The man, who has the official title of \u0026#039;officer commanding\u0026#039; South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the \u0026#039;Northern Command\u0026#039;, the ruling body which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. . It is not clear how the 'OC' came to be exposed as an agent but he is believed to have been recruited by British Intelligence in the late 1980s or early 1990s. From that point on the south Armagh OC and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25% of their earnings to the IRA. The new Irish Sea Border: What does it mean? It is within the Ring of Gullion and in the 2011 Census it had a recorded population of 498. Then, in January 1976, after a series of loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attacks on Catholic civilians in the border areas (including the Reavey and O'Dowd killings the previous day), the group shot and killed ten Protestant workmen in the "Kingsmill massacre" near Bessbrook. const selectedRegional = localStorage.getItem('selectedRegionals'); } In March 1989, two senior RUC officers were killed in an ambush near Jonesborough. console.log('observer.observe failed:', e); Fri 19 Mar 1999 23.07 EST. Lost Lives, the chronology which attempts to list the name of everyone who died in the Troubles, mistakenly claims that the bombing occurred in, 16 June Terence McKeever, a 31-year-old Armagh businessman is abducted and then shot dead by the Provisional IRA, with his body being left near the village of, 21 March INLA member Kevin Barry Duffy is shot dead in the grounds of, 25 September 22-year-old UDR member Stephen McKinney is shot dead by the Provisional IRA on the Cabragh Road on the outskirts of Armagh. in Britain", "Closure of the Maze: All Out; Terrorist killers and bombers are freed from jail", "Murder verdicts quashed in Ulster sectarian killing", "AN IRISHMAN'S DIARY Kevin Myers on the Anne Marie Smyth case", "Lives lost in 'peace': Chris Thornton on Stephen Manners", "Two policemen killed in separate Ulster attacks", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Troubles_in_Armagh&oldid=1118192779, All Wikipedia articles written in Hiberno-English, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 14 August 1969 John Gallagher, a 30 year old married father of three children, became one of the first victims of the Troubles after being shot in the back by, 10 August Norman Watson, a 53 year old Protestant civilian and member of the, 29 March Ruby Johnson, a 38 year old Protestant civilian from Ballintemple near, 26 April Lawrence Jubb, a 22 year old soldier with the, 7 August In the third incident of its kind to take place within a small area of the city that year, Geoffrey Knipe, a 24 year old soldier from, 25 October John Michael Morrell, a 32 year old soldier from, 15 December Frederick Greeves, a 40 year old member of the, 18 December William Johnson, a 48 year old local elected councillor for the, 7 April Jake McGerrigan, a 17 year old member of the Official IRA, is shot dead in the Druid's Villas area by British troops of the, 9 April Two days after the death of Jake McGerrigan, his friend and fellow Official IRA man 20-year-old Tony Hughes is shot dead in nearby Culdee by members of the, 13 August William McIlveen, a 36 year old part-time member of the, 27 August Kenneth Hill, a 24 year old corporal in the UDR, is shot dead in a gun battle with the Provisional IRA in the Culdee area of the city. South Armagh IRA rocked as 'OC' is outed as a 'tout' - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk "I think we have to remember that in the vast majority of cases, the police and security forces acted with integrity, courage and professionalism." Theresa Villiers Se0samh Well-known member Joined Dec 8, 2011 Messages 15,782 Aug 8, 2016 #2 death or glory said: According to the victim's sister-in-law, who was present at the time of the incident, two masked men entered demanding money and fired two shots into the ceiling when Corrigan refused to hand over any cash. (function () { window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; vars.article.userWall = 'none'; subscriptionFinishDate: '', [46] The last major action of the brigade before the last IRA ceasefire was a mortar attack on Newtownhamilton RUC/Army barracks, on 12 July 1997. !gigyaID ? 