Máire Drumm (22 October 1919 – 28 October 1976) was the vice-president of Sinn Féin and a commander in Cumann na mBan. She was killed by Ulster loyalists while recovering from an eye operation in Belfast’s Mater Hospital.
Born in Newry, County Down, to a staunchly Irish republican family. Drumm’s mother had been active in the War of Independence and the Civil War. Drumm grew up in the village of Killeen, County Armagh, right on the border with County Louth. She played camogie for Killeen. She was active in the republican movement after meeting her husband, a republican prisoner, and became involved in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s and worked to rehouse Catholics forced from their homes by loyalist intimidation.
She was jailed twice for seditious speeches. After she was released from HM Prison Armagh, raids on her house by the security forces escalated, her health began to fail and she was admitted to the Mater Hospital, Belfast.
On 28 October 1976, Máire Drumm was shot dead in her hospital bed in a joint operation by the Red Hand Commando.
Drumm’s speeches and quotations can be found on murals across Northern Ireland. These include:
“The only people worthy of freedom are those who are prepared to go out and fight for it every day, and die if necessary.“
“We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward, for if we don’t, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country will haunt us forever.“
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
The life and death of Eamon Collins Eamon Collins (1954 – 27 January 1999) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army member in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He turned his back on the organisation in the late 1980s, and later co-authored a book called Killing Rage detailing his experiences within it. In January 1999 he was waylaid on a … Continue reading Killing Rage – The life and death of Eamon Collins→
The brutal & unforgivable murder of Ann Ogilby, also known as the Romper Room murder Forgotten victims of the Troubles The murder of Ann Ogilby, also known as the “Romper Room murder”, took place in Sandy Row, south Belfast, Northern Ireland on 24 July 1974. It was a punishment killing, carried out by members of the Sandy Row women’s Ulster Defence … Continue reading Ann Ogilby’s brutal murder: ” Forgotten ” victims of the Troubles→
Joe McCann – Life & Death Joe McCann (2 November 1947 – 15 April 1972) was an Irish republican volunteer. A member of the Irish Republican Army and later the Official Irish Republican Army, he was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was shot dead, after being confronted by RUC Special … Continue reading Joe McCann – Life & Death→
… Máire Drumm Life & death 22 October 1919 – 28 October 1976 Máire Drumm (22 October 1919 – 28 October 1976) was the vice-president of Sinn Féin and a commander in Cumann na mBan. She was killed by Ulster loyalists while recovering from an eye operation in Belfast’s Mater Hospital. Born in Newry, County Down, to a staunchly Irish republican family. Drumm’s mother had … Continue reading Máire Drumm: Life & Death→
Death of Robert Hamill Robert Hamill was an Irish Catholic civilian who was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Hamill and his friends were attacked on 27 April 1997 on the town’s main street. It has been claimed that the local Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), parked a short … Continue reading Death of Robert Hamill: 27th April 1997→
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Wednesday 13 August 1969
Serious rioting spread across Northern Ireland from Derry to other Catholic areas stretching the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The rioting deteriorated into sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants and many people, the majority being Catholics, were forced from their homes.
Jack Lynch, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), made a television address in which he announced that ‘field hospitals’ would be set up in border areas. He went on to say that:
“… the present situation is the inevitable outcome of the policies pursued for decades by successive Stormont governments. It is clear also that the Irish government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse.”
Lynch is often misquoted as having said: ‘stand idly by’.] [ August 1969; Partition; United Nations
Friday 13 August 1971
Hugh Herron
A Catholic man was shot dead by the British Army in Derry.
Tuesday 13 August 1974
Dennis Leach & Michael Southern
Two British soldiers were killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in a remote controlled bomb attack near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
Wednesday 13 August 1975
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a bomb and gun attack on the Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast killing five people and injuring 40 others.
One of those killed was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) the other four were Protestant civilians.
Two members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were shot dead by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Dungannon, County Tyrone.
Monday 13 August 1984
There was a march in west Belfast in honour of Sean Downes killed on 12 August 1984 by a plastic baton round fired by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The march was followed by serious rioting in the area
Wednesday 13 August 1986
Gerard O’Reilly, then being held awaiting extradition from the Republic of Ireland, was freed from a Dublin court following an error in the extradition warrant.
Friday 13 August 1993
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a series of fire-bomb attacks on the pier at Bournemouth, England, and a number of shops.
Saturday 13 August 1994
An Irish Republican Army (IRA) incendiary device caused damage to shops in Bognor Regis, England. Another incendiary device was discovered and defused in Brighton.
Sunday 13 August 1995IRA “Haven’t Gone Away”
Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), addressed a demonstration at Belfast City Hall. During his speech a member of the crowd called out to Adams to, “bring back the IRA”. In an unscripted reply Adams said:
“They haven’t gone away, you know”.
[Although cheered by the crowd Adams was criticised for the remark. Unionists and the British government said that the remark highlighted the need for the decommissioning of Irish Republican Army (IRA) weapons. Since it was first uttered, the comment has been referred to repeatedly by critics of SF and the Good Friday Agreement.]
Thursday 13 August 1998
Mitchel McLaughlin, then National Chairperson of Sinn Féin (SF), issued a statement urging anyone with information about any of the ‘missing persons’ who disappeared during the course of the conflict to make that information available. [This statement was seen by many as having come about because of pressure on SF by relatives of people who had been abducted and never seen again.]
Friday 13 August 1999
Bernadette McAliskey, former MP, spoke at a rally held on the lower Ormeau Road in advance of the planned Apprentice Boys of Derry march. She said that
“marching is not a human right – for Orangemen or Republicans”.
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) criticised the decision of Castlereagh Borough Council decision to fly an Orange Order flag outside its civic offices. The PUP said it was “an affront to Roman Catholic and nationalist residents.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) accused the PUP of hypocrisy because of the PUP’s support of the flying of Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) flags.
Sunday 13 August 2000
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) made safe a pipe-bomb on Drumlee Road in Ballymoney, County Antrim. The device had been pushed through the letterbox of a Catholic home. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries.
Monday 13 August 2001Suspected IRA Men Arrested in Colombia
Three Irish men were arrested at Bogotá Airport in Colombia, South America, for travelling on false documents. Colombian authorities reported that two of the men were travelling on false British passports while the third man was using a false Irish passport.
[There was speculation that the three men were members of the (Provisional) Irish Republican Army (IRA). It was reported that the men had been in area of the country that was under the control of left-wing guerrillas.
There was further media speculation that the men had been involved in helping to train some of the guerrillas. The men were later identified as Niall Connolly, who had lived in Cuba for a number of years, James Monaghan, formerly a member of the Sinn Féin ardcomhairle, and Martin McCauley, who had been an election worker for Sinn Féin in Armagh.]
Two Catholics, one of them a 14 year-old boy, were injured when Loyalists threw a blast-bomb among a Nationalist crowd in north Belfast.
The attack happened during disturbances involving hundreds of Loyalists and Nationalists.
A hoax nail bomb and fireworks were thrown at two houses in Glengormley, County Antrim.
The British Army were also called to deal with a hoax pipe-bomb in the same area.
Thomas McCauley, formerly from Belfast, was stabbed to death in Waterford, Republic of Ireland.
McCauley was given a Republican funeral on Friday 17 August 2001. He was reported as having been a member of the IRA who had broken his links with the movement some time
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Remembering all innocent victims of the Troubles
Today is the anniversary of the follow 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.
12 people lost their lives on the 13th August between 1971 – 1983
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13 August 1971
Huge Herron, (31)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA) Shot during gun battle, Long Tower Street, Derry.
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13 August 1972 Thomas Madden, (48)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY) Found stabbed and beaten to death in shop doorway, Oldpark Road, Belfast
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13 August 1973
William McIlveen, (36)
Protestant Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Off duty reservist. Shot at his workplace, a factory, Cathedral Road, Armagh.
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13 August 1974
Dennis Leach (24) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Killed in remote controlled bomb attack on hilltop British Army (BA) observation post, Drummuckavall, near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
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13 August 1974
Michael Southern, (19) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Killed in remote controlled bomb attack on hilltop British Army (BA) observation post, Drummuckavall, near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
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13 August 1975
William Gracey, (63)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast.
See below for more details on this attack
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13 August 1975
Samuel Gunning, (55)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast.
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13 August 1975
Hugh Harris, (21)
Protestant Status: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast.
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13 August 1975
Joanne McDowell, (29)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast.
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13 August 1975 Linda Boyle, (19)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Injured during gun and bomb attack on Bayardo Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast. She died 21 August 1975.
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13 August 1983 Brendan Convery, (25) Catholic Status: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Shot during attempted ambush of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) members at security barrier, Dungannon, County Tyrone.
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13 August 1983
James Mallon, (28)
Catholic Status: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Shot during attempted ambush of Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) members at security barrier, Dungannon, County Tyrone.
Four Protestant civilians and one UVF member were killed.
