seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Volunteer (Irish Republican)


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The Battle of St. Matthew’s

The Battle of St. Matthew’s, also known as the Battle of Short Strand, is a gun battle that takes place on the night of June 27-28, 1970, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is fought between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Ulster loyalists in the area around St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic church. This lies at the edge of the Short Strand, a Catholic enclave in a mainly-Protestant part of the city. Violence erupts there, and in other parts of Belfast, following marches by the Orange Order. The battle lasts about five hours and ends at dawn when loyalists withdraw. The British Army and police are deployed nearby but do not intervene. Three people are killed and at least 26 wounded in the fighting, while another three are killed in north Belfast.

The battle is the Provisional IRA’s first major action during the Troubles, and a propaganda victory for the Irish nationalist organization. It presents itself as successfully defending a vulnerable Catholic enclave from armed loyalist mobs. Loyalists, however, argue that the IRA lured them into a carefully prepared trap.

During the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969 in Belfast, Catholic Irish republicans clash with Protestant Ulster loyalists and the mainly-Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Northern Ireland’s police force. Catholics believe that they are about to become “victims of a Protestant pogrom” and Protestants believe they are on the “eve of an IRA insurrection.” Hundreds of Catholic homes and businesses are burned out and more than 1,000 families, mostly Catholic, are forced to flee. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has few weapons or members and is unable to adequately defend the Catholic areas. The rioting ends with the deployment of British troops. In December 1969, the IRA splits into the Official Irish Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army—with the Provisionals vowing to defend Catholic areas in future.

The Short Strand is a Catholic/nationalist enclave in East Belfast, a mainly Protestant/Ulster unionist part of the city. In the early years of the Troubles, Catholics in Short Strand number about 6,000, while their Protestant neighbours total about 60,000.

On Saturday, June 27, 1970, a large march by the Orange Order takes place in west Belfast, which is joined by loyalist bands from other parts of the city. Violence breaks out as the march enters the Catholic Springfield Road area on its way to Whiterock Orange Hall. Missiles are thrown by both sides, a bakery is set ablaze, and the British Army fires CS gas to disperse crowds. The riot sparks violence in other parts of Belfast.

In north Belfast, another Orange march proceeds along the Crumlin Road, the boundary between the Catholic Ardoyne and the Protestant Shankill areas. According to Crown prosecutors, a crowd emerges from Ardoyne throwing bottles and stones. As the riot descends into a gun battle, the IRA—who according to Gerry Adams were “ready and waiting”—kill three Protestants: William Kincaid (28), Daniel Loughins (32) and Alexander Gould (18). Others are wounded, including a Royal Navy petty officer who is shot in the jaw while driving a field ambulance. Earlier in the month, British troops divert an Orange march away from Ardoyne, leading to serious rioting by Protestants in the Shankill.

In the predominantly Protestant east of the city, an Orange parade also takes place along the Newtownards Road. At the bottom of the road is the Catholic enclave of the Short Strand, and here a gun battle breaks out between the IRA and Protestants, though the cause of it is disputed by both sides.

Violence erupts at St. Matthew’s Catholic church on the evening of June 27. It begins after a loyalist band and supporters march through the area on their return from the main parade. Rival groups gather, taunting leads to stone-throwing, and eventually, shots are fired.

As the situation worsens, Catholic residents fear that the gathering crowds of loyalists will attempt to invade the Short Strand and burn them from their homes. Local IRA members retrieve weapons from arms dumps. A young resident, Jim Gibney, recalls, “I saw neighbours, people I knew, coming down the street carrying rifles. I was just dumbstruck by this experience. I’d never seen such a thing before.”

The battle begins at about 10:00 p.m. and continues for the next five hours. Loyalists begin attacking the church and surrounding property with petrol bombs. A small house on the church grounds, where the sexton lives with his family, is set ablaze. A nearby Catholic pub is also looted and burned.

A small group of IRA members and members of the Citizens’ Defence Committee take up positions in the church grounds and in adjoining streets. The IRA members are armed with M1 carbines and are led by Billy McKee, commander of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade. Also present is Billy Kelly, commander of the Belfast Brigade’s 3rd Battalion. The IRA members fire at the loyalists, some of whom are positioned on the roofs opposite. Jim Magee, a local loyalist, sees wounded people lying on the road and asks the police (RUC) for help. According to Magee, “[they] said ‘if you have anything, get it out and protect your people.’ So we got an old rifle and went into Frazer Street and started firing back.”

