Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
19th November
Thursday 19 November 1970
Figures were released by the Commissioner for Complaints showing that there had been 970 complaints in the first ten months of his office, with 74 of them alleging discrimination.
Sunday 19 November 1972
Seán MacStiofáin, then leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), was arrested in Dublin.
[He was subsequently sentenced to six months imprisonment in Republic of Ireland.]
Monday 19 November 1984
Anglo-Irish Summit Meeting Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, held an Anglo-Irish summit meeting with Garret FitzGerald, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), together with British and Irish ministers and officials, at Chequers in England.
A joint communiqué was issued following the summit meeting. At 5.00pm Thatcher gave a press conference at 10 Downing Street, London. Responding to a question from a member of the press Thatcher ruled out the three options proposed in the Report of the New Ireland Forum: “… a united Ireland was one solution. That is out. A second solution was confederation of the two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out.”
[Thatcher’s ‘out, out, out’ comments were considered by many Nationalists as being perfunctorily dismissive.]
Douglas Hurd, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, also gave a press conference. At 6.00pm FitzGerald gave a press conference at the Irish Embassy in London.
Tuesday 19 November 1985
The 18 District Councils that were controlled by Unionists voted for a policy of adjournment against the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA). The councils also threatened to refuse to set the ‘rates’ (local government taxes).
[These developments sparked a long period of disruption in local government in Northern Ireland.]
Thursday 19 November 1987
A Loyalist activist, George Seawright, was shot and fatally wounded by the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO); a splinter group of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). [George Seawright achieved notoriety for his extreme anti-republican and anti-Catholic views. He died of his injuries two weeks later.]
Friday 19 November 1993
The Irish Press (a Republic of Ireland newspaper) carried a report of a secret plan drawn up by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs on the future of Northern Ireland.
Saturday 19 November 1994
Bertie Ahern, was elected as the new leader of Fianna Fáil (FF).
Thursday 19 November 1998
A spokesperson on behalf of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) said that the group had decided to postpone the handover of (some) weapons. The reason given was the remarks made by Ken Maginness, Security Spokesman of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), when he called the LVF “ruthless” and “sectarian killers”.
The Northern Ireland Act, which provides for the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, became law. The United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture published a report calling for a ban on plastic bullets, the closure of Castlereagh and other Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) detention centres and the “reconstruction” of the RUC. The report was criticised by Unionists.
Friday 19 November 1999
An application to the High Court in Belfast for a judicial review of the decision of Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, former Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, to accept as intact the ceasefire of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The application was dismissed by the court. Two men lost their appeal against their life sentences.
The two men had been convicted of the murder of Greg Taylor, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer, on 1 June 1997. Taylor had been off-duty and was beaten to death by a Loyalist mob as he left a public house in Ballymoney. [The two men were later released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.]
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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.
4 People lost their lives on the 19th November between 1980 – 1992
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19 November 1980
Thomas Orr, (38)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
Shot outside his workplace, Ulster Bank, Boucher Road, Belfast.
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19 November 1981
John McKeegan, (49)
Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot while delivering wood, Olympic Drive, Ballycolman, Strabane, County Tyrone.
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19 November 1992
Ian Warnock, (27)
Protestant
Status: Royal Irish Regiment (RIR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot while sitting in his stationary car outside his wife’s workplace, Moypark factory, Seagoe, Portadown, County Armagh.
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19 November 1992
Peter McCormack, (42)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Shot during gun attack on Thierafurth Inn, Kilcoo, near Castlewellan, County Down.
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See : George Seawright
Belfast Child 