According to journalists Alan Murray and Peter Taylor, it was retaliation for the Miami Showband massacre almost a fortnight earlier, when the popular Dublin-based band were ambushed by the UVF at a bogus military checkpoint. Three band members were shot dead by the UVF gunmen after their minibus was blown up in a premature explosion.
McFarlane and two other IRA volunteers, Peter “Skeet” Hamilton and Seamus Clarke, were sentenced to life imprisonment for perpetrating the Bayardo attack.
By the year 1975, the religious-political conflict in Northern Ireland known as “the Troubles“— was more than six years old. On 10 February 1975, the Provisional IRA and British government entered into a truce and restarted negotiations. The IRA agreed to halt attacks on the British security forces, and the security forces mostly ended its raids and searches.[1] However, there were dissenters on both sides. Some Provisionals wanted no part of the truce, while British commanders resented being told to stop their operations against the IRA just when—they claimed—they had the Provisionals on the run.[1] The security forces boosted their intelligence offensive during the truce and thoroughly infiltrated the IRA.[1]
There was a rise in sectarian killings during the truce, which ‘officially’ lasted until early 1976. Ulster loyalists, fearing they were about to be forsaken by the British government and forced into a united Ireland, increased their attacks on the Irish Catholic and nationalist community.
They hoped to force the IRA to retaliate and thus hasten an end to the truce. Under orders not to engage the security forces, some IRA units concentrated on tackling the loyalists. The fall-off of regular operations had caused serious problems of internal discipline and some IRA members, with or without permission from higher up, engaged in tit-for-tat killings.
The band’s minibus pulled into a layby on the main A1 road, and the gunmen ordered the group to line-up facing a ditch. As one gunman took the names and addresses of the band members, two others hid a bomb in the back of the bus. However, the bomb detonated prematurely, and the two men were blown to bits. The surviving gunmen then opened fire on the five Miami Showband members, killing three and wounding two.
According to journalists Peter Taylor and Alan Murray, the attack on the Bayardo was retaliation for the massacre.
The attack
The Bayardo Bar was crowded with people of all ages on Wednesday 13 August 1975. Shortly before closing time a stolen green Audi car, containing a three-man unit of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade, pulled up outside. It was driven by the unit’s leader Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, a 24-year-old volunteer from Ardoyne.
Volunteers Seamus Clarke and Peter “Skeet” Hamilton got out and approached the pub’s side entrance in Aberdeen Street. One of them immediately opened fire with an Armalite, instantly killing doorman William Gracey (63) and his brother-in-law Samuel Gunning (55), with whom he had been chatting outside.
The other volunteer then entered the pub, where patrons were drinking and singing, and at the entrance he dropped a duffel bag containing a ten-pound bomb. Both men made their getaway back to the waiting car. As panicked customers ran to the toilets for safety, the bomb exploded and brought down a section of the old brick-and-plaster building upon them. The bodies of civilian Joanne McDowell (29) and UVF member Hugh Harris (21) were later found beneath the rubble of fallen masonry.
Seventeen-year-old civilian Linda Boyle was pulled out alive, but died of her injuries in hospital on 21 August. Over 50 people were injured in the attack.
The Belfast Telegraph claimed that, as the IRA unit drove away down Agnes Street (an arterial road linking the Shankill to the Crumlin Road), they fired into a crowd of women and children queuing at a taxi rank; there were no fatalities. Within 20 minutes of the blast, the IRA unit were arrested after their car was stopped at a roadblock. The Armalite that had been used to kill William Gracey and Samuel Gunning was found inside the car along with spent bullet cases and fingerprints belonging to the three IRA men.
The IRA did not initially claim responsibility, However, it later stated that the Bayardo was attacked because it was a pub where UVF associates relaxed and “planned terrorist assaults” against nationalists.
The pub was in the UVF-dominated middle Shankill Road area, and the Ulster Banner was displayed from its upper windows. Martin Dillon said that the Bayardo was frequented by the UVF and that Lenny Murphy, head of the Shankill Butchers gang, was a regular customer. Steve Bruce also maintained that in the early 1970s, the UVF’s Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) would often be found drinking in the pub, which was just around the corner from their headquarters above “The Eagle” chip shop on the Shankill Road.
A former IRA prisoner claimed that fellow inmate Lenny Murphy told him he had left the Bayardo ten minutes before the attack and that the Brigade Staff had just finished holding a meeting there.
Retaliation and counter-retaliation
Loyalists, especially the UVF, responded with another wave of sectarian attacks against Catholics. Two days after, a loyalist car bomb exploded without warning on the Falls Road, injuring 35 people. On 22 August, the UVF launched a gun and bomb attack on McGleenan’s Bar in Armagh. The attack was strikingly similar to that at Bayardo. One gunman opened fire while another planted the bomb; the explosion causing the building to collapse. Three Catholic civilians were killed (one of whom died on 28 August) and several more were wounded.
That same night, another bomb wrecked a Catholic-owned pub in nearby Blackwatertown, although there were no injuries.
These loyalist attacks were responded to in kind by the IRA (sometimes using the cover name Republican Action Force or similar), with the months that followed the Bayardo attack being characterised as a bloody game of tit-for-tat. This was met with disillusionment by imprisoned republicans such as Gerry Adams and Brendan Hughes, with the latter claiming that sectarianism was “destroying the whole struggle”.[21]
Convictions
In May 1976, Brendan McFarlane, Seamus Clarke, and Peter Hamilton were convicted in a non-jury Diplock Court and sentenced to life imprisonment inside the Maze Prison for carrying out the Bayardo murders.[5][10][11] Inside the Maze, McFarlane rose to become Officer Commanding IRA prisoners and in 1983 he led the Maze Prison escape, which was the mass break-out of 38 republican prisoners, including Clarke and Hamilton. McFarlane and Clarke then went on the run, although Hamilton was immediately recaptured outside the prison’s main perimeter gate.
McFarlane has never spoken about the killings, and the IRA leadership has never encouraged him to do so, considering the attack was viewed as having been “purely sectarian”.Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, however, told journalist Alan Murray that McFarlane “hadn’t a single, sectarian bone in his body”.
Peter “Skeet” Hamilton died of cancer in Dundalk on 25 February 2011 at the age of 57.
The Bayardo Somme Association has described the Bayardo attack as “a forgotten atrocity”. The association erected a memorial to the victims on the site where the Bayardo Bar stood before its demolition. The large steel monument was incorporated into the remaining section of the original structure; it bears the names and photographs of the five people who were killed plus photos of the pub taken before and after the bombing.
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Tuesday 12 August 1969
The Battle of the Bogside
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Battle of the Bogside;Full Documentary
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Battle of the Bogside
Tuesday 12 August 1969Battle of the Bogside Began As the annual Apprentice Boys parade passed close to the Bogside area of Derry serious rioting erupted. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), using armoured cars and water cannons, entered the Bogside, in an attempt to end the rioting. The RUC were closely followed and supported by a loyalist crowd. The residents of the Bogside forced the police and the loyalists back out of the area. The RUC used CS gas to again enter the Bogside area.
[This period of conflict between the RUC and Bogside (and Creggan) residents was to become known as the ‘Battle of the Bogside’ and lasted for two days.]
There was also sporadic riots and running battles on the Shankill , Falls and other areas of the province
A Protestant man died two days after being shot by a British soldier.
Sunday 12 August 1973
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) tried out a new plastic baton round during a riot.
[The plastic baton round was eventually to replace the rubber baton round that had been in use since 2 August 1970.]
Thursday 12 August 1976
A group of 1,000 women held a demonstration on the Finaghy Road in Andersontown at the place where the three Maguire children were killed on 10 August 1976. 6,000 people signed a petition in Andersonstown calling for peace.
Sunday 12 August 1984
Martin Galvin, then leader of NORAID (Irish Northern Aid Committee), appeared at another rally this time in Belfast. Galvin was banned from the UK and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers moved to arrest him.
Sean Downes
During an altercation with protesters an RUC officer fired a plastic baton round at close range and killed Sean Downes (22), a Catholic civilian. An RUC officer was killed by the IRA in County Tyrone.
Wednesday 12 August 1987
Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), turned down a plan for talks between the four main constitutional parties in Northern Ireland (UUP, SDLP, DUP and APNI) that had been suggested by Robin Eames, Church of Ireland Archbishop.
Monday 12 August 1991
Pádraig Ó Seanacháin
Pádraig Ó Seanacháin (33), who was Sinn Féin (SF) election worker, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), in Killen, County Tyrone. It was announced that there would be a review of the case of Judith Ward who had been convicted of the Bradford coach bombing in 1974.
Wednesday 12 August 1992
The Metropolitan Police in London uncovered approximately 12 tons of explosives when they seized three vans. The explosives had been manufactured by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Five people were initially arrested in connection with the find but were later released.
Thursday 12 August 1993
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) prevented a bomb attack when officers intercepted a van bomb, estimated at 3,000 pounds, in Portadown, County Armagh.
Saturday 12 August 1995
The Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABD) held their annual parade in Derry. Due to the opening of security gates on the city walls the ABD was able to parade around the walls for the first time in 25 years.