The security forces are deployed in the area at the time but do not intervene to end the fighting. Shortly after the shooting begins, Stormont MP Paddy Kennedy goes with Short Strand residents to the local RUC base and demands protection for their homes. Across the River Lagan, in the Markets area, other IRA members assemble and prepare to reinforce the Short Strand should it be invaded. British soldiers eventually arrive in armoured vehicles and cordon off the roads around the Short Strand, which denies the IRA “any hope of reinforcement.” At the time, the British Army says that its soldiers fired no shots because “owing to the confused situation, it was impossible to identify targets.” British Army Colonel Mike Dewar later says, “The whole incident had taken its course because the Army was so chronically overstretched that night in Belfast. The one spare platoon in the whole of west Belfast was not able to get through rioting Protestants to the Short Strand.” Journalist Tony Geraghty writes that sometimes “The gunfire eased long enough to allow an occasional British Army personnel carrier (a ‘Pig‘) to whine past, illuminated by the flames in a token gesture of law-and-order.”

Another journalist who witnesses the battle, Peter Taylor, later says, “The shooting intensified but the soldiers still declined to intervene and separate the two sides – either because they felt they were not numerically strong enough or because they did not wish to get caught up in the middle of a sectarian fight, in the darkness, with shots being fired by both sides.”

Liz Maskey, who is a volunteer nurse that night, says that the Short Strand is surrounded by loyalists and claim they attacked her ambulance as it tried to leave the area.

The loyalists withdraw after about five hours, as dawn breaks. IRA leader Billy McKee claims that his unit had fired 800 rounds during the battle.

Three people are killed in the fighting. At least 26 are wounded, including Billy McKee, who is shot five times.

  • Robert Neill, a 38-year-old Protestant, died instantly when a shot fired from the church bounced off the pavement and hit him in the spine.
  • James McCurrie, a 34-year-old Protestant, is shot dead on Beechfield Street.
  • Henry McIlhone, a 33-year-old Catholic, is helping to defend Short Strand when he is accidentally shot from the republican side. He dies on June 29. However, McKee maintains that McIlhone is shot by loyalists. Tírghrá, the IRA’s official list of its fallen, lists McIlhone as a “volunteer” but adds “although not a member of the IRA, Henry McIlhone was included in the republican roll of honour as a mark of respect for this great Irishman by republican comrades he fought alongside.”

Republicans and loyalists disagree over who started the violence and fired the first shots. Republicans claim that the violence was started by a mob of loyalists returning from an Orange march. They say that the loyalists tried to set the church alight and invade Short Strand, with the intention of burning the residents from their homes. Hence, republicans argue that they were defending the Short Strand from a loyalist attack. Loyalists claim the violence was begun by republicans, allegedly when the returning Orangemen and supporters were attacked on Newtownards Road. They argue that republicans attacked Protestants to lure them into “a carefully prepared trap.”

The following day, loyalists expel 500 Catholic workers from the nearby Harland & Wolff shipyard. Shortly after, the British government’s representative at Stormont says that the decision to allow Orange marches to go ahead on that day was “the greatest single miscalculation I have ever seen made in the course of my life.”

Many Catholics and nationalists believe that the IRA had been unable to defend them during the August 1969 riots. However, it is argued that the IRA’s defence of Short Strand redeemed it in the eyes of many Catholics and nationalists. Prior to the gun battle, the IRA had been waiting for an opportunity to portray themselves as defenders of the Catholic community. Among republicans, the battle is seen as a key event in the growth of the Provisional IRA.

Less than a week later, the British Army seizes a large haul of Official IRA weapons during a three-day operation in west Belfast. Nationalists see this as a confiscation of their defences.


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The Clogheen Ambush

The Clogheen Ambush takes place in the early morning of March 23, 1921, as six members of “C” Company, First Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are shot by a party of Black and Tans and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) at a farm at Ballycannon, Clogheen, just outside Cork, County Cork, during the Irish War of Independence. The IRA believes that they have been betrayed by Patrick ‘Cruxy’ Connor. Connor has returned to Cork after the Coolavokig Ambush, which had taken place on February 25. Once in Cork he is soon arrested by the RIC for the possession of a revolver. The IRA believes that Connors broke down under interrogation and betrayed them.

