seamus dubhghaill

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The 1992 Coalisland Riots

The 1992 Coalisland riots are a series of clashes in the town of Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on May 12 and 17, 1992, between local Irish nationalist civilians and British Army soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment and the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB). The Third Battalion 1992 tour’s codename is “Operation Gypsy.”

On May 12, 1992, a unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) East Tyrone Brigade launches a bomb attack on a British Army foot patrol near the republican stronghold of Cappagh, County Tyrone. One soldier of the Parachute Regiment, Alistair Hodgson, loses both legs as a result. The improvised land mine is described in an IRA statement as an “anti-personnel device.” Other paratroopers receive lesser wounds, according to the same statement. The incident triggers a rampage by members of the Parachute Regiment in the nearby, overwhelmingly Irish nationalist town of Coalisland, some ten miles to the east. The IRA attack is described as a “provocation” tactic, devised to produce an over-reaction by troops to make them even more unpopular among local nationalists.

The deployment of the paratroopers, which begins in April has already been criticised by republican activist and former Member of Parliament Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, who denounces beatings, shootings and damages to property reportedly carried out by the troops. These previous incidents include the destruction of fishing gear and boats in the townland of Kinturk, near Ardboe, and a brawl on April 22 between soldiers and motorists at a checkpoint in Stewartstown, in which plastic bullets are fired that end with a civilian and two paratroopers wounded. Unionist politician and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) officer Ken Maginnis, then-Member of Parliament for the area, calls for the withdrawal of the regiment after receiving a large number of complaints about their behaviour.

On May 12, two hours after the IRA ambush at Cappagh, members of the regiment seal off the town of Coalisland, ten miles east of Cappagh. According to a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, the soldiers fabricate a bogus bomb warning, while the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) states that the operation began when a joint police/military patrol was stoned by a crowd. Two pubs are ransacked by the troops and a number of civilian cars are damaged. Several people are allegedly hit with sticks. Following this, a lieutenant is suspended from duty and the regiment is removed from patrol duties in Coalisland.

On the evening of May 17, a fistfight begins at Lineside Road, where a group of young men are having a drink. A passing four-man patrol of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment is challenged to a “boxing match” by the residents. The soldiers set aside their weapons and engage the youths. Noncritical injuries are reported on both sides. The official claim is that the patrol was attacked by a mob of at least 30 people. In the melée, a rifle and a light machine gun are stolen. The rifle is later recovered nearby. The youths smash a backpack radio which is left behind by the troops. Two KOSB soldiers are hospitalised, while in the end seven other soldiers, including paratroopers, receive lesser injuries, one of them hit by a car that crashes through two roadblocks set up by the British Army.

The Parachute Regiment is called to the scene again, and at 8:30 p.m., a major riot starts outside The Rossmore pub between local people and about 20 to 25 paratroopers. The soldiers claim one of their colleagues is isolated and dragged by the crowd. Some witnesses claim paratroopers were in a frenzy, showing their guns and inviting civilians to try to take them. Suddenly, shots are fired by the troops — first into the air and then toward the people outside the pub. Three civilians are rushed to hospital in Dungannon with gunshot wounds, while the soldiers return to their barracks. Another four civilians suffer minor injuries. The paratroopers claim that a “member of the growing crowd” attempted to fire the stolen machine gun at them, but the weapon jammed. One of the wounded is the brother of IRA volunteer Kevin O’Donnell, who had been killed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in February during an ambush at the nearby hamlet of Clonoe, shortly after carrying out a machine-gun attack on the local RUC base.

About 500 people attend a protest rally in Coalisland on May 19, and the wisdom of deploying the troops to patrol the town is questioned by members of the Dáil in Dublin. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ireland, David Andrews, asks the British Government to withdraw the regiment. As a result, the paratroopers are redeployed outside the urban areas. The RUC claims that the stolen machine gun is found 11 days later at a farmhouse near Cappagh, along with another light machine gun and an AK-47 rifle. The IRA denies they had the machine gun in their possession. Republicans question whether the weapon had really been stolen, suggesting this was merely an excuse for the soldiers’ rampage in Coalisland. Bernardette McAliskey goes even further, suggesting that the recovery of the machine gun near Cappagh, where the initial IRA attack had taken place, was actually staged by the security forces as a publicity stunt. British officials accuse Sinn Féin of being the instigators of the riots, while Michael Mates, then Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, states that the incidents were due to “a gang of thugs motivated by the IRA.” Eventually the battalion’s 1992 tour in Northern Ireland is scaled down, with the patrols suspended before the official end of the deployment. The Third Brigade’s commander, Brigadier Tom Longland, is replaced by Brigadier Jim Dutton. This is the first occasion that a high-ranking officer is disciplined in such a way during the Troubles.

