who regarded the strategy as "too impractical, too ambitious, and not sustainable" in the words of journalist Ed Moloney. Now he has a doctorate in political science and writes a lively blog, the Pensive Quill, firing off opinions on the peace process, among other topics, and offering a platform to others. 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". Lynagh and McKearney were the driving force behind most IRA murders in Tyrone and many others in the neighbouring counties for at least a decade prior to the Loughgall incident. . 2 May 1974: Up to 40 members from the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade attacked the isolated 6 UDR Deanery base in Clogher, County Tyrone with machine gun and RPG fire resulting in the death of Private Eva Martin, a UDR Greenfinch, the first female UDR soldier to be killed by enemy action. Nevertheless, IRA activities continued in parts of Down, Fermanagh, north and mid-Armagh by August 1994. 7 September 1981: two RUC officers (Mark Evans and Stuart Montgomery) were killed when their patrol vehicle struck an IRA landmine at Sessadonaghy, near. They don't throw away remarks like that. Simon Carswell. McGeough sees the Troubles as ostensibly a failure, but the UK government does not want a return to those days any more than anybody on our side does. [115][64] Among them there were Constable Andrew Beacom and Reserve Constable Ernest Smith, the two RUC members ambushed and shot dead while driving a civilian type vehicle in Fivemiletown's main street on 12 December 1993. 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. They are saying to us: if you want to go down that road we are not going to step in your way. 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. [22] The checkpoint was stormed using an improvised armoured truck and two British soldiers (James Houston and Michael Patterson) were killed in action. They had mounted a heavy DShK machine gun on the back of a stolen lorry, driven right to the RUC/British Army station and opened fire with tracer ammunition at the fortified base at point-blank range, when the long-range of the weapon would enable them to fire from a safe distance. The oldest child in a Catholic family of five, Kelly was born in the largely Protestant town of Carrickfergus. The British Army claimed that the mortar round exploded in a bog just outside the perimeter fence, while the IRA unit said that the bomb landed in the grounds of the barracks. The East Tyrone Brigade members killed at Loughgall in 1987 consisted of: * Commander Patrick Kelly (aged 30) * Jim Lynagh (aged 31) * Pdraig McKearney (aged 32) * Declan Arthurs (aged 21) * Seamus Donnelly (aged 19) * Eugene Kelly (aged 25) * Gerry O'Callaghan (aged 29) * Tony Gormley (aged 25) Eugene Kelly Of these, 28 were killed between 1987 and 1992. As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. On 11 May 1993, an IRA militant pretending to be a motorist that had been asked to show his licence at the barracks left a van carrying a mortar outside the facilities. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! Leading `Real IRA' member is shot dead in Ballymurphy. This is not a land of milk and honey under the European Union. [120] The IRA said that the workers were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". [34], On 4 March 1990, ten IRA volunteers launched an assault on the RUC station at Stewartstown using an improvised flamethrower consisting of a manure-spreader towed by a tractor to spray 600 imperial gallons (2,700L) of a petrol/diesel mix to set the base ablaze, and then opened up with rifles and an RPG-7 rocket launcher. East Tyrone IRA members Pete Ryan, Lawrence McNally and Tony Doris were shot dead in the village of Coagh in June 1991 in an operation believed to involve the SAS. He was arrested in 1988 for crossing the Dutch-German border with AK-47 rifles in the boot of his car and charged with attacks on British soldiers based in Germany. He thinks it would be silly of the British to build a hard Border again and potentially stir up those tensions. [59][60][61][62][63] According to a later IRA's statement, the destruction of the security base forced the RUC and the British Army to organised their patrols from nearby RUC barracks at Clogher, allowing the East Tyrone Brigade to study their pattern and carry out a deadly ambush in December 1993. Even a few customs posts stopping HGVs crossing the Border would not change that, McKearney says. Six attackers gathered on the same spot afterwards. Several people was evacuated, and the bomb disposal squad struggled 10 hours to defuse the device. 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. The New IRA claimed responsibility for a potentially lethal bomb discovered under the car of a police officer at a golf club in east Belfast in June 2019. But the reality is that it is going to be more and more obvious, Lynagh says. 2 February 1996: The house of a part-time member of the RUC was riddled with gunfire in Moy. It is of his great-grandfather Henry McGeough, a member of the Ribbonmen, the 19th-century society of often violent Catholic rebels. 9 July 1997: IRA gunmen hijacked and burned a number of vehicles at Dungannon. The former IRA volunteer served 18 years in the Maze prison for the murder of a UVF man in Belfast in February 1976. Loughgall ambush 8th of May 1987 SAS Ambush Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS. The soldiers were being transported from RAF Aldergrove to a military base near Omagh after returning from leave in England. [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. Brexit may prove a catalyst for a much earlier withdrawal, he says, as he knows Protestants who are soft Irish nationalists and farmers who do not want to lose EU subsidies. Five Sinn Fin cumainn, and 90% of the East Tyrone Brigade, left in the move. Brexit will not lead to a return to bloodshed in Northern Ireland, says one Provisional IRA veteran. [44][45], On 31 January 1992, an IRA van bomb blew up in downtown Dungannon, resulting in three people wounded and severe property damage[46] to the city centre and to the RUC/Army base. On 30 August, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment member near Carrickmore. I know from the old days there were very few people willing to do the business of fighting. A support vehicle further compromised the getaway by flashing its emergency lights. This was in response to a complaint from Democratic Unionist Party Assemblyman William McCrea accusing the GAA of turning a blind eye to "republican terrorist" events in the last years. It was the biggest single loss of life for the republican movement during the conflict. There were no injuries. They dont throw away remarks like that.. [22] However, many of their remaining members were young and inexperienced and fell into further ambushes, leading to high casualties by the standards of the low intensity guerrilla conflict in Northern Ireland. