seamus dubhghaill

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Tag Archives: Social Democratic and Labour Party


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The 1990 Lough Nenagh Ambush

The 1990 Lough Neagh ambush is a gun attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on November 10, 1990, at Castor Bay, near Morrows Point, Lough Neagh, County Armagh, Northern Ireland targeting members of the security forces involved in a waterfowl hunting trip with other two men at the time. An active service unit (ASU) of the IRA’s North Armagh Brigade shoots dead a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Inspector, an RUC Reservist, a former Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier and one civilian. Some members of the wildfowling party struggle with their attackers, and one of the constables returns fire before being killed.

On September 7, 1990, UDR soldier Colin McCullough is shot dead by the IRA while in the company of his girlfriend at Oxford Island on the shore of Lough Neagh in the same area as the November 10 ambush. On October 6, in a revenge attack, the “Protestant Action Force” (a cover name for the Ulster Volunteer Force) shoots dead Catholic man Denis Carville at the same location, also while sitting in his car with his girlfriend.

At 7:30 a.m. on November 10, 1990, the four men leave home for Castor Bay on the shore of Lough Neagh for a wildfowling trip. Their early morning hunting excursions to the Department of the Environment-managed waterworks compound are routine and all of the men live in the Lurgan and Waringstown areas. It is believed the IRA team are waiting for the group inside the compound and ambush them shortly following their arrival.

The victims were David Murphy, an RUC Special Branch Inspector; Thomas Taylor, a part-time RUC Reservist; Norman Kendall, an electrician and former UDR soldier; and Keith Dowey, an employee with the Department of the Environment water service and father of two young children.

According to a 2000 report, the goal of the IRA unit, apparently members of the North Armagh Brigade led by the late Patsy Haughian, is only to abduct and interrogate Murphy about collusion between the RUC and loyalist militants, but things go wrong when Kendall and Dowey arrive at the scene in a car. Dowey, the driver, is shot and killed instantly, but there is evidence that Kendall puts up some resistance before being slain. Taylor produces his personal weapon and shoots at the assailants, but is cut down by a hail of fire. Murphy struggles and manages to avoid being bundled into the vehicle, but is eventually killed by Haughian. After the hunting party fails to appear at lunch time the alarm is raised. It is initially feared they have been kidnapped but four bodies are accounted for. The gunmen escape in one of the victim’s cars which is later found partially burned out at Brownlow Terrace, Lurgan. The IRA unit then hides in a house on the shores of the lake before returning to Lurgan the following morning.

The attack is widely condemned by politicians in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Unionist politicians call for tougher security measures. Local Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP David Trimble criticises Secretary of State Peter Brooke for ruling out the introduction of internment without trial in response to the incident and other killings in the preceding weeks and links the attack to a landmark speech given by Brooke the previous day signaling to the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin that Britain has no “selfish strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland. RUC Chief Constable Hugh Annesley visits the scene of the shootings and describes the attack as “repulsive, futile and cowardly murder” and says, “it is important to say yet again that the terrorists have no mandate from either Protestant or Catholic, north or south of the Irish border for such atrocities.”

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) representative Bríd Rodgers categorises the killings as part of an ongoing cycle of so-called “tit for tat” murders and urges anyone with information to contact the police. A message is read at Mass in Lurgan following the attack from the Bishop of Dromore and local priests warning Catholics to take precautions for their safety because of the risk of revenge attacks by Loyalists.

The alleged leader of the IRA squad, Patsy Haughian, dies of cancer at age 38 in October 2000. He is never formally accused of the killings.


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Death of Austin Currie, Northern Irish Civil Rights Activist & Politician

Joseph Austin Currie, a prominent Northern Irish civil rights activist and politician, dies on November 9, 2021, at his residence in Derrymullen, County Kildare. He is the co-founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), and later a Fine Gael Teachta Dála (TD) in the Republic of Ireland, known for his advocacy against discrimination and for children’s rights.

Currie is born on October 11, 1939, in Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, the eldest of eleven children in a Catholic family. He attends St. Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon and later graduates in modern history and politics from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). His upbringing in a working class Catholic family amidst systemic discrimination deeply influences his later activism.