However, Republicans staged a sitdown demonstration before the parade began and were forcible removed by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
There was rioting in Derry following the parade and police fired 40 plastic bullets. There were serious confrontations between the RUC and Nationalists in the lower Ormeau Road area of Belfast. An ABD ‘feeder’ parade passed along the street once police had cleared the route. There were also disturbances at Dunloy and Rasharkin, County Antrim.
Tuesday 12 August 1997
First Debate Between SF and UUP on TV
27 Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) prisoners in the Maze Prison began a riot which caused severe damage to C and D wings of H-Block 6.
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in wings A and B of H-Block 6 had to be moved as the LVF occupied the roof.
Ken Maginnis, then Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Member of Parliament (MP), appeared in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Newsnight programme in a debate which involved Martin McGuinness, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF) and MP. This was the first time that a member of the UUP had agreed to appear alongside a member of SF on British Television.
McGuinness began moves to have a judicial review of the decision of the Speaker of the House of Commons to refuse the two SF MPs office facilities. The reason given for the refusal was the fact that the two MPs had not taken their seats in the House, which would have involved an oath of allegiance to the Queen.
Two Republican prisoners being held in Portlaoise Prison in the Republic of Ireland, were given early conditional release.
Sunday 12 August 2001
Two men were shot and injured in a Loyalist paramilitary ‘punishment’ attack in Greencastle, County Antrim.
Another man was shot and injured in a separate Loyalist paramilitary ‘punishment’ attack in the Rathcollle estate, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
John Reid, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said in an interview on the BBC Television’s Breakfast With Frost programme that he believed that the parties were “tantalisingly close” to reaching agreement. He defended his decision to suspend the political institutions as the best of the options open to him.
Speaking on the same programme Martin McGuinness, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), said the suspension, together with the Unionist response to the developments on decommissioning, had caused “a serious situation”.
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Remembering all innocent victims of the Troubles
Today is the anniversary of the follow 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
11 people lost their lives on the 12th August between 1970 – 1992
12th August
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12 August 1970
Samuel Donaldson, (23)
Protestant Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died one day after being injured by booby trap bomb, attached to abandoned car, Lissaraw, near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
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12 August 1970
Robert Millar, (26)
Protestant Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died one day after being injured by booby trap bomb, attached to abandoned car, Lissaraw, near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
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12 August 1971 William Ferris, (38)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Died two days after being shot while travelling in car along Crumlin Road, Belfast
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12 August 1972 Francis Wynne, (37)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Found shot in abandoned car, Jaffa Street, Shankill, Belfast.
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12 August 1975 John Hunter, (57)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
Shot at his workplace, council cleansing depot, off Albertbridge Road, Belfast
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12 August 1977
Neil Bewley, (19) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot by sniper while on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Norglen Drive, Turf Lodge, Belfast.
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12 August 1984
Sean Downes, (22)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Shot by plastic bullet, during anti-internment march, Andersonstown Road, Belfast
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12 August 1984
Malcolm White, (26)
Protestant Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in land mine attack on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) mobile patrol, Crockanboy, Greencastle, County Tyrone.
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12 August 1988 Richard Heakin, (30) nfNIE Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot while sitting in his car stopped at traffic lights, Oostende, Belgium
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12 August 1991
Padraig O’Seanachain, (33)
Catholic Status: Civilian Political Activist (CivPA),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Sinn Fein (SF) member. Shot by sniper, while travelling to work, Killen, Castlederg, County Tyrone.
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12 August 1992
Robin Hill, Robin (22)
Catholic Status: ex-Irish Republican Army (xIRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Found shot, in entry off Beechmount Crescent, Falls, Belfast. Alleged informer
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Tuesday 11 August 1970
Two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) when they set off a booby trap bomb planted in a car near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
Wednesday 11 August 1971
Four people were shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast, three of them by the British Army (BA), as violence continued following the introduction of Internment.
Friday 11 August 1972
Two IRA members were killed when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely.
Saturday 11 August 1973
Two members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were killed when the bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely near Castlederg, County Tryone.
A Protestant civilian was shot dead by Loyalists in Belfast.
Wednesday 11 August 1976
The third of the Maguire children died as a result of injuries received on 10 August 197
Saturday 11 August 1979
Representatives from the Irish National Caucus paid a visit to Northern Ireland and said that the Caucus intended to make the conflict in the region a major issue during the 1980 United States (US) Presidential election. 6.
Sunday 11 August 1991
Sinn Féin (SF) held a rally in Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the introduction of Internment and the 10th anniversary of the hunger strike.
Wednesday 11 August 1993
Seamus Hopkins (24), a Catholic civilian, was found beaten to death in the Shankill area of Belfast.
Sir Hugh Annesley, then Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), announced that women officers would be armed from April 1994.
Thursday 11 August 1994
Martin L’Estrange (36), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
He was a printer and was killed at his workplace in William Street, Lurgan, County Armagh.
Monday 11 August 1997
Two Social Security officials had shots fired at their car which was also damaged by clubs in north Belfast.
There was an arson attack on the Orange Order Hall in Purdysburn in south Belfast.
Kevin Artt, Paul Brennan, and Terry Kirby, previously members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who had escaped from the Maze Prison on 25 September 1983 lost their case in an American court to try to stop their extradition.
The three men appealed against the decision.
Saturday 11 August 2001
Assembly Restored
John Reid, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, signed an order which restored the Northern Ireland Assembly and the other institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.
The latest period of suspension had lasted 24 hours and had the effect of postponing by six weeks the deadline for the election of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (22 September 2001).
The main Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABOD) parade passed off without serious trouble. Around 10,000 ABOD members together with 170 bands marched around the city centre to commemorate the relief of the Siege of Derry in 1689.
A feeder parade in Belfast was prevented from marching past the Nationalist Ardoyne area following a Pardes Commission ruling.
The ABOD members decided to protest against the decision by blocking the Crumlin Road. The standoff with the police lasted for six hours.
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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.
14 People lost their lives on the 11th August between 1971– 1994
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11 August 1971
John Laverty, (20)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while walking along path by St Aidan’s Primary School, Ballymurphy
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11 August 1971 William Stronge, (46)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: not known (nk)
Shot while moving furniture from sister’s home, Ballyclare Street, Belfast
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11 August 1971
Seamus Simpson, (21)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while throwing bomb at British Army (BA) foot patrol, Rossnareen Avenue, Andersonstown, Belfast.
————————————————————–
11 August 1971
William McKavanagh, (21)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while in McAuley Street, Markets, Belfast.
————————————————————–
11 August 1972 Anne Parker, (18)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died in premature bomb explosion while travelling in van, North Howard Street, Lower Falls, Belfast.
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11 August 1972 Michael Clarke, (22)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died in premature bomb explosion while travelling in van, North Howard Street, Lower Falls, Belfast
————————————————————–
11 August 1973 James McGlynn, (20)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in premature bomb explosion while travelling in car, Kilclean, near Castlederg, County Donegal.
————————————————————–
11 August 1973
Seamus Harvey, (23)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in premature bomb explosion while travelling in car, Kilclean, near Castlederg, County Donegal.
————————————————————–
11 August 1973 Norman Hutchinson, (17)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Shot while walking along Ormeau Road, near University Street, Belfast.
————————————————————–
11 August 1976 Michael Quigley, (33)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot during Irish Republican Army (IRA) sniper attack on British Army (BA) observation post, while walking along Meenan Square, Bogside, Derry.
————————————————————–
11 August 1978 Alan Swift, (25) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Undercover British Army (BA) member. Shot while sitting in stationary British Army (BA) civilian type car, Letterkenny Road, Derry.
————————————————————–
11 August 1981
Charles Johnston, (43)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot from passing motorcycle while walking along Talbot Street,
————————————————————–
11 August 1993
Seamus Hopkins, (24)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Found beaten to death on waste ground, off Sherbrook Way, Shankill, Belfast.
————————————————————–
11 August 1994
Martin L’Estrange, (36)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Shot, at his workplace, printers, William Street, Lurgan, County Armagh.
————————————————————–
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Tuesday 10 August 1971
During the 9 August 1971 and the early hours of the 10 August Northern Ireland experienced the worst violence since August 1969.
Over the following days thousands of people (estimated at 7,000), the majority of them Catholics, were forced to flee their homes. Many Catholic ‘refugees’ moved to the Republic of Ireland, and have never returned to Northern Ireland.
Saturday 10 August 1974
The body of Patrick Kelly (33), a Nationalist councillor, was discovered in Lough Eyes, near Lisbellaw, County Fermanagh. Kelly had disappeared on 24 July 1974 after leaving Trillick, County Tyrone, to travel home.
Sunday 10 August 1975
There was an outbreak of shooting between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British Army in west Belfast.
Siobhan McCabe, & Patrick Crawford,
Two Catholic children, aged 4 and 15 years, were killed in the crossfire during separate incidents and another eight people were injured.
[These incidents mark a further dilution of the IRA truce.]
Tuesday 10 August 1976
Peace People (Women’s Peace Movement) Established
A member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was shot dead, by a British Army mobile patrol, as he drove a car along Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
The car then went out of control and ploughed into the Maguire family who were walking on the pavement.
