Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
1st December
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Monday 1 December 1969
Patrick Corry (61) died four months after being struck with batons during an altercation with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) on 2 August 1969.
Friday 1 December 1972
Two Killed by Bombs in Dublin Two people were killed and 127 injured when two car bombs exploded in the centre of Dublin, Republic of Ireland. At 7.58pm a car bomb detonated in Eden Quay close to Liberty Hall, Dublin.
At 8.16pm the second car bomb exploded in Sackville Place (near O’Connell Street), Dublin.
Two men, George Bradshaw (30) and Thomas Duff (23) both CIE bus conductors, were killed in the second explosion. An inadequate warning had been telephoned to the ‘Newsletter’ (a Belfast based newspaper) by a man with an English accent a few minutes before the first explosion.
[No organisation claimed responsibility for the bombings but blame initially fell on the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Much later suspicion fell on the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). At the time of the explosions the Dáil had been debating the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill. The amendment would have given the State much greater powers against the IRA. In particular it meant that suspected members of paramilitary groups could be sentenced on the word of a senior police officer in front of three judges. Prior to the explosions many commentators felt the Bill would fail. However following the explosions there was a one-hour adjournment after which Fine Gael (FG) abstained in the vote and the amendment was passed. In 1973 two English brothers, Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn claimed, during a robbery trial, that they were British agents who had been ordered to infiltrate the Official IRA. They claimed to have acted as ‘agent provocateurs’. Many people in the Republic expressed the suspicion that the bombings had been part of a British covert operation to influence legislation in the Dáil.]
Monday 1 December 1975
Two members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were killed in King Street, Belfast, when the bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely.
Friday 1 December 1978
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out 11 bomb attacks in towns across Northern Ireland.
Saturday 1 December 1979
Richard Lawson, then a Lieutenant-General, succeeded Timothy Creasey as General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the British Army in Northern Ireland.
Monday 1 December 1980
Three women Republican prisoners in Armagh Prison joined the hunger strike.
Monday 1 December 1986
Tom King, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that there would be a number of changes to legislation covering demonstrations and incitement to hatred. He also announced that the Flags and Emblems Act would be repealed.
Saturday 1 December 1990
A former Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier was shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Kilrea, County Derry.
Tuesday 1 December 1992
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded two small bombs in the centre of Belfast injuring 27 people. The IRA also attempted to explode a bomb on the Tottenham Court Road in London but the device was defused by bomb disposal officers.
Wednesday 1 December 1993
Patrick Mayhew, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, stated that there had been 22 errors in the documents he released on secret talks between the British government and the Republican Movement. [The documents had been released by Mayhew on 29 November 1993.]
Thursday 1 December 1994
USA Special Adviser Appointed Bill Clinton, then President of the United States of America (USA), announced that he was appointing George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader, as a special economic adviser on Ireland from January 1995. [Regardless of title, Mitchell was in effect the ‘peace envoy’ Clinton had promised on 5 April 1992.]
Friday 1 December 1995
Bill Clinton, then President of the United States of America (USA), travelled to Dublin where he addressed the Irish parliament. Clinton held meetings with John Bruton, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), and Mary Robinson, then President of the Republic of Ireland. Bill Clinton was accompanied by the First Lady Hillary Clinton.
The British and Irish governments sent separate invitations to eight Northern Ireland parties to take part in preliminary talks. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) shot and wounded a man in the Falls Road area of west Belfast.
Sunday 1 December 1996
The Mail on Sunday (a London based newspaper) and the Sunday World (a Belfast based newspaper) both published a story which alleged an affair between Gerry Kelly, then a talks negotiator for Sinn Féin (SF), and Martha Pope, then an aide to George Mitchell, then the chair of the Stormont talks.
[Both Kelly and Pope denied the allegation and an apology and a financial settlement were agreed within the week. Many commentators speculated as to the possible involvement of MI5 (British Intelligence) in concocting and spreading the story.]