Currie becomes a key figure in Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement. On June 20, 1968, he famously occupies a council house in Caledon, County Tyrone, in protest of housing discrimination that favors Protestants over Catholic families. This act of civil disobedience helps catalyze the first major civil rights marches in Northern Ireland, including the August 24, 1968, Dungannon march, and highlights systemic inequalities in housing and public services.

At age 24, Currie was elected as a Nationalist Party MP for East Tyrone in the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1964, becoming one of its youngest members. He retains this seat in subsequent elections until the suspension of the Parliament in 1972. In 1970, he co-founds the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) with figures like John Hume and Gerry Fitt, promoting constitutional nationalism, social democracy, and cross-community cooperation. He serves as SDLP Chief Whip and briefly as Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Planning in the short-lived 1974 Northern Ireland Executive, which collapses amid unionist opposition and a strike by the Ulster Workers’ Council. Despite numerous attacks on his home and assaults on his family during the Troubles, he maintains a commitment to non-violent politics and cross-community dialogue.

After relocating to County Kildare due to the threats and violence in Northern Ireland, Currie joins the Fine Gael party in 1989. He is elected as Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin West, serving from 1989 to 2002. In 1990, he runs for the Irish presidency, receiving approximately 17% of first-preference votes and being eliminated in the first count, leading to Mary Robinson winning as Ireland’s first female president. From 1994 to 1997, he is appointed Minister of State responsible for Children’s Rights, becoming the first Irish government minister with dedicated responsibilities for children.

Currie marries Annita Lynch in 1968, with whom he has five children, including Emer Currie, who is elected to the Dáil in the same constituency in 2024. He endures multiple threats and attacks during the Troubles, reflecting his dedication to confronting sectarian violence and discrimination. He continues to campaign for civil rights and justice for victims of the Troubles even after retiring from electoral politics in 2002. He publishes an autobiography, All Hell Will Break Loose, in 2004, detailing his political life and experiences.

Currie dies on November 9, 2021, at his residence in Derrymullen, County Kildare, at the age of 82. He is buried at St. Malachy Church Graveyard in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He is remembered as a courageous advocate for civil rights, a co-founder of the SDLP, and a pioneering politician in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.


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Mark Durkan Urges Governments to Protect the Good Friday Agreement

On October 9, 2002, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Mark Durkan (pictured) urges the British and Irish governments to do everything possible to minimise damage to the Good Friday Agreement during a tense period in Northern Ireland’s political crisis.

Durkan, the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland at the time, makes the appeal after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street. The talks come a day after First Minister David Trimble had given Blair an ultimatum: expel Sinn Féin from the Northern Ireland Assembly by early the following week, or Trimble and his Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) ministers will resign. The crisis is triggered by allegations of an Irish Republican Army (IRA) spy ring operating within the Stormont government, which Sinn Féin denies.

Blair tells Sinn Féin he needs assurance that its members are committed to “exclusively peaceful means” for the peace process to succeed, and stresses that all parties must recognise their obligations under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Durkan warns that while the power sharing government might be suspended, the agreement itself should not be “crippled” but only “injured.” He says the SDLP will not support a motion to exclude Sinn Féin from the Executive, but acknowledges that the Ulster Unionists cannot be expected to continue sitting alongside Sinn Féin under the current circumstances.

Durkan also stresses that the best way to reassure communities is to end IRA-related concerns, calling for an end to IRA activity. He urges both governments to avoid an “orgy of mutual recrimination” and to keep the political agenda focused on protecting the peace process.

This moment is a critical test for the Good Friday Agreement, as the suspension of the Executive risks undermining the democratic path it has established, but Durkan’s stance reflects the SDLP’s commitment to preserving the framework of the peace deal even amid political turmoil.