Three children were killed as a result of this incident, Joanne Maguire (9), John Maguire (3) and Andrew Maguire (6 weeks).
Two of the children died at the scene and the third died the following day. In the aftermath of these deaths there were a series of peace rallies held in Belfast and across Northern Ireland.
There were rallies on 12 August 1976, 14 August 1976, 21 August 1976, 28 August 1976 and in London on 27 November 1976.
Mairead Maguire
The rallies were organised by the children’s aunt, Mairead Corrigan, and another woman, Betty Williams (they were later joined by Ciaran McKeown).
Betty Williams
Initially the group called itself the Women’s Peace Movement as the rallies were mainly attended by women from both the main communities. Later the name was changed to the Peace People.
The rallies were the first since ‘the Troubles’ began where large number of Catholics and Protestants joined forces on the streets of Northern Ireland to call for peace. On 10 October 1977 it was announced that Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams would receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their work. On 5 October 1978 the original leaders of the Peace People announced that they were stepping down from the leadership of the organisation.
Wednesday 10 August 1977
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted a small bomb in a garden on the campus of the New University of Ulster which was visited by the Queen as part of her jubilee celebrations. The bomb exploded after the Queen had left and it caused no injuries, nor was the Queen’s schedule affected. Members of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) refused to attend a reception in her honour.
Monday 10 August 1981
Patrick Sheehan
Patrick Sheehan, then an Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoner, joined the hunger strike.
Friday 10 August 1984
Francis Hand (Garda Siochana )
A member of the Garda Siochana (GS) was shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in County Meath. A member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was accidentally killed as he tried to escape from the Maze Prison.
Patrick Mayhew, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was to be proscribed (banned) as of from midnight.
The move was welcomed by Nationalist politicians who felt the decision was long overdue.
Many commentators felt that the timing of the move was related to the recent upsurge in Loyalist violence. During the first six months of the year the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), had killed more people than the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Wednesday 10 August 1994
Harry O’Neill (60), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
He was killed while working as security man at a supermarket, Orby Link, Castlereagh, Belfast.
Saturday 10 August 1996
In a decision taken during the morning the Apprentice Boys of Derry organisation decided not to try to walk along the section of closed-off Derry walls. The main parade through the centre of the city went ahead as planned. Contentious parades in Newtownbutler and Roslea, County Fermanagh went ahead after compromises were reached with local residents. There was trouble in Dunloy, County Derry, when a large group of Apprentice Boys tried to parade through the village.
John Molloy (18), a Catholic man, was stabbed to death in Belfast.
Sunday 10 August 1997
The Sunday Times (a London newspaper) carried a claim by David Ervine, then a spokesperson for the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had tried to persuade Loyalist paramilitaries from calling a ceasefire in 1994. It was also claimed that the DUP had continued to try to undermine the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) ceasefire once it was in place.
[The DUP later responded to the claims by saying that Ervine was engaging in “fantasy politics”.]
Sinn Féin (SF) held a rally in Belfast and called on Unionists to join them at the talks in Stormont. While the rally was in progress the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) staged a publicity stunt involving armed members posing with weapons for a cameraman in west Belfast.
The INLA later released a statement that called the ceasefire by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) “bogus”.
Tuesday 10 August 1999
Two pipe-bombs were recovered after Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers stopped a car acting suspiciously in the Rathenraw estate in Antrim shortly after midnight. Two men were arrested and the devices were defused by British Army (BA) officers.
Thursday 10 August 2000
A pipe-bomb was discovered in Magherafelt, County Derry, and was diffused by the British army. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries. Loyalists also attacked 12 Catholic homes in Carrickhill and Ardoyne.
Friday 10 August 2001
Assembly Suspended For 1 Day
Two men were shot in separate paramilitary ‘punishment’ attacks in west Belfast. A 17-year-old youth was shot in both legs and arms in Andersonstown after he had been taken from his home. The second man was shot in both legs in Twinbrook.
John Reid, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that he was suspending the Northern Ireland Assembly, at midnight, for a short period and hoped the period of suspension would last just for the coming weekend.
[The suspension lasted just 24 hours. The effect of the suspension was to allow another period of six weeks (until 22 September 2001) in which the political parties would have a second opportunity to come to agreement and re-elect the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.]
There was a report in the Irish Times (a Republic of Ireland newspaper) on the scale of Loyalist paramilitary pipe-bomb attacks across Northern Ireland during 2001. Of the 134 pipe-bombs used during the year to date 50 had exploded and the rest were either defused or failed to explode. There had been 44 pipe-bomb attacks in Belfast; 19 in Coleraine; 12 in Ballymena; 6 in Larne; and 5 in Ballymoney.
Sam Kinkaid, then Assistant Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), said that the attacks have been carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
Omagh Bomb
Some of the relatives of those killed by the Omagh Bomb (15 August 1998) announced that they were beginning a civil action against the “real” Irish Republican Army (rIRA).
[The legal action would involve the families sueing five men (alleged to be members of the rIRA) for compensation. This action was thought to be the first of its kind.]
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.
17 people lost their lives on the 10th August between 1971 – 1994
——————————-
10 August 1971
Norman Watson (53)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA) Shot while driving along Irish Street, Armagh.
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10 August 1971
Paul Challoner
Paul Challoner, (23) nfNI
Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot while on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Bligh’s Lane, Creggan, Derry.
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10 August 1971
Edwards Doherty, (28)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA) Shot while walking along Whiterock Road, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
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10 August 1973
Joseph Murphy
Joseph Murphy (22)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY) Shot while walking along Kennedy Way, Andersonstown, Belfast.
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10 August 1975
Siobhan McCabe
Siobhan McCabe, (4)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during gun battle between Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British Army (BA), McDonnell Street, Lower Falls, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1975
Patrick Crawford
Patrick Crawford, (15)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: not known (nk) Shot during gun battle between Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British Army (BA), grounds of Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1976
Daniel Lennon
Daniel Lennon, (23)
Catholic
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: British Army (BA) Shot while driving car away from attempted ambush of British Army (BA) foot patrol, car went out of control and crashed into Maguire family, walking along Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1976
John Maguire, (3)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: not known (nk) Died when hit by car, which went out of control and mounted pavement, after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) member driver had been shot by British Army (BA) patrol, Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
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10 August 1976
Joanne Maguire
Joanne Maguire, (9)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: not known (nk) Died when hit by car, which went out of control and mounted pavement, after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) member driver had been shot by British Army (BA) patrol, Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1976
Andrew Maguire, (0)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: not known (nk) Died when hit by car, which went out of control and mounted pavement, after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) member driver had been shot by British Army (BA) patrol, Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1979
Arthur McGraw, (29)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot outside his home, Moneycarrie Road, Garvagh, County Derry. Mistaken for his Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) member brother.
——————————-
10 August 1984
Benjamin Redfern
Benjamin Redfern, (32)
Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Association (UDA),
Killed by: not known (nk) Crushed to death in back of refuse lorry during attempted escape from Long Kesh / Maze Prison, County Down.
——————————-
10 August 1984
Francis Hand
Francis Hand, (26) nfNIRI
Status: Garda Siochana (GS),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA) Shot during attempted armed robbery at post office, Drumcree, County Meath.
——————————-
10 August 1988
Samuel Patton, (33)
Protestant
Status: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) Found shot in field, off Ballyversal Road, near Coleraine, County Derry.
——————————-
10 August 1988
James McPhilemy, (20)
Catholic
Status: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),
Killed by: British Army (BA) Shot while involved in attempted gun attack on permanent British Army (BA) Vehicle Check Point (VCP), Clady, near Strabane, County Tyrone.
——————————-
10 August 1991
James Carson, (33)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Loyalist Retaliation and Defence Group (LRDG) Shot at his shop, junction of Falls Road and Donegall Road, Falls, Belfast.
——————————-
10 August 1994
Harry O’Neill
Harry O’Neill, (60)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) Security man. Shot while in security hut at supermarket, Orby Link, Castlereagh, Belfast.
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Monday 9 August 1971
Internment
Operation Demetrius
Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (imprisonment without trial) of 342 people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was waging a campaign against the state. It was proposed by the Northern Ireland Government and approved by the British Government. Armed soldiers launched dawn raids throughout Northern Ireland, sparking four days of violence in which 20 civilians, two IRA members and two British soldiers were killed. All of those arrested were Catholic Irish nationalists. Due to faulty intelligence, many had no links with the IRA. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries were also carrying out acts of violence, which were mainly directed against Catholics and Irish nationalists, but no loyalists were included in the sweep
See below for additional details on Internment
————————————————-
Internment, 17 People Killed
In a series of raids across Northern Ireland, 342 people were arrested and taken to makeshift camps as Internment was re-introduced in Northern Ireland. There was an immediate upsurge of violence and 17 people were killed during the next 48 hours. Of these 10 were Catholic civilians who were shot dead by the British Army (BA).
