Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles

1^st May

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Thursday 1 May 1969

Chichester-Clark Elected Prime Minister

James Chichester-Clark was elected as leader of the Unionist party and succeeded Terence O’Neill as the Northern Ireland Prime Minister. Brian Faulkner was appointed as Minister of Development. Chichester-Clark announced that he would continue the reforms began by Terence O’Neill.

Thursday 1 May 1975

Constitution Convention Election

The election for the Constitutional Convention was held in Northern Ireland. The election was based on proportional representation (PR) and candidates contested 78 seats. The United Ulster Unionist Council (UUUC) won 47 seats (with 54.8 per cent of the first preference vote); the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) won 17 seats (23.7%);

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) won 8 seats (9.8%); the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) won 5 seats ((7.7%); and the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) won 1 seat (1.4%). Those elected to the Convention held their first meeting on 8 May 1975.

[As the UUUC opposed power-sharing the chance of the convention reaching agreement on a constitutional settlement were very remote from the outset. The convention eventually collapsed in the autumn.]

Saturday 1 May 1976

Kenneth Newman replaced Jamie Flanagan as the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

[This appointment marked the beginning of the policy of ‘Ulsterisation’ which had the full approval of the British government.]

Sunday 1 May 1977

An additional 1,200 British soldiers were flown into Northern Ireland, and all Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) leave was cancelled, in anticipation of the United Unionist Action Council (UUAC) strike.

Fresh appeals were made from a range of organisations and political parties, including the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Vanguard Unionist Party (VUP), the Orange Order, the Peace People, and the trade union movement, for the UUAC to call off their planned stoppage.

Tuesday 1 May 1984

A trial involving a ‘supergrass’ informer, Robert Quigley, ended with 10 people being sentenced to jail.

Thursday 1 May 1986

The cigarette company Rothman announced the closure of its factory in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, with the loss of 800 jobs.

Friday 1 May 1987

Sinn Féin published a discussion paper entitled Scenario for Peace (Sinn Féin, 1987). The document demanded a British withdrawal and called for an all-Ireland constitutional conference.

Sunday 1 May 1988

   

Ian Shinner    &   Millar Reid

Three members of the Royal Air Force (RAF) were killed in two separate attacks carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Netherlands.

Wednesday 1 May 1991

The British government said that proposals for Northern Ireland select committee at the House of Commons were worth considering.

[The ideal was one favoured by Unionists in favour of more integration between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom (UK) but it was opposed by Nationalists and Republicans. The select committee was eventually established in 199x(?).]

Friday 1 May 1992

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded a bomb, estimated at 1,000 pounds, at a border post in County Armagh and killed one British Army soldier and injured a number of others.

Saturday 1 May 1993

Alan Lundy (39), a Sinn Féin (SF) member, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

Lundy was working a the home of Alex Maskey, then a SF councillor, in Andersonstown, Belfast, when the attack took place.

Wednesday 1 May 1996

A White Paper {external_link} was published on the future of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Thursday 1 May 1997 General Election

A general election was held across the United Kingdom (UK).

[When all the votes were counted the Labour Party had won a majority in the House of Commons of 147 seats and had returned to power for the first time since 1979.]

In Northern Ireland the biggest election news was that Sinn Féin (SF) had increased its share of the vote to 16.1 per cent to become the third largest party in the region. SF won two seats, one in West Belfast where Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), was elected and one in Mid-Ulster where Martin McGuinness, the Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), beat William McCrea of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

The other results were: Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) won 10 seats with 32.7 per cent of the vote; the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) won three seats and 24.1 per cent of the vote; the DUP won two seats and 13.6 per cent of the vote; and the United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) won one seat.

Friday 1 May 1998

Ronan MacLochlainn (28), a dissident Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, was shot dead when the Garda Síochána (the Irish police) foiled a raid by six armed men on a security van near Ashford, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland.

[The raid was thought to have been carried out by a new dissident Republican paramilitary group which was trying to raise funds to purchase arms. A group known as the “real” Irish Republican Army (rIRA) emerged on 7 May 1998.]

A ‘Parades Forum’, made up of over 60 business, community and civic leaders, held its first meeting in Derry in an attempt to find a solution to disputed parades in the city. However the Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABD), the Orange Order, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) all boycotted the opening session. The ABD repeated their position that they would not talk to the Bogside Residents Group (BRG). The Orange Order called on its members (estimated at between 60,000 – 80,000) and supporters to vote ‘No’ in the forthcoming referendum. Seamus Heaney was appointed Saoi of Aosdana, the highest award Ireland can bestow on an artist. Mary McAleese, then President of the Republic of Ireland, described the poet as, “the single most important figure in modern Irish literature”.

 

Source: CAIN Web Service

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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.

 8 People lost their lives on the 1st May    between 1972 – 1998

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01 May 1972
David Currie   (26)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in bomb attack on Courtauld’s factory, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. Inadequate warning given.

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01 May 1979
Frederick Lutton   (40)

Protestant
Status: ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary (xRUC),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot at his workplace, Argory House, near Moy, County Tyrone.

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01 May 1988

Ian Shinner  (20)

nfNIE
Status: Royal Air Force (RAF),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot by sniper while driving his car, Roermond, Netherlands.

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01 May 1988

Millar Reid  (22)

nfNIE
Status: Royal Air Force (RAF),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Killed by booby trap bomb attached to his car, Nieuw-Bergen, Netherlands

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01 May 1988
John Baxter  (21)

nfNIE
Status: Royal Air Force (RAF),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Killed by booby trap bomb attached to his car, Nieuw-Bergen, Netherlands

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01 May 1992

Andrew Grundy   (22)

nfNI
Status: British Army (BA),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed by bomb placed in specially constructed railway bogie, driven to permanent British Army (BA) Vehicle Check Point (VCP), Killeen, County Armagh.

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01 May 1993

Alan Lundy  (39)

Catholic
Status: ex-Irish Republican Army (xIRA),

Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Sinn Fein (SF) member. Shot while working at the home of Sinn Fein (SF) councillor Alex Maskey, Gartree Place, Andersonstown, Belfast.

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01 May 1998
Ronan Maclochlain   (28)

nfNIRI
Status: real Irish Republican Army (rIRA),

Killed by: Garda Siochana (GS)
From County Dublin. Shot, during armed robbery of security van, Cullenmore, near Ashford, County Wicklow.

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Source: CAIN Web Service