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Post-Good Friday Agreement Meeting Takes Place in Northern Ireland

A key meeting takes place in Northern Ireland on September 27, 1998, as part of the post-Good Friday Agreement peace process. The principal participants are British Prime Minister Tony Blair, David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and First Minister-designate, Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Deputy First Minister-designate, and George Mitchell, former United States Senator and appointed international mediator (often referred to as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland)

The primary objectives of the meeting include:

  1. Progressing the Peace Process – the parties are consolidating steps needed to establish Northern Ireland’s new devolved Assembly, following the Good Friday Agreement signed in April 1998.
  2. Confirming Executive Arrangements and Cross-Community Cooperation – discussion focuses on how the new Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive can function on a cross-community basis, ensuring Unionist and Nationalist representation in governance and decision-making.
  3. Addressing the Controversial Role of the Queen – newly declassified documents show that Tony Blair and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam explored whether Queen Elizabeth II should officially open the new Assembly, a sensitive question due to nationalist perception. They propose consulting privately with Seamus Mallon before final decisions are made with David Trimble.
  4. Ensuring the Implementation of Key Good Friday Agreement Provisions – including Irish Republican Army (IRA) decommissioning of weapons, parity in representation for Unionists and Nationalists in the Assembly, and planning for the full transfer of powers from the UK Government to the Assembly, which is scheduled for December 1999.

Key outcomes and discussions coming out of the meeting include:

  1. Commitment to Institutions: Blair, Trimble, and Mallon agree on the importance of setting up a shadow Assembly that can transition to full devolved powers once cross-party agreements are stable.
  2. Cross-Community Provisions: Blair emphasizes that sensitive issues require cross-community approval in the Assembly, warning that majority-rule-only systems could lead to collapse if abused.
  3. International Support: George Mitchell, as U.S. envoy, reaffirms American support for the peace process and encourages local leaders to uphold commitments.
  4. Political Sensitivities of the Queen’s Role: Blair and Mowlam note the potential nationalist backlash if the Queen’s presence is prominent, suggesting alternative ceremonial openings.
  5. Security and Prisoner Issues: Discussions also cover paramilitary decommissioning, with particular concern over Sinn Féin and IRA compliance to allow the formation of the shadow Executive safely.

The meeting is part of a broader diplomatic effort. It occurs after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (April 10, 1998) but before formal referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland approving the Agreement (May 22 and 23, 1998). It highlights the delicate balancing act between Unionists and Nationalists, the role of the UK and Irish governments, and international mediation, notably from the U.S. via George Mitchell.

Declassified documents at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast detail concerns over cross-community decision-making and the Queen’s status in ceremonial openings. The CAIN: Irish Peace Process Chronology confirms Blair, Trimble, and Mallon are engaging in preparatory discussions to implement the Agreement’s provisions and ensure the Assembly’s initial functionality. U.S. involvement through George Mitchell underscores the international commitment to maintaining peace and political stability during the transitional period.

In summary, the September 27, 1998 meeting is a crucial step in operationalizing the Good Friday Agreement, demonstrating cooperative leadership among British, Unionist, and Nationalist figures, with strategic oversight from the United States. It sets the stage for the new Northern Ireland Assembly, addressing ceremonial, legislative, and security challenges central to the successful devolution of powers.

Key participants demonstrate cautious diplomacy, foresight in cross-community governance, and recognition of the international dimension crucial to Northern Ireland’s peace process.

(Pictured: (L to R) David Trimble, George Mitchell and Seamus Mallon)


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Austin Currie Begins Housing Allocation Discrimination Protest

On June 20, 1968, Austin Currie, Nationalist Party Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, and a number of other people, begin a protest about discrimination in the allocation of housing by “squatting” (illegally occupying) in a house in Caledon, County Tyrone. The protesters are evicted by officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The next day the annual conference of the Nationalist Party unanimously approves of the protest action by Currie in Caledon. This is one of the catalysts of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Born in Coalisland, County Tyrone on October 11, 1939, Austin is the eldest of eleven children born to Mary (née O’Donnell) and John Currie. He is educated at the renowned St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, and graduates in politics and history from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

Currie becomes an active member in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). He later speaks about the effect of partition on Catholics in Northern Ireland: “Partition was used to try to cut us off from the rest of the Irish nation. Unionists did their best to stamp out our nationalism and, the educational system, to the extent it could organise it, was oriented to Britain and we were not even allowed to use names such as Séamus or Seán. When my brothers’ godparents went to register their birth, they were told no such names as Séamus or Seán existed in Northern Ireland and were asked for the English equivalent.”