Hugh Mullan (38) was the first Catholic priest to be killed in the conflict when he was shot dead by the British Army as he was giving the last rites to a wounded man.
Winston Donnell (22) became the first Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) solider to die in ‘the Troubles’ when he was shot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Clady, County Tyrone.
[There were more arrests in the following days and months. Internment was to continue until 5 December 1975. During that time 1,981 people were detained; 1,874 were Catholic / Republican, while 107 were Protestant / Loyalist. Internment had been proposed by Unionist politicians as the solution to the security situation in Northern Ireland but was to lead to a very high level of violence over the next few years and to increased support for the IRA. Even members of the security forces remarked on the drawbacks of internment.]
Wednesday 9 August 1972
There was widespread and severe rioting in Nationalist areas on the anniversary of the introduction of Internment.
Friday 9 August 1974
A report on the Dublin bombings investigation was completed by the Garda Síochána (the Irish police).
[A number of further inquiries were carried out by the Garda Síochána between 1974 and 1976 but nothing of consequence resulted.]
Tuesday 9 August 1977
The Queen began a two-day visit to Northern Ireland as part of her jubilee celebrations. It was the first visit by the Queen for 11 years.
Saturday 9 August 1980
Following protests on the ninth anniversary of Internment there was continuing violence and three people were killed and 18 injured in a number of incidents.
Sunday 9 August 1981
Liam Canning (19), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a covername used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), as he walked along Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, Belfast.
Peter Maguinness (41), a Catholic civilian, was shot dead by a plastic bullet fired by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) while he was outside his home on the Shore Road, Greencastle, Belfast.
There were continuing riots in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.
Tuesday 9 August 1983
In the run-up to the anniversary of the introduction of Internment in 1971 there was rioting in Nationalist areas of Belfast. A young Catholic man was shot dead by a British soldier following an altercation between local people and a British Army (BA) foot patrol on the Whiterock Road, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
Thursday 9 August 1984
Martin Galvin, then leader of NORAID (Irish Northern Aid Committee), appeared at a rally in Derry despite being banned from the UK.
Galvin appeared at another rally in Belfast on 12 August 1984.
Wednesday 9 August 1989
Seamus Duffy (15) was killed by a plastic bullet fired by a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
Friday 9 August 1991
Garry Lynch (28), who was an election worker with the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), was shot dead in an attack at his workplace in Derry.
Wednesday 9 August 1995
Albert Reynolds, the former Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), said that the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons had not been highlighted in the talks leading to the Downing Street Declaration. He further stated that if the issue had been raised he would not have signed the Declaration.
Monday 19 August 1996
Jimmy Smith, one of those who had escaped from the Maze prison in 1983, was extradited from the United States of America.
Saturday 9 August 1997
The Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) planted a hoax van bomb on Craigavon Bridge in Derry, prior to the start of the Apprentice Boys’ parade through the city. When the march got underway there were disturbances when Loyalist bandsmen broke ranks to attack Nationalist residents who were observing the parade. An Apprentice Boys’ parade through Dunloy, County Antrim, was rerouted by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
The Royal Black Preceptory decided to cancel a parade in Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh, because of protests by the Nationalist residents of the village.
Monday 9 August 1999
The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to press charges against Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers who were accused of assaulting David Adams, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) member.
Adams had received £30,000 compensations for injuries, including a broken leg, inflicted upon him while being held in Castlereagh Holding Centre. Adams had been arrested in 1994 and later sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to murder a senior RUC detective.
A man from north Belfast appeared in Belfast High Court and was charged with the murder of Charles Bennett on 30 July 1999.
The Northern Ireland Parades Commission decided to allow an Apprentice Boys march down the lower Ormeau Road, Belfast, on 14 August 1999 despite the opposition of local Nationalist residents. Delegates from the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the Bogside Residents’ Group met in an effort to reach a compromise on the arrangement for the forthcoming parade in Derry.
Thursday 9 August 2001
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued a statement about its meetings with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). David Trimble, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), said the statement did not go far enough and his party wanted to see a beginning to actual decommissioning.
The UUP and Sinn Féin (SF), and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), held separate meetings with John Reid, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, at Hillsborough Castle, County Down. The UUP argued for a suspension of the institutions of devolved government, whereas SF favoured fresh elections to the Assembly.
————————————–
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.
.26 People lost their lives on the 9th August between 1971 – 1991
9th August
————————————–
09 August 1971 William Atwell, (40)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Republican group (REP)
Security man. Killed by nail bomb thrown into Mackie’s factory, Springfield Road, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Sarah Worthington, (50)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot in her home, Velsheda Park, Ardoyne, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Leo McGuigan, (16)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while walking along Estoril Park, Ardoyne, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971
Patrick McAdorey, (24)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during gun battle, Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 John Beattie, (17)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot, from British Army (BA) observation post in Clonard Monastery, while driving van along Ashmore Street, Shankill, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971
Francis Quinn, (20)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during gun battle, Springfield Park, Ballymurphy, Belfast, by BA snipers from the nearby New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, while going to the aid of a wounded man.
————————————–
09 August 1971
Hugh Mullan, (38)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Catholic Priest. Shot during gun battle, Springfield Park, Ballymurphy, Belfast, by BA snipers from the nearby New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, while going to the aid of a wounded man.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Francis McGuinness, (17)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during street disturbances, Finaghy Road North, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971
Desmond Healey, (14)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during street disturbances, Lenadoon Avenue, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971
Joan Connolly, (50)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot as she stood opposite New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, Springfield Road, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Daniel Teggart, (44)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot as he stood opposite New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, Springfield Road, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Noel Phillips, (20)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot as he stood opposite New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, Springfield Road, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Joseph Murphy, (41)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot as he stood opposite New Barnsley British Army (BA) base, Springfield Road, Belfast. He died on 22 August 1971.
————————————–
09 August 1971 Winston Donnell, (22)
Protestant Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot while at British Army (BA) Vehicle Check Point (VCP), Clady near Strabane, County Tyrone.
————————————–
09 August 1972
Colm Murtagh, (24)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died in premature bomb explosion in garage, Dublin Road, Newry, County Down.
————————————–
09 August 1973
Henry Cunningham, (17) nfNI Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
From County Donegal. Shot during gun attack on his firm’s van, from bridge overlooking the M2 motorway, near Templepatrick, County Antrim.
————————————–
09 August 1977
Paul McWilliams, (16)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army Youth Section (IRAF),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot from British Army (BA) observation post, in Corry’s Timber Yard, Springhill Avenue, Ballymurphy, Belfast
————————————–
09 August 1977 Loius Harrison (20) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot by sniper while standing outside Henry Taggart British Army (BA) base, Springfield Road, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1980 James McCarren, (19)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
Shot during sniper attack on British Army (BA) mobile patrol, Shaw’s Road, Andersonstown, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1980
Brien Brown, (29) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed by remote controlled bomb while on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Forkhill, County Armagh.
————————————–
09 August 1980
Michael Donnelly, (21)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot by plastic bullet at the junction of Leeson Street and Falls Road, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1981 Liam Canning, (19)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Shot while walking along Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1981
Peter McGuinness, (41)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Shot by plastic bullet outside his home, Shore Road, Greencastle, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1983
Thomas Reilly, (22)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during altercation between local people and British Army (BA) foot patrol, Whiterock Road, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
————————————–
09 August 1989
Seamus Duffy, (15)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Shot by plastic bullet while walking along Dawson Street, New Lodge, Belfast
————————————–
09 August 1991
Lynch, Gary (27)
Protestant Status: Ulster Defence Association (UDA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Also Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) member. Shot at his workplace, Foyle Meats, Lisahally, Derry.
————————————–
Operation Demetrius
Internment
Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during the Troubles. It involved the mass arrest and internment (imprisonment without trial) of 342 people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was waging a campaign against the state. It was proposed by the Northern Ireland Government and approved by the British Government. Armed soldiers launched dawn raids throughout Northern Ireland, sparking four days of violence in which 20 civilians, two IRA members and two British soldiers were killed. All of those arrested were Catholic Irish nationalists. Due to faulty intelligence, many had no links with the IRA. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries were also carrying out acts of violence, which were mainly directed against Catholics and Irish nationalists, but no loyalists were included in the sweep.
The introduction of internment, the way the arrests were carried out, and the abuse of those arrested, led to mass protests and a sharp increase in violence. Amid the violence, about 7,000 people fled or were forced out of their homes. The interrogation techniques used on the internees were described by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976 as torture, but the European Court of Human Rights ruled on appeal in 1978 that while the techniques were “inhuman and degrading”, they did not constitute torture.
It was later revealed that the British Government had withheld information from the ECHR and that a policy of torture had in fact been authorized by British Government ministers. In December 2014 the Irish government asked the European Court of Human Rights to revise its 1978 judgement.
The policy of internment was to last until December 1975 and during that time 1,981 people were interned;1,874 were Catholic/Irish republican, while 107 were Protestant/loyalist. The first Protestant/loyalist internees were detained in February 1973.