Cornelius O’Keefe farms 105 acres at Ballycannon, on the road leading from Clogheen to Tower. His house is a known ”safe house” where volunteers can shelter when it is unsafe for them to sleep at home. On the farm there are secure hiding places for the guns and explosives with which they carry out their missions.

At 4:00 a.m on the morning of Wednesday, March 23, O’Keefe is awakened by the arrival of a large force of police. They break down the farm door with blows from their rifle butts. The family is ordered back to the bedrooms and the house is thoroughly searched. The British then search the farmyard, where six volunteers are discovered asleep in a barn. 

A local schoolteacher whose house overlooks the two fields outside the barn is awakened by the sound of gunshots at about 4:30 a.m., while it is still quite dark. He watches the lights moving around the farmyard. He hears one voice scream out and another shout “run for it.” He can barely see a man breaking away and running across the field. A volley of shots ring out and the man falls. Another man with a light walks toward the body. After ten minutes there are more shots but this time he sees nobody fall. Later he sees another man fleeing and more shots ring out. As the light increases, he identifies the men with guns as police. Later he watches as the police bring down bodies in blankets and lay them outside the house in the boreen, which leads from the O’Keeffe farmyard to the public road. Around 6:00 a.m. the bodies are placed in lorries which then drive away.

Meanwhile Cornelius O’Keeffe, the farm owner, is brought across the field where he sees five bodies laid out in blankets. He watches as they are placed in the lorries. In his sworn deposition he states that a sixth man is then brought out blindfolded, still alive, and is also put in the lorry. O’Keefe is put in a third lorry, which follows the other two to Victoria Barracks. There the first two lorries speed off and he loses sight of them. He is imprisoned in a cell in the Barracks and is kept there until on April 17, when he is finally released without charge.

The six IRA men killed are:

  • Daniel Crowley, aged 23. occupation plasterer,  of 171 Blarney Street, Cork
  • William Deasy, aged 20, of Mount Desert , Blarney Road, Cork
  • Thomas Dennehy, aged 21, of 104 Blarney Street, Cork
  • Daniel Murphy, aged 24. occupation pig buyer, of Orrery Hill, off Blarney Street , Cork
  • Jeremiah O’Mullane, aged 23, of 237 Blarney Street, Cork
  • Michael O’Sullivan, aged 20 of 281 Blarney Street ,Cork

(From: “Ballycannon, Clogheen – IRA ambushed by the British – 23 Mar 1921,” posted on http://www.theauxiliaries.com | Pictured: The Clogheen Ambush Memoral in County Cork)


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The Mullacreevie Ambush

The Mullacreevie ambush takes place on March 1, 1991, when a mobile patrol of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) composed of two Land Rover Defender vehicles is attacked with an improvised horizontal mortar by a Provisional Irish Republican Army active service unit from the North Armagh Brigade while passing near Mullacreevie housing estate, on the west side of Armagh, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. One member of the UDR is killed instantly when the leading Land Rover is hit, while another dies of wounds two days later. Two other soldiers are maimed for life.

According to author Tony Geraghty, British authorities learn of the first horizontal mortar produced by the Provisional IRA, the Mark 12, in 1985. The weapon is recovered after an incident in which three IRA volunteers are killed by security forces. The launcher suffers from the limitation of a heavy recoil, which makes the handling of the device difficult. One British intelligence report says that while the launcher is quite crude, the grenade is made of “a number of components which require a high standard of machine manufacturing.” The projectile has a warhead of 40 ounces (1.1 kg) of Semtex and TNT. It is used basically as a standoff weapon, in which the grenade is lofted over the security bases’ fences or against armoured vehicles. The mortar has an effective range of 70 yards, within which it can pierce an armour plate or destroy a sangar.

Later in the conflict the IRA develops the Mark 16, a new version with improved armour-piercing capabilities, usually referred to as a “projected recoilless improvised grenade.”

On the evening of March 1, 1991, a two-vehicle mobile patrol belonging to the 2nd Battalion, Ulster Defence Regiment is approaching the western outskirts of Armagh on Killylea road. When driving along Mullacreevie housing estate, the two Land Rovers are held by temporary traffic lights at roadworks. Unknown to them, an IRA unit from the North Armagh Brigade has set a Mark 12 launcher on a hump of earth in the front garden of a house beside the lights. After the incident, IRA sources describe the device as a “directional missile.”