The last patrol takes place on June 27, when two paratroopers drown while crossing the River Blackwater. The same day there are further clashes with local residents, this time in the town of Cookstown, when a group of people that the Belfast News Letter calls “drunken hooligans” assault a number of paratroopers trying to help an elderly man who is suffering a heart attack.

The 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment is replaced by the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards.

Six soldiers face criminal charges for their roles in the May riots but are acquitted one year later. Five are bound over. Maurice McHugh, the presiding magistrate, avers that the soldiers were “not entirely innocent,” while Sinn Féin sources dub the ruling “a farce.” Dungannon priest Father Denis Faul is of the opinion that the soldiers should have been charged with conspiracy. The Ulster Television documentary Counterpoint of June 1993 claims that Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland, Sir Alasdair Fraser, returned the case file to the RUC recommending no prosecution. The programme also interviews Alistair Hodgson, the soldier maimed at Cappagh, who says that “had another member of my unit been injured in the way that I was, I would have been with the rest of the lads attacking the locals.” Authors Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood suggest that the deployment of the battalion in Coalisland and elsewhere hindered the British policy of police primacy in Northern Ireland.

Fresh clashes between local residents and troops are reported at Coalisland on March 6, 1994, a few months before the first IRA ceasefire, when a crowd assaults two soldiers after the RUC searched a car. Plastic bullets are fired, and three civilians and two soldiers are slightly injured.

(Pictured: Confrontation between a British paratrooper and a civilian in Coalisland, May 1992)


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Long Kesh Prison Hunger Strike Ends

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger strike is called off at Long Kesh prison – later known as HM Prison Maze – on October 3, 1981. While the IRA does not win immediate concessions, in some ways it is a Pyrrhic victory for Margaret Thatcher’s government. It galvanises support and membership for the IRA and generates huge sympathy for the strikers in the United States where fund-raising is a major priority. The death of the first hunger striker, Bobby Sands, creates a martyr and an iconic figure.

In January 1981, prison authorities begin to supply the prisoners with officially issued civilian clothing, whereas the prisoners demand the right to wear their own clothing. On February 4, the prisoners issue a statement saying that the British government has failed to resolve the crisis and declares their intention of a hunger strike. The hunger strike begins on March 1, when Bobby Sands, the IRA’s former officer commanding (OC) in the prison, refuses food. Unlike the first hunger strike the previous year, the prisoners join one at a time and at staggered intervals, which they believe would arouse maximum public support and exert maximum pressure on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The republican movement initially struggles to generate public support for the second hunger strike. The Sunday before Sands begins his strike, 3,500 people march through west Belfast. During the first hunger strike four months earlier, the marchers had numbered 10,000. Five days into the strike, Independent Republican MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Frank Maguire dies, resulting in a by-election. There is debate among nationalists and republicans regarding who should contest the election. After negotiations they agree not to split the nationalist vote by contesting the election and Sands stands as an Anti H-Block candidate against Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West. Following a high-profile campaign, the election takes place on April 9, and Sands is elected to the British House of Commons with 30,492 votes to West’s 29,046.

Sands’ election victory raises hopes that a settlement can be negotiated, but Thatcher stands firm in refusing to give concessions to the hunger strikers. The world’s media descends on Belfast, and several intermediaries visit Sands in an attempt to negotiate an end to the hunger strike, including Síle de Valera, granddaughter of Éamon de Valera, Pope John Paul II‘s personal envoy John Magee, and European Commission of Human Rights officials. With Sands close to death, the government’s position remains unchanged.

On 5 May, Sands dies in the prison hospital on the 66th day of his hunger strike, prompting rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. More than 100,000 people line the route of his funeral, which is conducted with full IRA military honours. Margaret Thatcher shows no sympathy for his death.

In the two weeks following Sands’ death, hunger strikers Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara die. Following the deaths of Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson, the families of some of the hunger strikers attend a meeting on July 28 with Catholic priest Father Denis Faul. The families express concern at the lack of a settlement to the priest, and a decision is made to meet with Gerry Adams later that day. The following day Adams holds a meeting with six of the hunger strikers to outline a proposed settlement on offer from the British government should the strike be brought to an end. The six men reject the settlement, believing that accepting anything less than the “Five Demands” would be a betrayal of the sacrifice made by Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers who had died.

The hunger strike begins to break on July 31, when the mother of Paddy Quinn insists on medical intervention to save his life. The following day Kevin Lynch dies, followed by Kieran Doherty on August 2, Thomas McElwee on August 8 and Michael Devine on August 20. On September 6, the family of Laurence McKeown becomes the fourth family to intervene and asks for medical treatment to save his life, and Cahal Daly issues a statement calling on republican prisoners to end the hunger strike.