Background and planning
Internment had been used a number of times during Northern Ireland‘s (and the Republic of Ireland‘s) history, but had not yet been used during the Troubles, which began in the late 1960s. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) had been engaged in a low-level violent campaign since 1966. After the August 1969 riots, the British Army (BA) was deployed on the streets to bolster the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Up until this point the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had been largely inactive. However, as the violence and political situation worsened, the IRA was divided over how to deal with it. It split into two factions: the Provisional IRA and Official IRA. In 1970–71, the Provisionals launched an armed campaign against the British Army and the RUC. The Officials stated that their policy was one of defence.
During 1970–71 there were numerous clashes between state forces and the two wings of the IRA, and between the IRA and loyalists. Most loyalist attacks were directed against Catholic civilians and the Irish nationalist/republican community, but they also clashed with state forces on a number of occasions.
The idea of re-introducing internment for republican militants came from the unionistgovernment of Northern Ireland, headed by Prime MinisterBrian Faulkner. It was agreed to re-introduce internment at a meeting between Faulkner and UK Prime Minister Edward Heath on 5 August 1971. The British cabinet recommended “balancing action”, such as the arrest of loyalist militants, the calling in of weapons held by (generally unionist) rifle clubs in Northern Ireland and an indefinite ban on parades (most of which were held by unionist/loyalist groups). However, Faulkner argued that a ban on parades was unworkable, that the rifle clubs posed no security risk and that there was no evidence of loyalist terrorism
It was eventually agreed that there would be a six-month ban on parades but no targeting of loyalists and that internment would go ahead on 9 August, in an operation carried out by the British Army.
On the initial list of those to be arrested, which was drawn up by RUC Special Branch and MI5, there were 450 names, but only 350 of these were found. Key figures on the list, and many who never appeared on them, had got wind of the swoop before it began. The list included leaders of the non-violent civil rights movement such as Ivan Barr and Michael Farrell. But, as Tim Pat Coogan noted,
What they did not include was a single Loyalist. Although the UVF had begun the killing and bombing, this organisation was left untouched, as were other violent Loyalist satellite organisations such as Tara, the Shankill Defence Association and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. It is known that Faulkner was urged by the British to include a few Protestants in the trawl but he refused.
In the case brought to the European Commission of Human Rights by the Irish government against the government of the United Kingdom, it was conceded that Operation Demetrius was planned and implemented from the highest levels of the British government and that specially trained personnel were sent to Northern Ireland to familiarize the local forces in what became known as the ‘five techniques‘, methods of interrogation described by opponents as “a euphemism for torture”.
Legal basis
The internments were initially carried out under Regulations 11 and 12 of 1956 and Regulation 10 of 1957 (the Special Powers Regulations), made under the authority of the Special Powers Act. The Detention of Terrorists Order of 7 November 1972, made under the authority of the Temporary Provisions Act, was used after direct rule was instituted.
Internees arrested without trial pursuant to Operation Demetrius could not complain to the European Commission of Human Rights about breaches of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because on 27 June 1957, the UK lodged a notice with the Council of Europe declaring that there was a “public emergency within the meaning of Article 15(1) of the Convention.”
The operation and immediate aftermath
The HMS Maidstone, a prison ship docked at Belfast where many internees were sent
Operation Demetrius began on Monday 9 August at about 4AM.
(2) The process of identification and questioning, leading either to release of the detainee or movement into detention at Crumlin Road prison or aboard HMS Maidstone, a prison ship in Belfast Harbour.
In the first wave of raids across Northern Ireland, 342 people were arrested. Many of those arrested reported that they and their families were assaulted, verbally abused and threatened by the soldiers. There were claims of soldiers smashing their way into houses without warning and firing baton rounds through doors and windows. Many of those arrested also reported being ill-treated during their three-day detention at the holding centres. They complained of being beaten, verbally abused, threatened, harassed by dogs, denied sleep, and starved.
Some reported being forced to run a gauntlet of baton-wielding soldiers, being forced to run an ‘obstacle course’, having their heads forcefully shaved, being kept naked, being burnt with cigarettes, having a sack placed over their heads for long periods, having a rope kept around their necks, having the barrel of a gun pressed against their heads, being dragged by the hair, being trailed behind armoured vehicles while barefoot, and being tied to armoured trucks as a human shield.[12][13] Some were hooded, beaten and then thrown from a helicopter. They were told they were hundreds of feet in the air, but were actually only a few feet from the ground.
The operation sparked an immediate upsurge of violence, which was said to be the worst since the August 1969 riots. The British Army came under sustained attack from Irish nationalist/republican rioters and gunmen, especially in Belfast. According to journalist Kevin Myers:
“Insanity seized the city. Hundreds of vehicles were hijacked and factories were burnt. Loyalist and IRA gunmen were everywhere”.
People blocked roads and streets with burning barricades to stop the British Army entering their neighbourhoods. In Derry, barricades were again erected around Free Derry and “for the next 11 months these areas effectively seceded from British control”. Between 9 and 11 August, 24 people were killed or fatally wounded: 20 civilians (14 Catholics, 6 Protestants), two members of the Provisional IRA (shot dead by the British Army), and two members of the British Army (shot dead by the Provisional IRA).
Of the civilians killed, 17 were killed by the British Army and the other three were killed by unknown attackers. In West Belfast’s Ballymurphy housing estate, 11 Catholic civilians were killed by 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment between 9 and 11 August in an episode that has become known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. Another flashpoint was Ardoyne in North Belfast, where soldiers shot dead three people on 9 August.
Many Protestant families fled Ardoyne and about 200 burnt their homes as they left, lest they “fall into Catholic hands”.Protestant and Catholic families fled “to either side of a dividing line, which would provide the foundation for the permanent peaceline later built in the area”. Catholic homes were burnt in Ardoyne and elsewhere too. About 7000 people, most of them Catholics, were left homeless.
About 2500 Catholic refugees fled south of the border, where new refugee camps were set up.
By 13 August, media reports indicated that the violence had begun to wane, seemingly due to exhaustion on the part of the IRA and security forces.
On 15 August, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that it was starting a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of internment. By 17 October, it was estimated that about 16,000 households were withholding rent and rates for council houses as part of the campaign of civil disobedience.
On 16 August, over 8000 workers went on strike in Derry in protest at internment. Joe Cahill, then Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA, held a press conference during which he claimed that only 30 Provisional IRA members had been intern
On 22 August, in protest against internment, about 130 non-Unionistcouncillors announced that they would no longer sit on district councils. The SDLP also withdrew its representatives from a number of public bodies. On 19 October, five Northern Ireland Members of Parliament (MPs) began a 48-hour hunger strike against internment. The protest took place near 10 Downing Street in London. Among those taking part were John Hume, Austin Currie, and Bernadette Devlin.
Protests would continue until internment was ended in December 1975.
Long-term effects
Anti-internment mural in the Bogside area of Derry
Following the suspension of the Northern Ireland Government and Parliament, internment was continued by the direct rule administration until 5 December 1975. During this time a total of 1,981 people were interned: 1,874 were from a Catholic or Irish nationalist background, while 107 were from a Protestant or Ulster loyalist background.
Historians generally view the period of internment as inflaming sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland, while failing in its goal of arresting key members of the IRA. Many of the people arrested had no links whatsoever with the IRA, but their names appeared on the list of those to be arrested through bungling and incompetence. The list’s lack of reliability and the arrests that followed, complemented by reports of internees being abused, led to more people identifying with the IRA in the Irish nationalist community and losing hope in other methods.
After Operation Demetrius, recruits came forward in huge numbers to join the Provisional and Official wings of the IRA. Internment also led to a sharp increase in violence. In the eight months before the operation, there were 34 conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland. In the four months following it, 140 were killed.
A serving officer of the British Royal Marines declared:
It (internment) has, in fact, increased terrorist activity, perhaps boosted IRA recruitment, polarised further the Catholic and Protestant communities and reduced the ranks of the much needed Catholic moderates.
In terms of loss of life, 1972 was the most violent of the Troubles. The fatal march on Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) in Derry, when 14 unarmed civil rights protesters were shot dead by British paratroopers, was an anti-internment march.
Interrogation of internees
All of those arrested were interrogated by the British Army and RUC. However, twelve internees were then chosen for further “deep interrogation”, using sensory deprivation. This took place at a secret interrogation centre, which was later revealed to be Shackleton Barracks, outside Ballykelly. In October, a further two internees were chosen for deep interrogation. These fourteen became known as “the Hooded Men”, or “the Guineapigs”.
After undergoing the same treatment as the other internees, the men were hooded, handcuffed and flown to the base by helicopter. On the way, soldiers severely beat them and threatened to throw them from the helicopter. When they arrived they were stripped naked, photographed, and examined by a doctor.
For seven days, when not being interrogated, they were kept hooded and handcuffed in a cold cell and subjected to a continuous loud hissing noise. Here they were forced to stand in a stress position for many hours and were repeatedly beaten on all parts of their body. They were deprived of sleep, food and drink. Some of them also reported being kicked in the genitals, having their heads banged against walls, being shot at with blank rounds, and being threatened with injections. The result was severe physical and mental exhaustion, severe anxiety, depression, hallucinations, disorientation and repeated loss of consciousness.