13 April 38-year-old Territorial Army sergeant Trevor Elliott from Alexander Gardens in the city is shot dead by the Provisional IRA as he walked from his shop in Keady, south Armagh. His killing happened one day before his 30th birthday. [47] The Omagh bombing of August 1998, a botched Real IRA operation which killed 29 civilians, was prepared by dissident republicans in South Armagh. Nine of these were killed in the February 1985 Newry mortar attack. The IRA wrongly claimed that he was a serving member of the, 18 May Gavin McShane (17) and Shane McArdle (17), both Catholic civilians, were shot dead by the, 21 May Reginald McCollum (19), an off-duty member of the, This page was last edited on 25 October 2022, at 17:26. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. window.loadGTM(); if (vars.article.wallType === 'registration') { The following August, two RUC constables were killed by a car bomb in Crossmaglen. By the time of the final IRA ceasefire in August 1997 the south Armagh IRA leadership was already heavily involved in fuel and cigarette smuggling. "The fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead. Tweets & replies. {"gigya.api.key":"4_CO8231Ix1RbYi2EmMbsrlw","gigya.screenset":"Default-RegistrationLogin","gigya.mobile.screenset":"Default-RegistrationLogin","gigya.authFlow.redirect":"true","gigya.check.enabled":"true","gigya.check.host":"gigya-check.independent.ie","competitions.submit.endpoint":"https://competitions-api.independent.ie/entries","competitions.api.key":"0b15feaa-62b2-45a2-8244-723a9e80748e","subscriptionwall.cookie-domain":".independent.ie","subscriptionwall.metered.missing.fields":"data.occupation,data.phone,data.salutation,data.yearofbirth,profile.firstName,profile.lastName","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.home-delivery":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/home-delivery/","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.premium-plus":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/premium-plus/","subscriptionwall.welcome_url.premium":"https://subscribe.independent.ie/welcome/premium/","kaching.enabled":"true","outbrain.kaching.enabled":"true","quantcast.enabled":"false","didomi.enabled":"true","newsletter.subscribe_url":"https://member.independent.ie/quicksubscribe/IN:Daily/subscribe","social-embed-consent-wall.enabled":"true","homepage.regional.sections.mapping":"Cork:regionals/corkman/:corkman,Dublin:regionals/dublin/:dublin,Kerry:regionals/kerryman/:kerryman,Louth:regionals/louth/:louth,Sligo:regionals/sligochampion/:sligochampion,Wexford:regionals/wexford/:wexford,Wicklow:regionals/wicklow/:wicklow","active_cmp":"didomi"} {"url":"https://shared.mediahuis.be/ka-ching/independent/ka-ching.umd.js?20210830","adunit":"m.independent.ie/Irish_News","targeting":{"art_id":"34944633","article_id":"34944633","kw":["South","Armagh","IRA","rocked","as","OC","is","outed","as","a","tout"],"gs_channels":["gs_notprocessed"],"article_type":"standard"},"platform":"MOB","pageType":"Article","lazyload":true} {"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"South Armagh IRA rocked as \u0026#039;OC\u0026#039; is outed as a \u0026#039;tout\u0026#039;","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Independent.ie","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://m.independent.ie/theme/_base/"},"@id":"independent.ie"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.independent.ie/incoming/65cdb/34944440.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/provos.jpg","height":"700","width":"1240"},"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.independent.ie/"},"dateCreated":"2016-08-06T22:16:02.000Z","dateModified":"2016-08-06T22:40:34.000Z","datePublished":"2016-08-07T01:30:00Z","keywords":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://www.independent.ie/incoming/65cdb/34944440.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/provos.jpg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jim Cusack"},"description":"The second most senior IRA man in South Armagh is being \u0026#039;protected\u0026#039; amid claims that he worked as an agent for British intelligence, according to usually reliable security sources. Since then the security forces travel by helicopter for security reasons.". In an area with a population of 23,000, the British Army stationed around 3,000 troops in support of the RUC to contain an unknown number of paramilitaries. if (!! 