In 1964 Currie is elected in a by-election as a Nationalist MP for East Tyrone in the 10th House of Commons of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, following the death of the sitting Nationalist MP, Joe Stewart. He retains his seat in the 11th House of Commons in the 1965 Northern Ireland general election and the 12th House of Commons in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election. This is the last election to the home rule Parliament at Stormort, before it is suspended by Government of the United Kingdom in March 1972, and formally abolished by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

In 1970, Currie is a founder of the group that establishes the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). From 1973 to 1974, he is elected as an SDLP member of the short-lived devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. In 1974 he becomes Chief Whip of the SDLP, and in the same year becomes Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive. The Assembly and Executive collapse on May 28, 1974, after opposition from within the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Ulster Workers’ Council strike. This leads to the imposition of direct rule of Northern Ireland from London.

Currie contests the 1979 United Kingdom general election and 1986 by-election in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone seat, but is unsuccessful on both attempts. He also is elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982 for the same seat. That Assembly, which is an attempt by the Government of the United Kingdom to reintroduce devolved power-sharing, collapses in 1986 without executive ministerial functions ever being transferred to it from the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as no political agreement can be reached on power-sharing between the parties owing to nationalists abstentionism over the constituency boundaries used to elect members, and unionist opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.

Following his decision to quit Northern Ireland politics, and relocate his family to County Kildare, Currie becomes actively involved in politics in the Republic of Ireland. Partly due to his long-standing doubts about the commitment of politicians in the Republic to the plight of northern nationalists, he join the Fine Gael party in 1989. He is elected as a Fine Gael TD for Dublin West at the 1989 Irish general election.

In 1990, Fine Gael selects Currie as their candidate for the 1990 Irish presidential election, running against Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil TD, Brian Lenihan Sr, and Senator Mary Robinson for the Labour Party. The 1990 election is the first contested election for the Irish Presidency in 17 years. Currie receives 267,902 first-preference votes (approximately 17%) and is eliminated on the first count. The distribution of his votes sees Mary Robinson elected as Ireland’s first female president on the second count, beating Lenihan by more than 86,000 votes.

In his 2004 autobiography All Hell will Break Loose, Currie writes about his experience of running in the presidential election, and the prejudice he faced as a nationalist from Ulster in southern politics: “What annoyed, indeed angered me most was the suggestion that because I came from the North, I was not a real Irishman … what I called the partitionist mentality … [during the election campaign] the [then Fianna Fáil] Minister for Justice [Ray Burke] said Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes ‘had to go to Tyrone to find a candidate for the presidency’ … it was hard to take, particularly from so-called republicans.”

Following his defeat in the presidential election, Currie holds his Dáil seat in Dublin West at the 1992 and 1997 Irish general elections. Following the formation of the so-called Rainbow Coalition between Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left, on December 20, 1994, newly appointed Taoiseach John Bruton appoints him as a Minister of State with responsibility for Children’s Rights at the Departments of Health, Education and Justice, becoming the first ever minister in an Irish Government with dedicated responsibility for children. He holds this post until the appointment of a new Irish Government on June 26, 1997, following the 1997 Irish general election.

At the 2002 Irish general election Currie contests the new constituency of Dublin Mid-West, and fails to be elected. He immediately announces his retirement from electoral politics. He continues to speak and campaign for civil rights across the island of Ireland and for causes he believes in, such as justice for the families of the Disappeared during the Troubles. He and his wife and family are personal friends of the family of one of the Disappeared, Columba McVeigh, from Donaghmore, County Tyrone. His daughter Emer Currie is elected in his former constituency of Dublin West at the 2024 Irish general election.

Following the deaths of Seamus Mallon and John Hume in January and August 2020 respectively, Currie becomes the last surviving founder of the SDLP.

Currie dies on November 9, 2021, at the age of 82 at his residence in Derrymullen, County Kildare. Following an initial funeral mass in Allentown, County Kildare, his remains are transferred to his original family home in Edendork, near Dungannon, County Tyrone, where a second funeral mass was celebrated at St. Malachy’s Church, Edendork. He is buried alongside his parents in the cemetery adjoining the church.


