} else if (Object.keys(p.badge || {}).indexOf('print_annual') > -1) { Now it has been 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. In March 1989, two senior RUC officers were killed in an ambush near Jonesborough. return key.indexOf('granted_by_') > -1; userID: purchase.granted_by_whitelist_rule.user_id, !gigyaID ? subscriptionFinishDate: '', const domain = '.independent.ie'; 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. There was no reaction from British security although the RUC/Army base was just 50 yards away. He was driving his minibus when a car pulled up beside it and a gunman opened fire on him. The man is a close associate of the Provos' border boss Thomas 'Slab' Murphy (pictured), Gerry Adams and other figures in Sinn Fein. When he was 17 he had witnessed his father Peter Corrigan, a Sinn Fin member, being shot dead by the UVF in the city. for (let i = 0, parts; (parts = cookies[i] && cookies[i].split('=')); i++) { window.showSubscriberElements) { [51][52], Since the army wind-down in 2007, security in the area is the sole responsibility of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. [47] The Omagh bombing of August 1998, a botched Real IRA operation which killed 29 civilians, was prepared by dissident republicans in South Armagh. let bodyAvailable = false; From that point on the south Armagh OC and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25% of their earnings to the IRA. He had left the UDR the year before. [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. return 'none'; 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. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. "Orde visit seen as farewell to Army", by Phillp Bradfield. 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. He had charge of the IRA's Border sniper team, which killed seven soldiers and two police officers in the 1990s. The OC of the Southern Command is said to be a man living in the Tallaght area of Dublin. const selectedRegional = localStorage.getItem('selectedRegionals'); 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. } Harnden, Toby (1999). subscriptionStartDate: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.original_start_at, 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. Between 1971 and the erection of the hilltop sites in the mid-1980s (the first in 1986), 84 members of the security forces were killed in the Crossmaglen and Forkhill areas by the IRA. The truck bombs were sent to England by ferry. 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. }; Three British soldiers and a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) member were wounded. 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 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 chief of staff and head of the IRA is Thomas "Slab" Murphy, a millionaire racketeer and smuggler from south Armagh who was instrumental in bringing about the 1994 ceasefire and then planning the London Docklands bombing which broke it. const getCookie = key => { Let the message from south Armagh ring loud and clear to the occupation forces. vars.article.userWall = ! ","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. 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. 15.5K Followers. subscriptionFinishDate: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.finish_at, Tweets & replies. } When there, Ms Smyth was followed upstairs by five men, who savagely beat and strangled her. subscriptionStartDate: '', [42] When the IRA resumed its campaign in 1996-97, the South Armagh IRA was less active than previously,[43] although one of the sniper teams killed one soldier and seriously wounded an RUC constable. 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. 30 July Martin Malone, an 18-year-old unarmed Catholic civilian, is shot dead by a UDR patrol in the Callan Street area. 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. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. }).map(function (key) { vars.user.userID = subscriberCookie.userID || ''; subscriptionFinishDate: '0000-00-00T00:00:00Z', One USC Constable was killed in this attack and in revenge the USC descended upon Killylea in Armagh and began to burn down Nationalist homes; they also shot and wounded two civilians. }; const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; vars.user.subscriptionFinishDate = subscriberCookie.subscriptionFinishDate || ''; } She was then carried out of the house and taken away in the boot of a car to Ballarat Street where she had her throat slashed back to the spine. }; userID: purchase.granted_by_app_purchase.user_id, PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Around this time IRA engineers in South Armagh pioneered the use of home-made mortars which were relatively inaccurate but highly destructive.[14]. A . }); const getBundleValue = function (purchase, purchaseType) { } else { vars.category.regionals = selectedRegional || ''; }); [60], "The Saracen armoured car blown up by a culvert bomb at Lurganculleboy, near Crossmaglen in October 1975, killing Corporal Edward Gleeson. !subscriberCookie.subscriptionStatus ? [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. [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. subscriptionStatus: purchase.granted_by_purchase.sku_code, const isGrantedBy = function (grant) { Martin was from Knockamell Park in the city and was a neighbour of Charles Spence, who was had been shot dead by the IRA two weeks previously. The South Armagh IRA. show_spinner: false, const bundleValue = getBundleValue(purchase, 'purchase'); "The last armoured patrol in South Armagh, attacked in Crossmaglen October 1975 killing Cpl Gleeson. [24] As the divisional commander for South Armagh, Breen was the most senior policeman to have been killed during the Troubles. 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. The south Armagh IRA even discovered ground not covered by the watchtowers for sniper attacks in the 1990s. The single Mk-15 mortar bomb landed 40 yards (37m) short of the perimeter fence. One of the men who killed her, long-time UVF member Stephen Manners, was himself shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in 2001 in what is thought to have been an internal hit. [33][34], The South Armagh Brigade was by far the most effective IRA brigade in shooting down British helicopters during the conflict. 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. 2 . if (element.tagName === 'BODY' && ! 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. The South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated during the Troubles in south County Armagh. Elliott was press officer for the Armagh branch of the. 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); return 'epaper-access'; 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. 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. [26] 1990s [ edit] } 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. It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. } subscriptionStartDate: '1111-11-11T11:11:11Z', const getSubscriptionStatus = function (purchase) { The IRA claimed that he was a member of the UDR, something that was denied by the police and army. The dead man was a World War II veteran and had taken part in the. }; It was one of the few times the SAS didn't shoot members of an IRA active service unit on armed operations. Although the British army has tried to block the region's 370-mile border with Ireland,. 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. The dead man was from Knockamell Park in Armagh city. 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