When the first Land Rover pulls off after the lights turn green, the mortar ‘s improvised grenade is fired by command-wire from the backyard of the house by IRA members concealed behind a digger. The projectile hits the coachwork, blowing away both sides and the roof of the military vehicle. Witnesses report that the Land Rover was “ripped apart.” The soldiers inside are immediately assisted by fellow UDR members, who help to drag the wounded out of the shattered wreckage.

Private Paul Sutcliffe, a 32-year-old Englishman who has served for four years with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment before becoming a UDR soldier in 1989, dies on the spot. The driver, Private Roger Love, a 20-year-old from Portadown, succumbs to his injuries three days later. Two other servicemen are maimed by the explosion. One of them suffers severe chest wounds, and loses the use of one arm; the other has a leg amputated below the knee.

The ambush at Mullacreevie is the first time that a Mark 12 mortar is used successfully.

Roger Love’s family donates the deceased soldier’s kidneys after they authorize the medical staff to disconnect the life-supporting machine. A UDR party attends Paul Sutcliffe’s funeral at his hometown of Barrowford, Lancashire, the only UDR military funeral held outside Northern Ireland. His ashes are scattered in the Mourne Mountains.

Another horizontal mortar attack on a UDR mobile patrol takes place on November 6, when Private Michael Boxall is killed in Bellaghy, County Londonderry, after the Land Rover he is riding on is hit by a Mark 12 grenade. A fellow soldier loses one eye in the attack. Incidentally, constable Erik Clarke, another Englishmen who had also served in the British Army in Northern Ireland from 1973 to 1978, is killed that year by the same kind of weapon while riding on a combined Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) – British Army mobile patrol in an early Mark 12 attack. The incident takes place on September 17 at Swatragh, County Londonderry. Clarke had married a local woman and later joined the RUC.

The Mark 12 mortar is used by the IRA until 1993, when it is superseded by the Mark 16. The Mark 16 is fired on eleven occasions by the IRA from late 1993 to early 1994.


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1978 British Army Gazelle Helicopter Downing

On February 17, 1978, a British Army Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter, serial number XX404, goes down near Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, after being fired at by a Provisional Irish Republican Army unit from the South Armagh Brigade. The IRA unit is involved at the time in a gun battle with a Royal Green Jackets observation post deployed in the area, and the helicopter is sent in to support the ground troops. The helicopter crashes after the pilot loses control of the aircraft while evading ground fire.

Lieutenant Colonel Ian Douglas Corden-Lloyd, 2nd Battalion Green Jackets commanding officer, dies in the crash. The incident is overshadowed in the press by the La Mon restaurant bombing, which takes place just hours later near Belfast.

By early 1978, the British Army forces involved in Operation Banner have recently replaced their aging Bell H-13 Sioux helicopters for the more versatile Aérospatiale Gazelles. The introduction of the new machines increases the area covered on a reconnaissance sortie as well as the improved time spent in airborne missions. In the same period, the Provisional IRA receives its first consignment of M60 machine guns from the Middle East, which are displayed by masked volunteers during a Bloody Sunday commemoration in Derry. Airborne operations are crucial for the British presence along the border, especially in south County Armagh, where the level of IRA activity means that every supply and soldier has to be ferried in and out of their bases by helicopter since 1975.

The Royal Green Jackets have been in South Armagh since December 1977, and have already seen some action. Just a few days after arrival, two mortar rounds hit the C Company base at Forkhill, injuring a number of soldiers. In the aftermath of the attack, two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers are wounded by a booby trap while recovering the lorry where the mortar tubes are mounted. Two days later, a patrol near the border suffers a bomb and gun attack, leaving the commanding sergeant with severe head wounds. The sergeant is picked up from the scene by helicopter. He is later invalided from the British Army as a result of his injuries.

On January 17, 1978, a Royal Green Jackets observation post deployed around the village of Jonesborough begins to take heavy fire from the “March Wall,” which draws parallel with the Irish border to the east, along the Dromad woods. The soldiers return fire, but the short distance to the border and the open ground prevents them from advancing.