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no known paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. Gerry McGeough is a prominent republican and former member of the provisional IRA and now a farmer in Co. Tyrone. The armed vehicle crossed the border after the engagement. Unionist opposition to a united Ireland is, as he sees it, considerably stronger than nationalist opposition to staying within the UK if treated equally. There may be little bits here and there, or attempts here and there, but nothing significant.. [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. [107] On 30 July 1993, a 20 pounds (9.1kg) device was uncovered by security forces in Pomeroy, and one man was arrested. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads near Cookstown. Stephen Fuller (d. 1984), a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence and fought with Anti-Treaty forces during the Irish Civil War (1922-23). The unit, moving on two vehicles from the townland of Turnabarson, managed to snake into a heavy patrolled area to the firing point on Station Road and launched the shell by timer from a range of 70 yards (64m). 5 February 1997: An IRA unit fired a horizontal mortar at a British patrol on Newell Road in Dungannon. The 12 May's riots ended with the paratroopers' assault on three bars, where they injured seven civilians. Both share left-wing views and believe that the interests of Border counties are not being well served by the European Union. [10][11] It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. He would later serve as a member of Fianna Fil during the 1930s. A third former republican paramilitary suggests that Ireland would be better off in an economic bloc with the UK rather than with the European Union. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. Not far from that Border town is the home of Gerry McGeough, a former IRA man who calls himself a traditional republican rather than a dissident. He pours cold water on the possibility of a nationalist majority in the North voting for Irish reunification in light of the unionists losing their majority for the first time in last months Assembly elections. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. [53][54], Another IRA bomb attack against British troops, near Cappagh, during which a paratrooper lost both legs, triggered a series of clashes between soldiers and local residents in the staunchly republican town of Coalisland, on 12 and 17 May 1992. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. 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. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during its campaign. The embarrassment is that a customs man might arrive and show that there is a Border.. [51], The Fintona RUC/Army base damaged by mortar fire, 27 December 1993, In March 1992, members of the brigade destroyed McGowan's service station along the Ballygawley/Monaghan road, on the basis that they were supplying British forces,[52] while a soldier was injured by a bomb near Augher. The reality of it is that after 25 years of armed conflict there is less possibility of an armed campaign of any significance. Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall on 8 May 1987. The IRA unit used the same tactics as it had done in the The Birches attack. [17], However, many of their remaining activists were young and inexperienced and fell into further ambushes leading to very high casualties by the standards of the low intensity guerrilla conflict in Northern Ireland. Its all guff': Colm Lynagh, Anthony McIntyre, Gerry McGeough and Tommy McKearney Colm Lynagh, Anthony McIntyre, Gerry McGeough and Tommy McKearney. Transforming the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: From Terrorism to Democratic Policies, IRA The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity, The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997, Loyal to the Core? There will always be a handful of people, but there is nothing can be done about that in any society. They are saying to us: if you want to go down that road we are not going to step in your way. The British are sending a plausibly deniable mixed message. [19] The South Armagh area was considered to be a liberated zone already, since British troops and the RUC could not use the roads there for fear of roadside bombs and long-range harassing fire. A second shooting took place in the village of Pomeroy on 28 June, this time against British regular troops. When the IRA responded by killing a retired UDR member, Leslie Dallas,[122] and two elderly Protestants, Austin Nelson and Ernest Rankin at Coagh, on 7 March 1989, the UVF shot dead three IRA members and a Catholic civilian in a pub in Cappagh on 3 March 1991. [47][48], In October 1990, two IRA volunteers from the brigade (Dessie Grew and Martin McCaughey) were shot dead near Loughgall by SAS undercover members while allegedly collecting two rifles from an IRA arms dump. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. In parts of down, Fermanagh, north and mid-Armagh by August 1994 the mortar 's timer Henry,... 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