'false' : 'true'; Overview of The Troubles in Armagh City, Northern Ireland, "Irish Police Face Peril of 'Murder Mile', "Issues: Violence McKittrick, Kelters, Feeney and Thornton (1999) Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles", "Madden and Finucane Closing Submissions (including excerpts from The Scarman Report)", "Five injured as Staffords are lured into Armagh booby trap", "Newton Emerson: Licensing next war is Adams's real legacy", "Calls for 'honesty' and inquiry over Troubles-related killings", "Paramilitary Feuds in Northern Ireland A Chronology of Events", "Gunmen Shoot Part-time Soldier, IRA Claims Responsibility", "Police inspector shot dead in Northern Ireland", "I.R.A. Men from the area also took part in IRA campaigns in the 1940 and 1950s. }).map(function (key) { They had been for a night out in the, 28 April - Eric Smyth, a 40-year-old ex-member of the UDR, is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at the front of his home on Salter's Grange Road, on the outskirts of Armagh. } !gigyaID ? Elliott was press officer for the Armagh branch of the. These bases acted as information-gathering centres and also allowed the British Army to patrol South Armagh more securely. He retired as president of Ireland's District Court and in 2006 went on to lead a tribunal of inquiry into alleged Garda collusion in the 1989 murders of two RUC officers in south Armagh. The unveiling involved a large republican parade which failed to comply with the procedures of the Parades Commission. In 2014, an article appeared in the Sinn Fin newspaper, 17 December The Officer Commanding (OC) of the Armagh city Provisional IRA, 33-year-old Sean McIlvenna, is killed by the RUC in, 17 February Catholic prison officer Patrick Kerr is shot dead by the Provisional IRA on his 37th birthday as he left 10.30 a.m Mass with his children at, 21 February 30-year-old Catholic RUC member Frank Murphy is shot dead by the Provisional IRA at the gates of Drumsallen Primary School on the Battleford Road just outside Armagh city. mutations.forEach((mutation) => { Earlier in the day two large no-warning car bombs left by the loyalist. But the snipers also lost a number of their most skilled members, such as Mchel Caraher, who were arrested and imprisoned just weeks before the second ceasefire. subscriptionStartDate: '0000-00-00T00:00:00Z', The team was eventually rounded up and arrested in an operation by the British Army's SAS near Crossmaglen in April 1997. } Stock Image: GETTY, 'Explosive device ready to go' found in major dissident republican arms dump, Suspect held for massacre of Protestants 40 years ago, Man arrested by police investigating Denis Donaldson murder, Woman aged over 100 shocked by electricity bill demand for nearly 1,000, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is told, Woman was beaten, kicked, scalded and then splashed with ammonia by man in Limerick ordeal, Niall Collins statement to Dil not likely until next week, 7m redevelopment of one of Ireland's most famous estate gardens to deliver tourism boost for south east, One-in-seven cars bought last month was electric, Enoch Burke case review fails to go ahead after teacher turns up late for court, Mystery over why ministers controversial planning application was listed under Neil Collins, Woman arrested after threatening McDonalds staff over curry sauce, Retired teacher who died in hospital was not reviewed by any consultant for five days due to Christmas holidays, inquest told, Kilkenny stabbing victim is named locally, while man well-known to him remains in garda custody, Irish truckers fear losing out in new Northern Ireland trade deal struck between Rishi Sunak and Ursula Von der Leyen, Fire fighters battling huge blaze at Wexford General Hospital, Weve no Oscars, but weve got soul, says Debenhams 406 Days film producer, More than 10,000 patients left waiting on trolleys during the month of February says INMO, Jaden Umehs double helps Ireland U15s to victory over Wales, Daisy Jones and other biopics of the best bands that never existed, Irish Film and Television Awards to take place in May with Deirdre OKane as host, Fingal commuters have to deal with countless phantom buses and late arrivals, Dil told, Arsenal v Everton: All you need to know about tonights Premier League clash, Video compares noise around Dublin Airport before and after flight paths were changed, Gary Gannon in hysterics after primary school student calls him ginger, Zendaya appears to reject Paul Mescals offer of his arm at SAG Awards 2023, Fans take over from Lewis Capaldi as he suffers Tourettes symptoms on stage, Stigma receding? const subscriberCookieStatus = getCookie(subscriberCookieName) || '{}'; [7] The RUC recorded 1,255 bombings and 1,158 shootings around a radius of ten miles from the geographic centre of South Armagh in the same period. 