The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Corden-Lloyd, along with Captain Philip Schofield and Sergeant Ives fly from the battalion base at Bessbrook Mill to assess the situation and provide information to the troops. They are escorted by a Scout helicopter with an Airborne Reaction Force (ARF), comprising a medic and three soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Light Infantry. While hovering over the scene of the engagement, the Aérospatiale Gazelle receives a barrage of 7.62 mm tracer rounds. The pilot loses control of the aircraft during a turn at high speed to avoid the stream of fire. The Aérospatiale Gazelle hits a wall and crashes in a field, some 2 km from Jonesborough. According to the crew and passengers of the Scout, the Aérospatiale Gazelle hits the ground twice after losing power, with its rotor blades trashing into the soil following the second impact, and then cartwheels across the field. The Scout lands the ARF while still under IRA fire. The soldiers rush to the wrecked helicopter, some 100 metres away from the site of the initial crash.

Corden-Lloyd is killed and the other two passengers are wounded. The machine comes to rest on its right side. The pilot remains trapped inside the wreckage, but he survives thanks to his helmet. The IRA later claim they had shot at the helicopter with an M60 machine gun. The IRA unit vanishes into the Dromad woods to the Republic of Ireland. Some Gardaí witness the attack from the other side of the border.

The gun battle and Aérospatiale Gazelle shootdown is displaced from the headlines by the deaths of twelve civilians in the La Mon restaurant bombing on the same day, some of whom are burned to death. Initially the British Army downplays the IRA’s claim as published by An Phoblacht, that the helicopter was shot down, on the basis that no hits were found on the wreckage, but finally they acknowledged that the IRA action had caused the crash.

The death of Corden-Lloyd, a former Special Air Service officer, is deeply regretted by the British Army, who regarded him as promising. He is awarded a posthumous mentioned in despatches “in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Northern Ireland.” In 1973, Irish republicans had accused Corden-Lloyd and his subordinates of brutality against Belfast Catholics during an earlier tour of the Royal Green Jackets in 1971, at the time of Operation Demetrius.


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Anti-Treaty IRA Raid Ballyconnell, County Cavan

On the morning of February 5, 1923, at about 7:00 a.m., fifty well-armed anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) fighters descend on Ballyconnell, County Cavan, from the hills in a military lorry and several cars. The guerrillas, armed with rifles and three machine guns, stop the train to nearby Ballinamore so that word will not get out to adjacent Irish Free State garrisons and then go in search of those they hold responsible for the death of anti-Treaty IRA volunteer Michael Cull during a raid on Ballyconnell on January 6.

At Oven’s grocery, the proprietor, William Ovens, is shot through the thigh and badly wounded. One of his employees, William Ryan, is dragged out and shot dead. According to the local press, the guerrillas shout “was it you who shot Cull?” at Ryan before they shoot him. His 80 year old father follows the fighters through the streets, shouting “murder, murder.”

Sean McGrath, an Irish language teacher, originally from Galway, is also dragged out of bed and shot dead, apparently for no other reason than that he is lodging at the home of Free State supporter, John Dunn.

The guerrillas proceed to bomb and burn out three shops, including the car dealership and the Post Office, and to smash the windows of the other premises with shots and rifle butts. The Ulster Bank branch is robbed of £200 and two Ford cars are seized. After a rampage of 35 minutes, the IRA column re-mounts their vehicles and heads back toward the Arigna hills, leaving the little town partially in flames, pockmarked with bullet holes and mourning the death of two of its citizens.

According to the pro-Treaty National Army, “Our troops in Belturbet got word of the raid, and immediately set out in all their transport. They were joined en route by two Fords of troops from Cavan, and all proceeded to Ballyconnell, where they arrived shortly after 9 o’clock. They followed the Irregulars past Ballinamore, but failed to get in touch with them.”

The ruthlessness of the reprisal at Ballyconnell – the premeditated assault on civilians – shocks pro-Treaty opinion. For the Free State government it exemplifies the irrationality and criminality of what they called the “Irregulars.” Such madness justifies the government’s repressive measures, particularly the executions of republican prisoners which had been going on since November of the previous year.