Monday 1 December 1997
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that in future recruits to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) would not have to swear service to Queen Elizabeth. The Northern Ireland Police Authority (NIPA) held its first public meeting at Spires conference centre in Belfast. The meeting was disrupted by members of Saoirse, the group representing Republican Prisoners. The protesters were removed and the meeting continued.
Unionists demanded an inquiry into the events surrounding the 1970 arms trial in Dublin.
[The trial began on 28 May 1970 into a plot to smuggle guns from the Republic of Ireland to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland. This demand for an inquiry was seen as an attempt to obtain a quid pro quo for any new inquiry into events on ‘Bloody Sunday’ on 30 January 1972.]
David Andrews, then Irish Foreign Affairs Minister, admitted that his comments about the nature of powers for any future cross-border bodies on 29 November 1997 were “misjudged”. This comment followed a meeting between Andrews and members of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) which was described as “difficult”.
Wednesday 1 December 1999
The Northern Ireland Executive (NIA) held an informal meeting at Stormont Castle, Belfast. At Parliament Buildings, Stormont there was a meeting with Irish ministers. David Trimble (UUP), then First Minister, and Seamus Mallon, then Deputy First Minster, hosted John O’Donoghue, then Irish Minister for Justice, and Liz O’Donnell, then junior Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Irish government announced that the remaining 22 IRA prisoners being held in Portlaoise Prison would be transferred to a low security unit in Castlerea Prison, County Roscommon. Hugh Orde, then Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, was appointed to replace John Stevens as head of the investigation into the killing of Pat Finucane, a Belfast solicitor killed on 12 February 1989.
Pupils attending Kilkeel High School, County Down, left their classes as a protest against the appointment of Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) as Minister of Education.
[This was the first of a series of such protests by pupils at state (Protestant) schools. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was later accused of orchestrating the school protests.]
Saturday 1 December 2001
There was a meeting of the 840 member Ulster Unionist Council (UUC), the policy-making body of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The meeting was called by those opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and was intended to influence the party’s policy on the decommissioning of weapons by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The anti-Agreement members of the UUP put forward a number of motions that would have imposed a series of sanctions on Sinn Féin (SF) if the IRA did not complete decommissioning by the end of February 2002. However, David Trimble, then leader of the UUP, won 56 per cent of the votes in support of his alternative motion.
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Remembering all innocent victims of the Troubles
Today is the anniversary of the death of the following people killed as a results of the conflict in Northern Ireland
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die
– Thomas Campbell
To the innocent on the list – Your memory will live forever
– To the Paramilitaries –
There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for.
9 People lost their lives on the 1st December between 1969 – 199o
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01 December 1969
Patrick Corry, (61)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Died four months after being hit on the head with batons, during altercation between local people and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) patrol, Unity Flats, off Upper Library Street, Belfast. Injured on 2nd August 1969
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01 December 1971
Vivien Gibney, (17)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died four days after being shot during Irish Republican Army (IRA) sniper attack on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) foot patrol, Cliftonville Circus, Belfast.
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01 December 1972
Joseph McAuley, (47)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
Died ten days after being shot while walking along laneway near his home, Finvoy, near Ballymoney, County Antrim.
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01 December 1972
George Bradshaw, (30)
nfNIRI
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Killed in car bomb explosion, Sackville Place, off O’Connell Street, Dublin. Inadequate warning given.
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01 December 1972
Thomas Duffy, (23)
nfNIRI
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Killed in car bomb explosion, Sackville Place, off O’Connell Street, Dublin. Inadequate warning given.
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01 December 1973
Robert Megaw, (29)
Protestant
Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot by sniper while on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) mobile patrol, Edward Street, Lurgan, County Armagh.
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01 December 1975
Paul Fox, (20)
Catholic
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in premature bomb explosion while in car at car park, King Street, Belfast
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01 December 1975
Laura Crawford, (25)
Catholic
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA), K
illed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in premature bomb explosion while in car at car park, King Street, Belfast.
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01 December 1990
Hubert Gilmore, (49)
Protestant
Status: ex-Ulster Defence Regiment (xUDR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot at the site of his new home, Drumagarner Road, near Kilrea, County Derry.
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Belfast Child 