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Apprentice Boys Parade Ends Without Incident

An Apprentice Boys parade down the Ormeau Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, passes off without incident on April 13, 1998, after the organisers accept a ruling by the Parades Commission banning them from a nationalist section of the road.

It is the first parade of the marching season along the controversial route where nationalist residents oppose loyal order marches through their area.

One band and some fifteen members of the Apprentice Boys take part in the parade from Ballynafeigh to the Ormeau Bridge, where police have erected barriers across the road. The Apprentice Boys then board buses to go to the organisation’s main parade in Ballymena, County Antrim.

The police presence on the bridge is low-key as the Apprentice Boys previously said they would abide by the ruling and the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community group (LOCC) said it would not hold any protest.

The Apprentice Boys hand in a letter of protest to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and Worthington McGrath, of the Ballynafeigh Walkers Club of the Apprentice Boys, saying they are “bitterly disappointed” they cannot walk into the city centre through the lower Ormeau.

“We have gone to great lengths to try and meet the wishes of the Parades Commission, and we have been rebuffed,” McGrath says. He hopes they might be able to walk down the Lower Ormeau Road on another occasion this year. They are having “ongoing meetings with the greater community in the Ormeau area” in an attempt to satisfy the Commission, he says.

Gerard Rice, of the LOCC, welcomes the Apprentice Boys’ action, but says the loyal orders will have to meet his group if the issue is to be resolved. “Turning away at the bridge will not resolve the issue. Direct dialogue is necessary.”

Rice says that if the Parades Commission followed its own guidelines, there could be no marches on the Ormeau Road in 1998 because the loyal orders refused to talk to residents.

The Parades Commission banned the march ten days earlier on the basis that it would have harmful effects on “relationships with the community.” In the ruling, the Commission says it hopes at least one parade will go ahead on the Ormeau Road this year.

The chairman of the Parades Commission, Alistair Graham, who watches the parade, says he is encouraged by the “mature and sensible action” taken by the Apprentice Boys. Alisdair McDonnell, a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor, says he welcomes the Commission’s decision and urges the Apprentice Boys and the Orange Order to talk to residents’ groups about future marches. The RUC’s sub-divisional commander in the area, Supt. Steven Graham, says the Apprentice Boys have shown “a high degree of integrity.”

(From: “Apprentice Boys parade passes off without incident” by Theresa Judge, The Irish Times, http://www.irishtimes.com, April 14, 1998)


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Hunger Striker Bobby Sands Wins Seat in the British Parliament

On April 9, 1981, imprisoned Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker Bobby Sands is elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom as the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Sands stands as a candidate of the “Anti-H Block” campaign – the section of the Maze prison in Maze, County Down, Northern Ireland, reserved for republicans and loyalists convicted of terrorist offences. He wins just over 52% of the vote in the Northern Ireland by-election compared to 49% for the candidate of the Official Unionist party, Harry West. His winning margin is 1,400 but over 3,000 ballot papers are spoiled.

Recriminations over his victory begin almost immediately. Unionist parties come under fire for not mounting an effective challenge. There is also sharp criticism of the failure of the moderate Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) to contest the seat. Many believe the absence of an alternative Catholic candidate ensures victory for Sands in a seat with a Catholic majority.

Sands’ election agent, Owen Carron, says the British Government has been sent a message. “The nationalist people have voted against Unionism and against the H-blocks. It is time Britain got out of Ireland and put an end to the torture of this country,” he says.

At the time of his election, Sands, 27, has served four years of a fourteen-year sentence for firearms possession. He began his hunger strike 41 days earlier to press the republican prisoners’ claim to be treated as prisoners of war.

The government has to decide how to respond to Sands’ victory.  It can try to have him expelled on the grounds that he is an “unacceptable member.” However, unless he starts to eat again, he is not expected to live for more than another few weeks. He has already lost two stone and is too weak to leave his bed in the prison’s hospital wing.

Sand’s victory is the second time the voters of Fermanagh and South Tyrone have elected a republican prisoner as their MP. The first, Philip Clarke, in 1955, is disqualified because the law then does not allow convicts to take up political office.