Kevin O’Higgins, Minister for Home Affairs and hard-line supporter of the executions policy, says, “I want to combat the view that it was a natural thing to expect that a body of Irishmen would descend upon this little town and proceed to murder their fellow-citizens. It was not a natural thing. It is perhaps the most unnatural thing that has happened since this unnatural strife began.”

Within a week, a National Army expedition is dispatched to the West Cavan/ Leitrim area in considerable strength to root out Ned Bofin’s anti-Treaty column, which had carried out the Ballyconnell raid. They report that “the people are delighted at our presence and their only fear is that we might leave” but are afraid to give information. “Our only concern,” they report, “is the remarkable agility of the Irregulars in retreating from an engagement with us.”

If one is to believe the National Army version, the Irregulars are simply cowardly bandits without any public support and the conflict in the border region would evaporate with the presence in strength of government troops. And if one is to take the Ballyconnell reprisal alone, this would appear to make sense. However, looked at a little more closely, it is clear that the Irish Civil War in this region is a complex web of national and local conflicts, that the Ballyconnell incident is only the culmination of the collapse of Free State authority in the area over several months.

(From: “The Tragedies of Ballyconnell” by John Dorney, The Irish Story, http://www.theirishstory.com, June 2014 | Pictured: The main street in Ballyconnell in the early 20th century)


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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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The 1978 Crossmaglen Ambush

On December 21, 1978, three British soldiers are shot dead when the Provisional Irish Republican Army‘s South Armagh Brigade ambushes an eight-man British Army foot patrol in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Since the Troubles began, the South Armagh area—especially around Crossmaglen and other similar republican strongholds—is one of the most dangerous places for the British security forces, and the IRA’s South Armagh brigade carries out numerous ambushes on the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). This includes the 1975 Drummuckavall ambush and the 1978 downing of a British Army Gazelle helicopter which leads to the death of one British soldier and four others being seriously injured.

A number of British security force members are killed in Crossmaglen during 1978. On March 4, British soldier Nicholas Smith (20), 7 Platoon, B Company, 2nd Royal Green Jackets, is killed by an IRA booby trap bomb while attempting to remove an Irish flag from a telegraph pole in Crossmaglen. On June 17, William Turbitt (42) and Hugh McConnell (32), both Protestant RUC officers, are shot by the IRA while on mobile patrol near Crossmaglen. McConnell is killed at the scene, but Turbitt is kidnapped. The next day, a Catholic priest, Fr. Hugh Murphy, is kidnapped in retaliation but later released after appeals from Protestant clergy. The body of Turbitt is found on July 10, 1978.

On December 21, 1978, when the patrol is near Rio’s Bar coming around a bend, a red Royal Mail-type van is spotted by the patrols commander Sergeant Richard Garmory. The van is fitted with armor plating and is facing away from the patrol. Garmory believes the van is in a suspicious place on the other side of the street. He notes what appear to be boxes in the back of the van, which actually provide cover for the IRA Volunteers. IRA members open fire from the back of the van with an M60 machine gun which is fitted down onto the floor in the back of the van. Three other IRA volunteers armed with AR-15-style rifles and another Volunteer with an AK-47 open up on the patrol. The British soldiers on patrol return fire but do not claim any hits. A handful of Christmas shoppers scramble for cover. Three soldiers at the front of the patrol are fatally wounded. They are treated by staff at a nearby health center and then taken to Musgrave Park Hospital but are declared dead on arrival. The soldiers killed are Graham Duggan (22), Kevin Johnson (20) and Glen Ling (18). All are members of the British Armies Grenadier Guards regiment. The patrol commander, Richard Garmory, says of the ambush:

On coming round the bend near the Rio Bar, I saw 40 yards away what looked like a British Rail parcel delivery van parked partly on the pavement on the left facing away from us. It had an 18-inch tailboard with a roll shutter that could be pulled down. The van immediately struck me as highly suspicious because I saw what looked like cardboard boxes piled to the top in the back, all flush with the tailboard so they would fall out if the van moved off fast. I instantaneously put my magnifying sight to my to my eye and saw four firing slits, two above the other two, among the boxes. I immediately opened fire.

Four months later the South Armagh brigade strikes again at British security forces, this time near Bessbrook which is several miles from Crossmaglen. Four RUC officers are killed in the 1979 Bessbrook bombing, when a 1,000 lb. land mine is detonated when the RUC patrol is passing by the bomb, killing all the officers outright.