The interrogation methods used on the men became known as the ‘five techniques‘. Training and advice regarding the five techniques came from senior intelligence officials in the British government. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) defined the five techniques as follows:
(a) wall-standing: forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a “stress position”, described by those who underwent it as being “spreadeagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers”;
(b) hooding: putting a black or navy coloured bag over the detainees’ heads and, at least initially, keeping it there all the time except during interrogation;
(c) subjection to noise: pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise;
(d) deprivation of sleep: pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep;
(e) deprivation of food and drink: subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the centre and pending interrogations.
The fourteen Hooded Men were the only internees subjected to the full five techniques. However, over the following months, some internees were subjected to at least one of the five techniques, as well as other interrogation methods. These allegedly included waterboarding,electric shocks, burning with matches and candles, forcing internees to stand over hot electric fires while beating them, beating and squeezing of the genitals, inserting objects into the anus, injections, whipping the soles of the feet, and psychological abuse such as Russian roulette.
Parker Report
When the interrogation techniques used on the internees became known to the public, there was outrage at the British government, especially from Irish nationalists. In answer to the anger from the public and Members of Parliament, on 16 November 1971, the British government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker (the Lord Chief Justice of England) to look into the legal and moral aspects of the ‘five techniques’.
The “Parker Report” was published on 2 March 1972 and found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:
10. Domestic Law …(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. … (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.
[The] Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques … will not be used in future as an aid to interrogation… The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances.
As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister’s statement, directives expressly forbidding the use of the techniques, whether alone or together, were then issued to the security forces by the government. While these are still legally in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces is not officially condoned by the government, the five techniques were still being used by the British Army in 2003.
European Commission of Human Rig
The Irish Government, on behalf of the men who had been subject to the five techniques, took a case to the European Commission on Human Rights (Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on Hum. Rts. 512, 748, 788-94 (Eur. Comm’n of Hum. Rts.)). The Commission stated that it
…unanimously considered the combined use of the five methods to amount to torture, on the grounds that (1) the intensity of the stress caused by techniques creating sensory deprivation “directly affects the personality physically and mentally”; and (2) “the systematic application of the techniques for the purpose of inducing a person to give information shows a clear resemblance to those methods of systematic torture which have been known over the ages…a modern system of torture falling into the same category as those systems applied in previous times as a means of obtaining information and confessions.
European Court of Human Rights
The Commissions findings were appealed. In 1978, in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) trial Ireland v. the United Kingdom (Case No. 5310/71), the court ruled:
167. … Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood. …168. The Court concludes that recourse to the five techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of the European Convention on Human RightsArticle 3 (art. 3).
On 8 February 1977, in proceedings before the ECHR, and in line with the findings of the Parker Report and UK Government policy, the Attorney-General of the United Kingdom stated:
The Government of the United Kingdom have considered the question of the use of the ‘five techniques’ with very great care and with particular regard to Article 3 (art. 3) of the Convention. They now give this unqualified undertaking, that the ‘five techniques’ will not in any circumstances be reintroduced as an aid to interrogation.
Later developments
In 2013, declassified documents revealed the existence of the interrogation centre at Ballykelly. It had not been mentioned in any of the inquiries. Human rights group the Pat Finucane Centre accused the British Government of deliberately hiding it from the inquiries and the European Court of Human Rights.
In June 2014, an RTÉ documentary entitled The Torture Files uncovered a letter from the UK Home Secretary Merlyn Rees in 1977 to the then British Prime Minister James Callaghan. It confirmed that a policy of ‘torture’ had in fact been authorized by the British Government’s ministers—specifically the Secretary for Defence Peter Carrington—in 1971, contrary to the knowledge of the Irish government or the ECHR. The letter states:
“It is my view (confirmed by Brian Faulkner before his death) that the decision to use methods of torture in Northern Ireland in 1971/72 was taken by ministers – in particular Lord Carrington, then secretary of state for defence”.
Following the 2014 revelations, the President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, called on the Irish government to bring the case back to the ECHR because the British government, he said,
“lied to the European Court of Human Rights both on the severity of the methods used on the men, their long term physical and psychological consequences, on where these interrogations took place and who gave the political authority and clearance for it”.
On 2 December 2014 the Irish government announced that, having reviewed the new evidence and following requests from the survivors, it had decided to officially ask the ECHR to revise its 1978 judgement.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Monday 7 August 1972
Seven people were killed in separate incidents across Northern Ireland.
Tuesday 7 August 1979
Eamon Ryan (32), a civilian in the Republic of Ireland, was shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during a bank robbery in Strand Street, Tramore, County Waterford.
Wednesday 7 August 1985
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Independent Television News (ITN) journalists went on strike over the decision by the British government and the BBC in Northern Ireland to ban the documentary ‘Real Lives: At The Edge Of The Union’.
What Happened Next – At The Edge Of The Union (Part 1)
The strike led to the BBC World Service going off the air for the first time.
Thursday 7 August 1986
DUP ‘Invade’ Republic
Peter Robinson, then deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), marched with 500 Loyalists into the village of Clontibret, County Monaghan, in the Republic of Ireland.
The Loyalists entered the Garda Síochána (the Irish police) station in the village and physically assaulted two Garda officers.
[Robinson was later arrested and fined £17,500 in a Drogheda court because of the incident.]
The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a covername used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), announced that it was extending its list of ‘legitimate targets’.
[This was in response to Irish Republican Army (IRA) statements on 28 July 1986 and 5 August 1986.]
Sunday 7 August 1994
Kathleen O’Hagan (38), a Catholic civilian who was pregnant at the time, was shot dead by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) at her home, Barony Road, Greencastle, near Omagh, County Tyrone.
A husband talks about the murder of his pregnant wife by loyalist paramilitaries
Wednesday 7 August 1996
Patrick Mayhew, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, ordered that the contentious part of the Derry walls, a section overlooking the Bogside area, be closed off for a month. This effectively banned the proposed march on 10 August 1996. Immediately after the decision the British Army moved to seal off the section of walls.
Gardí in the Republic of Ireland discover a rocket launcher and ammunition in the Fane River near Dundalk, County Louth.
Tuesday 7 August 2001
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Members of Parliament (MPs) met for two hours to discuss the British and Irish government’s Implementation Plan (1 August 2001) and also the statement by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) (6 August 2001).
Following the meeting the UUP rejected both the Implementation Plan and the latest moves on the decommissioning of weapons held by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
David Trimble, then leader of the UUP, stated that: “We have seen a step by republicans but of course it falls far short of what we need, which is to see decommissioning actually begin. We’re now heading towards a difficulty at the end of the week,”.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) responded positively to the Implementation Plan. John Hume, then leader of the SDLP, addressed a press conference in Belfast and said the party had made a detailed study of the proposals:
“We are responding with a very strong ‘Yes’, … We have some concerns, but that is totally natural,”
He also said: “We are fully committed to the full implementation 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.
9 People lost their lives on the 7th August between 1971 – 1994
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07 August 1971
Harry Thornton, (30)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while driving past Springfield Road Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) / British Army (BA) base, Belfast.
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07 August 1972 Terence Hennebrey, (17)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Found shot in entry off Glenmachan Street, Village, Belfast.
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07 August 1972
David Wynne, (21) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in land mine attack on British Army (BA) mobile patrol, Forfey, near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh.
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07 August 1972
Errol Gordon, (22) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in land mine attack on British Army (BA) mobile patrol, Forfey, near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh.
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07 August 1972
William Creighton, (27)
Protestant Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot outside his home, Drumrainey, Magheraveely, near Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh
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07 August 1972
Geoffrey Knipe, (24) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: not known (nk)
Killed when British Army (BA) Armoured Personnel Carrier crashed after coming under missile attack thrown from crowd, Drumarg, Armagh.
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07 August 1974
Patrick McElhone, (23)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot shortly after being taken from his home by British Army (BA) patrol, Limehill, near Pomeroy, County Tyrone.
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07 August 1979 Eamon Ryan, (32) nfNIRI Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot during bank robbery, Strand Street, Tramore, County
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07 August 1994
Kathleen O’Hagan, (38)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Shot, at her home, Barony Road, Greencastle, near Omagh, County Tyrone
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This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Wednesday 6 August 1980
The British government announced an extra public spending package of £48 million for Northern Ireland to try to alleviate the high level of unemployment in the region which stood at 14.7 per cent.
This announcement came after a meeting between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTUs) and Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister.
Wednesday 6 August 1997
Loyalist paramilitaries carried out a ‘punishment’ attack on an 18 year old man in Rathcoole, north Belfast.
A taxi driver was shot in the legs in a ‘punishment’ style attack in Grosvenor Road, Belfast.
The attack was alleged to have been carried out by the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA).
A hoax bomb was sent to the office of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) on the Shankill Road.
It was believed that Loyalist paramilitaries were responsible.
There was an arson attack on an Orange Order hall near Caledon, County Tyrone.