The strike is called off at 3:15 PM on October 3, 1981. Three days later, James Prior, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announces partial concessions to the prisoners including the right to wear their own clothes at all times. The only one of the “Five Demands” still outstanding is the right not to do prison work. Following sabotage by the prisoners and the Maze Prison escape in 1983, the prison workshops are closed, effectively granting all of the “Five Demands” but without any formal recognition of political status from the government.

(Pictured: A Belfast mural of the Long Kesh hunger strikers)


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The 1981 Irish Hunger Strike Begins

hunger_strike_memorial

The 1981 hunger strike begins on March 1, 1981, when Bobby Sands, a former commanding officer of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and prisoner at Long Kesh prison, refuses food. Other prisoners join the hunger strike one at a time at staggered intervals, which they believe will arouse maximum public support and exert maximum pressure on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The movement initially struggles to generate public support for the hunger strike. The Sunday before Sands begins his strike, only 3,500 people march through the streets of west Belfast as compared to 10,000 marchers during a previous hunger strike four months earlier.

Five days into the strike, however, Independent Republican Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Frank Maguire dies, resulting in a by-election. There is debate among nationalists and republicans regarding who should contest the election, but they ultimately agreed not to split the nationalist vote by contesting the election and Sands stands as an Anti H-Block candidate against Ulster Unionist Party candidate Harry West. Following a high-profile campaign the election takes place on April 9, and Sands is elected to the British House of Commons with 30,492 votes to West’s 29,046.

Sands’ election victory raises hopes that a settlement can be negotiated, but Thatcher stands firm in refusing to give concessions to the hunger strikers. The world’s media descends on Belfast, and several intermediaries, including Síle de Valera, granddaughter of Éamon de Valera, Pope John Paul II‘s personal envoy John Magee, and European Commission of Human Rights officials, visit Sands in an attempt to negotiate an end to the hunger strike. With Sands close to death, the government’s position remains unchanged, and they do not force medical treatment upon him.

On May 5, Sands dies in the prison hospital on day 66 of his hunger strike, prompting rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Over 100,000 people line the route of his funeral, which is conducted with full IRA military honours. Margaret Thatcher showed no sympathy for his death.

In the two weeks following Sands’ death, three more hunger strikers die – Francis Hughes on May 12, and Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara on May 21. The deaths result in further rioting in Northern Ireland, particularly Derry and Belfast. Following the May 21 deaths, Primate of All Ireland Tomás Ó Fiaich criticises the British government’s handling of the hunger strike. Despite this, Thatcher still refuses to negotiate a settlement.

On July 28, following the deaths of Joe McDonnell (July 8) and Martin Hurson (July 13), the families of some of the hunger strikers attend a meeting with Catholic priest Father Denis Faul. The families express concern at the lack of a settlement and a decision is made to meet with Gerry Adams later that day. At the meeting Father Faul puts pressure on Adams to find a way of ending the strike, and Adams agrees to ask the IRA leadership to order the men to end the hunger strike. The following day Adams holds a meeting with six of the hunger strikers to outline a proposed settlement on offer from the British government should the strike be brought to an end. The strikers reject the settlement, believing that accepting anything less than their original demands will be a betrayal of the sacrifice made by Bobby Sands and the other men who had died.

On July 31, the hunger strike begins to break when the mother of Paddy Quinn insists on medical intervention to save his life. The following day Kevin Lynch dies, followed by Kieran Doherty on August 2, Thomas McElwee on August 8, and Michael Devine on August 20. On September 6, the family of Laurence McKeown becomes the fourth family to intervene and asks for medical treatment to save his life, and Cahal Daly issues a statement calling on republican prisoners to end the hunger strike.

A week later James Prior replaces Humphrey Atkins as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and meets with prisoners in an attempt to end the strike. Liam McCloskey ends his strike on September 26 after his family says they will ask for medical intervention if he becomes unconscious. It also becomes clear that the families of the remaining hunger strikers will also intervene to save their lives. The strike is called off at 3:15 PM on October 3. Three days later Secretary of State Prior announces partial concessions to the prisoners including the right to wear their own clothes at all times. The only one of their original five demands still outstanding is the right not to do prison work. Following sabotage by the prisoners and the Maze Prison escape in 1983, the prison workshops are closed, effectively granting all five of the demands but without any formal recognition of political status from the government.

Over the summer of 1981, ten hunger strikers die. Thirteen others begin refusing food but are taken off hunger strike, either due to medical reasons or after intervention by their families. Many of them still suffer from the effects of the strike, with problems including digestive, visual, physical and neurological disabilities.