(Pictured: South Armagh Brigade, Provisional Irish Republican Army, manning a temporary checkpoint close to Crossmaglen, 1978)


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Death of Séamus Dwyer, Irish Politician

Séamus Dwyer, Pro-Treaty politician, is shot dead at his shop in Rathmines, Dublin, by Anti-Treaty fighters on December 20, 1922.

Dwyer is born in Dublin on November 15, 1886.

Serving as an intelligence officer for the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and as a Dáil Court judge he is imprisoned by the British in 1921. He is elected unopposed at the 1921 Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland general election for the Dublin County constituency as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) in the 2nd Dáil. He votes in favour of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He stands as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin candidate at the 1922 Irish general election but is not elected.

Dwyer runs a off-licence/grocery shop in Rathmines and is a member of the Rathmines Urban Council. He marries Marie Molloy in 1914, they have no children. He is a member of the Peace Committee of ten men which sit in May 1922 and bring about the agreement between Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

On December 20, 1922, Dwyer is shot dead in his shop at 5 Rathmines Road, Dublin, by anti-Treaty IRA Volunteer Robert Bonfield. At about 4:50 p.m., Dwyer is talking to a customer when a young man enters the shop. Addressing Dwyer, the young man asks “Are you Mr. O’Dwyer?” Dwyer replies yes and the young man says that he has a note for him. The young man reaches into the pocket of his overcoat a draws a revolver. He fires twice at Dwyer at point-blank range and he dies instantly. The customer and a shop assistant give chase but are unable to catch the assassin. Two republicans, Frank Lawlor and the actual assassin, Robert Bonfield, are later killed by Free State forces in revenge for the shooting of Dwyer.

Dwyer is buried in Plot UA 67 South Section, Glasnevin Cemetery, Glasnevin, County Dublin.


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Death of Oliver St. John Gogarty, Poet, Author, Athlete & Politician

Oliver Joseph St. John Gogarty, Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, dies in New York City on September 22, 1957. He serves as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce‘s novel Ulysses.

Gogarty is born on August 17, 1878, in Rutland Square, Dublin. In 1887, his father dies of a burst appendix, and he is sent to Mungret College, a boarding school near Limerick. He is unhappy in his new school, and the following year he transfers to Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England, which he likes little better, later referring to it as “a religious jail.” He returns to Ireland in 1896 and boards at Clongowes Wood College while studying for examinations with the Royal University of Ireland. In 1898, he switches to the medical school at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), having failed eight of his ten examinations at the Royal.

A serious interest in poetry and literature begins to manifest itself during his years at TCD. In 1900, he makes the acquaintance of W. B. Yeats and George Moore and begins to frequent Dublin literary circles. In 1904 and 1905 he publishes several short poems in the London publication The Venture and in John Eglinton‘s journal Dana. His name also appears in print as the renegade priest Fr. Oliver Gogarty in George Moore’s 1905 novel The Lake.

In 1905, Gogarty becomes one of the founding members of Arthur Griffith‘s Sinn Féin, a non-violent political movement with a plan for Irish autonomy modeled after the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy.

In July 1907, his first son, Oliver Duane Odysseus Gogarty, is born, and in autumn of that year he leaves for Vienna to finish the practical phase of his medical training. Returning to Dublin in 1908, he secures a post at Richmond Hospital, and shortly afterward purchases a house in Ely Place opposite George Moore. Three years later, he joins the staff of the Meath Hospital and remains there for the remainder of his medical career.

As a Sinn Féiner during the Irish War of Independence, Gogarty participates in a variety of anti-Black and Tan schemes, allowing his home to be used as a safe house and transporting disguised Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers in his car. Following the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he sides with the pro-Treaty government and is made a Free State Senator. He remains a senator until the abolition of the Seanad in 1936, during which time he identifies with none of the existing political parties and votes according to his own whims.

Gogarty maintains close friendships with many of the Dublin literati and continues to write poetry in the midst of his political and professional duties. He also tries his hand at playwriting, producing a slum drama in 1917 under the pseudonym “Alpha and Omega,” and two comedies in 1919 under the pseudonym “Gideon Ouseley,” all three of which are performed at the Abbey Theatre. He devotes less energy to his medical practice and more to his writing during the twenties and thirties.