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, held a meeting with Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), together with other SF representatives in Stormont.
Thursday 6 August 1998
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said that she believed that the “war is over”. [This was said in response to Unionist demands that Sinn Féin (SF) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) should state publicly that the conflict had ended.]
Thomas McMahon, who had been convicted of the murder of Lord Mountbatten and three other people in 1979, was released from jail in the Republic of Ireland.
The release drew criticism from Unionists in Northern Ireland.
Friday 6 August 1999
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued a statement in which the organisation denied that it have been behind an attempt to smuggle arms from the USA into Ireland; the IRA “Army Council has not sanctioned any arms importation operation”.
In relation to the speculation around the killing of Charles Bennett on 30 July 1999 the IRA said “there had been no breaches of the IRA cessation”.
Monday 6 August 2001
The date set as the deadline for the political parties to give their response to the British and Irish governments’ Implementation Plan for the Good Friday Agreement.
A statement was issued by John de Chastelain (Gen.), then head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), in which he announced that an Irish Republican Army (IRA) representative had proposed a method for putting weapons completely and verifiably beyond use.
De Chastelain told the British and Irish governments that the proposal met with the Commission’s remit in accordance with the governments’ scheme and regulations. De Chastelain said in the statement:
“Based on our discussions with the IRA representative, we believe that this proposal initiates a process that will put IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use.”
Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), declared the statement as a “hugely historical breakthrough”.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) office board consisting of 14 members met on Monday evening to consider its response to the Implementation Plan (1 August 2001) and also the statement by the IICD.
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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.
1 Person lost their lives on the 6th August 1985
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06 August 1985
Charles English (21)
Catholic Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died when grenade exploded prematurely, during attack on British Army (BA) mobile patrol, William Street, Derry.
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This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
Thursday 5 August 1971
There was a debate at Westminster on the situation in Northern Ireland. Brian Faulkner, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister, met with Edward Heath, then British Prime Minister, and Harry Tuzo, then General Officer Commanding the British Army (BA), in London to discuss the security situation.
5th August 1969
The UVF planted their first bomb in the Republic of Ireland , damaging the RTE Television Centre in Dublin
Sunday 5 August 1973
Francis & Bernadette Mullen
A Catholic husband and wife, Francis Mullan (59) and Bernadette Mullan (39), were found shot dead at their farmhouse near Moy, County Tyrone.
They had been killed by an unidentified Loyalist paramilitary group.
Friday 5 August 1977
There was a series of fire bomb attacks in Belfast and Lisburn, County Antrim.
Wednesday 5 August 1981
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a series of car bomb and incendiary bomb attacks in seven areas of Northern Ireland including Belfast, Derry and Lisburn. The attacks caused serious damage to property and minor injuries to a number of people.
Friday 5 August 1983
The ‘supergrass’ trial of 38 alleged members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) ended in Belfast. The trial had lasted 120 days with most of the evidence being offered by IRA supergrass Christopher Black.
I.R.A supergrass Christopher Black
The judge jailed 22 of the accused to sentences totalling more that 4,000 years. Four people were acquitted and others received suspended sentences.
In 1986, 18 of the 22 who received prison sentences had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Tuesday 5 August 1986
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued another warning that contractors who were carrying out work for the security services in Northern Ireland would be considered ‘part of the war machine’ and would be ‘treated as collaborators’.
Monday 5 August 1996
A meeting between the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the Bogside Residents Association ended without agreement about the march due to take place on 10 August 1996. A series of meetings between the two groups had been chaired by the local Member of Parliament John Hume, then leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
Tuesday 5 August 1997
A Catholic taxi driver survived an attempt to kill him when the gun being used by a Loyalist paramilitary jammed.
The attack occurred in the Parkmore estate in Lurgan.
The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) later claimed responsibility for the attack.
A hoax bomb was sent to Sammy Wilson, then a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor, at Belfast City Hall.
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, held her first meeting with Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), since the Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced its renewed ceasefire.
The Irish Times carried a report that John Hume, then leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), was considering accepting the position of President of the Republic of Ireland as an agreed all-party candidate. Hume did not comment on the story.
The Bogside Residents Group (BRG) gave agreement to the planned Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABD) march in the city on 9 August 1997. This followed the news that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) would reroute a number of ABD ‘feeder’ parades in other Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.
Thursday 5 August 1999
Two pipe-bombs were discovered by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in a hedge in Glengormley, County Antrim. Police made the discovery at 2.45am during a search carried out at the junction between Elmfield Crescent and Elmfield Road in the town.
A report of the Victims’ Commission, established by the Irish government, into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings recommended the appointment of a former Supreme Court judge to inquire privately into events surrounding the bombings which killed 33 people and injured over 400.
Although it was intended that the findings would eventually be made public, the families of the victims wanted the immediate establishment of a public tribunal of Inquiry.
Other recommendations of the report were that a similar Inquiry be established into the killing of Seamus Ludlow on 2 May 1976, and that the Irish government should make a £10,000 payment to the 150 families affected by the bombings.
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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.
5 People lost their lives on the 5th August between 1973 – 1994
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05 August 1973
Francis Mullen, (59)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Found shot at his farmhouse, Gorestown, near Moy, County Tyrone.
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05 August 1973
Bernadette Mullen, (39)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Found shot at her farmhouse, Gorestown, near Moy, County Tyrone.
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05 August 1974
Martha Lavery, (67)
Catholic Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot while in her home during gun battle between Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British Army (BA), Jamaica Street, Ardoyne, Belfast.
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot shortly after leaving his workplace, while driving along Altmore Road, Cappagh, County Tyrone.
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05 August 1994
David Thompson, (48)
Protestant Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Found shot, Ballyhill Lane, Nutts Corner, near Crumlin, County Antrim.
This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdrop of events that might best be described as ‘explosive’, captivating & shocking the world for thirty long years.
Note from R.T. Armstrong, then with the Prime Minister’s office, to T.C. Platt, then with the Northern Ireland Office (NIO).
The note shows that Edward Heath, then Prime Minister, was highly sensitive to the issue of interrogation of prisoners by the security forces.
Thursday 4 August 1988
William Hassard & Frederick Love
Two Protestant building workers, were killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belleek, County Fermanagh. The two workers had been carrying out repairs at Belleek police station.
Tuesday 4 August 1998
Dissident Republicans carried out an attack on a police patrol outside an Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station in Lurgan, County Armagh.
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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.
————————————————————–
5 People lost their lives on the 4th of August between 1972 – 1988
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04 August 1972
David Card, (21) nfNI Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot while on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Commedagh Drive, Andersonstown, Belfast.
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04 August 1977
John McCartan, (55)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Manager of Andersonstown Social Club. Shot as he was leaving the club premises, off South Link, Andersonstown, Belfast.
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04 August 1986
Denis Taggart, (33)
Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot outside his home, Battenberg Street, Shankill, Belfast.
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04 August 1988
William Hassard, (59)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot shortly after driving out of Belleek Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) / British Army (BA) base, County Fermanagh. Contractor to British Army (BA) / Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
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04 August 1988
Frederick Love, (64)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot shortly after driving out of Belleek Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) / British Army (BA) base, County Fermanagh. Employed by contractor to British Army (BA) / Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
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This is simply the story of a boy trying to grow up, survive, thrive, have fun & discover himself against a backdro… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…— Belfast Child (@bfchild66) July 23, 2020
The life and death of Eamon Collins Eamon Collins (1954 – 27 January 1999) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army member in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He turned his back on the organisation in the late 1980s, and later co-authored a book called Killing Rage detailing his experiences within it. In January 1999 he was waylaid on a … Continue reading Killing Rage – The life and death of Eamon Collins
The brutal & unforgivable murder of Ann Ogilby, also known as the Romper Room murder Forgotten victims of the Troubles The murder of Ann Ogilby, also known as the “Romper Room murder”, took place in Sandy Row, south Belfast, Northern Ireland on 24 July 1974. It was a punishment killing, carried out by members of the Sandy Row women’s Ulster Defence … Continue reading Ann Ogilby’s brutal murder: ” Forgotten ” victims of the Troubles
Joe McCann – Life & Death Joe McCann (2 November 1947 – 15 April 1972) was an Irish republican volunteer. A member of the Irish Republican Army and later the Official Irish Republican Army, he was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was shot dead, after being confronted by RUC Special … Continue reading Joe McCann – Life & Death
… Máire Drumm Life & death 22 October 1919 – 28 October 1976 Máire Drumm (22 October 1919 – 28 October 1976) was the vice-president of Sinn Féin and a commander in Cumann na mBan. She was killed by Ulster loyalists while recovering from an eye operation in Belfast’s Mater Hospital. Born in Newry, County Down, to a staunchly Irish republican family. Drumm’s mother had … Continue reading Máire Drumm: Life & Death
Death of Robert Hamill Robert Hamill was an Irish Catholic civilian who was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Hamill and his friends were attacked on 27 April 1997 on the town’s main street. It has been claimed that the local Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), parked a short … Continue reading Death of Robert Hamill: 27th April 1997
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Belfast Child 