In spite of attempts by the European Commission of Human Rights to mediate, Sands dies on May 5, 1981. He is the first of ten republican prisoners to die after hunger strikes. They attract international media attention and sympathy for the republicans.

The hunger strikes come to an end in October 1981. However, the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher grants the republicans only a few minor concessions.

(From: “1981: Hunger striker elected MP” on “On The Day 1950-2005,” BBC, news.bbc.co.uk)


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The Murder of Robert McCartney

The murder of Robert McCartney occurs in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on the night of January 30, 2005, and is carried out by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

McCartney, born in 1971, is a Roman Catholic and lives in the predominantly nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast, and is said by his family to be a supporter of Sinn Féin. He is the father of two children and is engaged to be married in June 2005 to his longtime girlfriend, Bridgeen Hagans.

McCartney is involved in an altercation in Magennis’ Bar on May Street in Belfast’s city centre on the night of January 30, 2005. He is found unconscious with stab wounds on Cromac Street by a police patrol car and dies at the hospital the following morning. He is 33 years old.

The fight arises when McCartney is accused of making an insulting gesture or comment to the wife of an IRA member in the social club. When his friend, Brendan Devine, refuses to accept this or apologise, a brawl begins. McCartney, who is attempting to defend Devine, is attacked with a broken bottle and then dragged into Verner Street, beaten with metal bars and stabbed. Devine also suffers a knife attack, but survives. The throats of both men are cut and McCartney’s wounds include the loss of an eye and a large blade wound running from his chest to his stomach. Devine is hospitalised under armed protection.

When Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers arrive at the scene, their efforts to investigate the pub and surrounding area are met with an impromptu riot. Rioting by youths, specifically attacking the police, force them to pull back from the area, which delays initial investigation. Police with riot gear arrive later in the evening and are also attacked. Alex Maskey of Sinn Féin claims, “It appears the PSNI is using last night’s tragic stabbing incident as an excuse to disrupt life within this community, and the scale and approach of their operation is completely unacceptable and unjustifiable.” There are suggestions that the rioting is organised by those involved in the murder, so that a cleanup operation can take place in and around where the murder took place. Clothes worn by McCartney’s attackers are burned, CCTV tapes are removed from the bar and destroyed and bar staff are threatened. No ambulance is called. McCartney and Devine are noticed by a police car on routine patrol, who call an ambulance to the scene.

When the police launch the murder investigation they are met with a “wall of silence” None of the estimated seventy or so witnesses to the altercation come forward with information. In conversations with family members, seventy-one potential witnesses claim to have been in the pub’s toilets at the time of the attacks. As the toilet measures just four feet by three feet, this leads to the toilets being dubbed the TARDIS, after the time machine in the television series Doctor Who, which is much bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Sinn Féin suspends twelve members of the party and the IRA expels three members some weeks later.

Gerry Adams, then president of Sinn Féin, urges witnesses to come forward to “the family, a solicitor, or any other authoritative or reputable person or body”. He continues, “I want to make it absolutely clear that no one involved acted as a republican or on behalf of republicans.” He suspends twelve members of Sinn Féin. He stops short of asking witnesses to contact the police directly. The usefulness of making witness statements to the victim’s family or to a solicitor is derided by the McCartneys and by a prominent lawyer and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, Alban Maginness, soon afterward.

On February 16, 2005, the IRA issues a statement denying involvement in the murder and calls on the perpetrators to “take responsibility.”

On March 8, 2005, the IRA issues an unprecedented statement saying that four people are directly involved in the murder, that the IRA knows their identity, that two are IRA volunteers, and that the IRA has made an offer to McCartney’s family to shoot the people directly involved in the murder.

In May 2005, Sinn Féin loses its council seat in the Pottinger area, which covers the Short Strand, with the McCartney family attributing the loss to events surrounding the murder.

Since this time, the sisters of McCartney have maintained an increasingly public campaign for justice, which sees Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness make a public statement that the sisters should be careful that they are not being manipulated for political ends.

The McCartney family travels to the United States during the 2005 Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations where they are met by U.S. Senators (including Hillary Clinton and John McCain) and U.S. President George W. Bush who express support in their campaign for justice.