18 October 67-year-old Protestant Herbert John Anderson is shot dead by the Provisional IRA who ambushed his taxi on the Armagh to, 19 April Agnes Wallace (40), a Prison Officer, was killed and three female colleagues were injured in an, 2 June Alan Dunne (36), an off-duty member of the RUC, and David Stinson (32), a, 9 June Peadar McElvenna, a 24-year-old Provisional IRA member from Convent Close in the city, is shot dead after an IRA attack on the RUC barracks in Keady, south Armagh. After this, 24 security force personnel and Lord Justice Gibson and his wife were killed in the same areas, roughly a third of the previous yearly rate. The men were taken out of their minibus and then . By the time of the final IRA ceasefire in August 1997, the South Armagh IRA leadership was already heavily involved in fuel and cigarette smuggling and it is believed that the British struck a deal whereby the IRA leaders could continue to benefit from the illicit trade, so long as no further attacks on security forces or bomb attacks on commercial targets took place. } catch (e) { const isGrantedBy = function (grant) { McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56. He had just finished his last shift in the regiment when he was shot outside his home. Paul Reece of the, 16 October 25-year-old Tony McClelland, from the Drumarg estate in Armagh city, died during a, 2 April 23-year-old RUC man Kenneth Acheson from Ballynahone Drive in the city dies when a Provisional IRA booby-trap bomb explodes under his car as he drives home from. The man, who has the official title of 'officer commanding' South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA, is also a member of the 'Northern Command', the ruling body which effectively ran the organisation from the early 1980s. const cookieExpiryInSeconds = 60 * 60 * 24 * 30; He is said to have given the order for the brutal beating, which turned into the murder of Paul Quinn, the innocent 21-year-old who happened to have been involved in a violent row with another local Provo who had assaulted a young woman in October 2007. The capture of the sniper team was the single major success for the security forces in South Armagh in more than a decade,[44] and was arguably among the most important of the Troubles,[45] but by then, the IRA and Sinn Fin had achieved huge political gains towards their long-term goals. cookieValue = decodeURIComponent(cookieValue); try { From that point onwards, the South Armagh 'OC' and his associates became millionaires while continuing to donate a reputed 25pc of their earnings to the 'movement'. return 'home-delivery'; [17] Corden-Lloyd's subordinates had been accused of brutality against Catholic civilians in Belfast in 1971. The incident caused outrage among South Armagh residents, provided the IRA with many new recruits and created a hostile climate where local people were prepared to tolerate the killing of security force members. Sorry, we couldn't find what you're looking for. 18 April IPLO member Martin Corrigan from Railway Street in the city is shot dead by British Army soldiers at Kinnego, a few miles from Armagh. The second most senior IRA man in South Armagh is being 'protected' amid claims that he worked as an agent for British intelligence, according to usually reliable security sources. When they arrived, they were surrounded by 16 SAS men, who ordered them to surrender. [16] While loyalist attacks on Catholics temporarily declined afterwards and many Protestants became more reluctant to help the UVF, the massacre caused considerable controversy in the republican movement. if (eventType === 'access_resolved' || eventType === 'access_resolved ') { McGinn, who laughed when he received his life sentence, died in December 2013 from a suspected heart attack in Monaghan town, aged 56. [9] After the split in the IRA in that year, the South Armagh unit sided with the Provisional IRA rather than the Official IRA. document.head.append(script); [5] Between 1970 and 1997 the brigade was responsible for the deaths of 165 members of British security forces (123 British soldiers and 42 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers). RM2HX09AC - File photo dated 7/8/2011 of Peter Smithwick, the senior judge who led an inquiry into claims of Garda/IRA collusion into the murder of two RUC officers, has died aged 85. . `` patrol South Armagh more securely Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across the! It had a recorded population of 498 the Parades Commission & quot ; the fools, the fools, fools! Ring of Gullion and in the day two large no-warning car bombs left by loyalist! ', e ) ; Fri 19 Mar 1999 23.07 EST the security travel. Page across from the area also took part in IRA campaigns in the February 1985 mortar! 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