With the onset of World War II, Gogarty attempts to enlist in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a doctor. He is denied on grounds of age. He then departs in September 1939 for an extended lecture tour in the United States, leaving his wife to manage Renvyle House, which has since been rebuilt as a hotel. When his return to Ireland is delayed by the war, he applies for American citizenship and eventually decides to reside permanently in the United States. Though he regularly sends letters, funds, and care-packages to his family and returns home for occasional holiday visits, he never again lives in Ireland for any extended length of time.

Gogarty suffers from heart complaints during the last few years of his life, and in September 1957 he collapses in the street on his way to dinner. He dies on September 22, 1957. His body is flown home to Ireland and buried in Cartron Church, Moyard, near Renvyle, County Galway.

(Pictured: 1911 portrait of Oliver St. John Gogarty painted by Sir William Orpen, currently housed at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland)


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Birth of Pat “Beag” McGeown, Provisional IRA Volunteer

Pat “Beag” McGeown, a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who takes part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike, is born in the Beechmount area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on on September 3, 1956.

McGeown joins the IRA’s youth wing, Fianna Éireann, in 1970. He is first arrested at the age of 14, and in 1973 he is again arrested and interned in Long Kesh Detention Centre until 1974. In November 1975, he is arrested and charged with possession of explosives, bombing the Europa Hotel, and IRA membership. At his trial in 1976 he is convicted and receives a five-year sentence for IRA membership and two concurrent fifteen-year sentences for the bombing and possession of explosives, and is imprisoned at Long Kesh with Special Category Status.

In March 1978, McGeown attempts to escape along with Brendan McFarlane and Larry Marley. The three have wire cutters and dress as prison officers, complete with wooden guns. The escape is unsuccessful, and results in McGeown receiving an additional six-month sentence and the loss of his Special Category Status.

McGeown is transferred into the Long Kesh Detention Centre’s H-Blocks where he joins the blanket protest and dirty protest, attempting to secure the return of Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. He describes the conditions inside the prison during the dirty protest in a 1985 interview:

“There were times when you would vomit. There were times when you were so run down that you would lie for days and not do anything with the maggots crawling all over you. The rain would be coming in the window and you would be lying there with the maggots all over the place.“

In late 1980, the protest escalates and seven prisoners take part in a fifty-three-day hunger strike, aimed at restoring political status by securing what are known as the “Five Demands:”

  1. The right not to wear a prison uniform.
  2. The right not to do prison work.
  3. The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits.
  4. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.
  5. Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.

The strike ends before any prisoners die and without political status being secured. A second hunger strike begins on March 1, 1981, led by Bobby Sands, the IRA’s former Officer Commanding (OC) in the prison. McGeown joins the strike on July 9, after Sands and four other prisoners have starved themselves to death. Following the deaths of five other prisoners, his family authorises medical intervention to save his life after he lapses into a coma on August 20, the 42nd day of his hunger strike.

McGeown is released from prison in 1985, resuming his active role in the IRA’s campaign and also working for Sinn Féin, the republican movement’s political wing. In 1988, he is charged with organising the Corporals killings, an incident where two plain-clothes British Army soldiers are killed by the IRA. At an early stage of the trial his solicitor, Pat Finucane, argues there is insufficient evidence against McGeown, and the charges are dropped in November 1988. McGeown and Finucane are photographed together outside Crumlin Road Courthouse, a contributing factor to Finucane being killed by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in February 1989. Despite suffering from heart disease as a result of his participation in the hunger strike, McGeown is a member of Sinn Féin’s Ard Chomhairle and is active in its Prisoner of War Department. In 1993, he is elected to Belfast City Council.

McGeown is found dead in his home on October 1, 1996, after suffering a heart attack. Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin says his death is “a great loss to Sinn Féin and the republican struggle.” McGeown is buried in the republican plot at Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery. His death is often referred to as the “11th hunger striker.” In 1998, the Pat McGeown Community Endeavour Award is launched by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, with Adams describing McGeown as “a modest man with a quiet, but total dedication to equality and raising the standard of life for all the people of the city.” A plaque in memory of McGeown is unveiled outside the Sinn Féin headquarters on the Falls Road on November 24, 2001, and a memorial plot on Beechmount Avenue is dedicated to the memory of McGeown, Kieran Nugent and Alec Comerford on March 3, 2002.