Support for Sinn Féin by some American politicians is diminished. Adams is not invited to the White House in 2005 and Senator Edward Kennedy backs out of a meeting that had been previously scheduled. The McCartney family, previously Sinn Féin supporters, pledge to never support the party again, and a cousin of the sisters who raised funds for Sinn Féin in the United States insist that she will not be doing so in the future.

On May 5, 2005, Terence Davison and James McCormick are remanded in custody, charged with murdering McCartney and attempting to murder Devine respectively. McCormick is originally from England. They are held in the republican wing of HM Prison Maghaberry. Roughly four months later the accused are released on bail, and in June 2006, the attempted murder charge against McCormick is dropped, leaving a charge of causing an affray. On June 27, 2008, Terence Davison is found not guilty of committing the murder. Two other men charged with affray are also cleared.

In November 2005, the McCartney sisters and Bridgeen Hagans, the former partner of McCartney, refuse to accept the Outstanding Achievement award at the Women of the Year Lunch, because it would mean their sharing a platform with Margaret Thatcher, whom they dislike.

In December 2005, the McCartney sisters meet with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and tell him they believe the murder had been ordered by a senior IRA member, and that Sinn Féin was still not doing all it could to help them.

On January 31, 2007, two years after the murder, and in line with the party’s new policy of supporting civil policing, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams says that anyone with information about the murder should go to the police.

On May 5, 2015, an IRA man believed to have been involved in the death of McCartney, Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison, is shot dead. Early in the investigation the police rule out either a sectarian attack or the involvement of dissident republicans.

The McCartney family has lived in the Short Strand area of Belfast for five generations. However, some local people in the Short Strand area, which is a largely nationalist area, does not welcome their dispute with the IRA. A campaign of intimidation by republicans drives members of the family and McCartney’s former fiancée to relocate and also causes one member to close her business in the city centre. The last McCartney sister to leave the area, Paula, departs Short Strand on October 26, 2005.

The family remain in contact with the family of Joseph Rafferty of Dublin, who dies under similar circumstances on April 12, 2005.


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Birth of Eddie McGrady, SDLP Politician & Member of Parliament

Edward Kevin McGrady, Irish nationalist politician of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), is born on June 3, 1935, in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. He serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Down from 1987 to 2010. He is also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Down from 1998 to 2003.

McGrady, one of eleven children, is educated at St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Downpatrick and at Belfast Technical College, where he trains as a chartered accountant, subsequently entering his family’s accountancy firm.

McGrady enters politics in 1961 as an Independent Nationalist councillor on Downpatrick Urban Council, serving as chairman from 1964 until the council is replaced by Down District Council in 1973.

In the late 1960s he joins the National Democrats and stands for the party in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland in East Down, losing to the sitting MP and future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner.

In 1970, McGrady becomes a founder member of the SDLP, later serving as its first chairman (1971–73). He sits on Down District Council from 1973 to 1989, serving as chairman from 1974–1975 and is also elected to all three regional assemblies in 1973, 1975 and 1982 representing South Down. In the 1973 power-sharing executive he is appointed as Head of the Department of Executive Planning and Co-ordination, serving from January to May 1974.

In Westminster elections McGrady contests South Down unsuccessfully in 1979, 1983 and at the by-election of January 1986, losing on each occasion to Enoch Powell, the sitting MP. He succeeds at the fourth attempt in the 1987 United Kingdom general election and holds the seat until his retirement in 2010. His tenure is briefly threatened in the mid-1990s when the Boundary Commission suggests merging much of his constituency with the neighbouring Newry and Armagh constituency to form a new “Newry and Mourne” constituency. This is overturned during a local review, which preserves his seat and actually removes more Unionist sections such as Dromore. His support holds solid over the years despite talk of a slippage, and this is reinforced in the 2005 United Kingdom general election with his re-election to the House of Commons.

McGrady formerly sits on the Northern Ireland Policing Board and is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly between 1998 and 2003.

On February 25, 2010, McGrady announces that he will stand down at the 2010 General Election. He continued to be chairperson of the Lecale Branch of the SDLP.

McGrady dies at the age of 78 in Downpatrick on November 11, 2013.


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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)