Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles
31st January
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Monday 31 January 1972
Reginald Maudling, then British Home Secretary, made a statement to the House of Commons on the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ (30 January 1972) :
“The Army returned the fire directed at them with aimed shots and inflicted a number of casualties on those who were attacking them with firearms and with bombs”.
Maudling then went on to announce an Inquiry into the circumstances of the march. [ Bloody Sunday. ]
Wednesday 31 January 1973
A Catholic boy, Philip Rafferty (14), was abducted and killed by Loyalists in Belfast. A young Catholic man, Gabriel Savage (17), was shot dead by Loyalists in Belfast.
Thursday 31 January 1974
Two Catholic civilians were shot dead by the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a covername used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), as they worked in Rush Park, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
Ulster Workers’ Council Strike; Law Order
Thursday 31 January 1980
Hunger Strike.
Tuesday 31 January 1984
Two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) land mine attack on their armoured patrol car, near Forkhill, County Armagh.
Thursday 31 January 1991
There was a meeting of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin. Following the meeting Peter Brooke, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said that political talks were “a possibility, not a probability”.
Saturday 31 January 1998
The Loyalist picket of the Catholic church in Harryville, Ballymena, continued. The picket first began in September 1996.
Sunday 31 January 1999
Paddy Fox, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoner and a critic of the Sinn Féin leadership’s involvement in the Good Friday Agreement, was abducted early on Sunday morning from outside a hotel in Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. Fox was beaten before being released later the same day.
The Ulster rugby team won a decisive victory over the French team, Colomiers, in the European Cup. The game was played in Lansdowne Road in Dublin and an estimated 30,000 Ulster supporters travelled south for the match.
Monday 31 January 2000
Lee Clegg, then a Paratrooper in the British Army, had his conviction for shooting Martin Peake overturned by the Court of Appeal in Belfast.
See Lee Clegg
[Martin Peake (17) and Karen Reilly (18), both Catholic civilians, were shot dead by British Army paratroopers in Belfast on 30 September 1990. The two teenagers were travelling (‘joy riding’) in a stolen car at the time of the shooting.]
Wednesday 31 January 2001
A Catholic worker at the Wishing Well Family Centre on the predominantly Protestant Alliance Road, Belfast, escaped injury when a pipe-bomb was hurled through her car window. The attack was carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries.
At around the same time the RUC received two bomb warnings in the nearby Nationalist Ardoyne area,
Thursday 31 January 2002
Barrie Bradbury, a Loyalist from Lurgan, County Armagh, was told he could join a personal protection scheme. Bradbury had survived several attempts on his life that were believed to have been carried out by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
Bradbury had initially been told by the Secretary of State that he would not receive protective measures. Bradbury undertook a judicial review in Belfast High Court but the case was adjourned once the court was informed of the reversal of the earlier decision.
Mark Durkan, then leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), led a delegation of his party to Dublin, Republic of Ireland, for a meeting with Bertie Ahern, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister).
One of the items discussed was the disagreements between Nuala O’Loan, then Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI), and Ronnie Flanagan, then Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), over the handling of the Investigation of the Omagh bombing (15 August 1998).
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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.
12 People lost their lives on the 31st January between 1973 – 1989
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31 January 1973
Philip Rafferty, (14)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Found shot in car park, Giant’s Ring, off Ballynahatty Road, near Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast.
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31 January 1973
Gabriel Savage, (17)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: non-specific Loyalist group (LOY)
Found shot on grass verge by M1 motorway, near Donegall Road, Belfast.
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31 January 1974
Terence McCafferty, (37)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Shot during gun attack on workers’ hut at Northern Ireland Electricity Service building site, Rush Park, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
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31 January 1974
James McCloskey, (29)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
Shot during gun attack on workers’ hut at Northern Ireland Electricity Service building site, Rush Park, Newtownabbey, County Antrim.
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31 January 1975
George Coulter, (43)
Protestant
Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot by sniper while on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) mobile patrol, Donaghmore Road, near Dungannon, County Tyrone.
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31 January 1976
Hugh Woodside, (60)
Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: British Army (BA)
Shot during altercation between British Army (BA) patrol and local people in Long Bar, Shankill Road, Belfast.
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31 January 1977
James Moorehead, (30)
Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Association (UDA),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Found beaten to death, Adela Street, off Antrim Road, Belfast. Ulster Defence Association (UDA) / Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) feud.
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31 January 1984
Willam Savage, (27)
Protestant
Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in land mine attack on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) armoured patrol car, Drumintee Road, near Forkhill, County Armagh.
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31 January 1984
Thomas Bingham, (29)
Protestant
Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed in land mine attack on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) armoured patrol car, Drumintee Road, near Forkhill, County Armagh
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31 January 1986
Martin Quinn, (34)
Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),
Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Shot at his home, Bawnmore Park, Greencastle, Belfast.
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31 January 1987
Mary McGlinchey, (32)
Catholic
Status: ex-Irish National Liberation Army (xINLA),
Killed by: not known (nk)
Wife of former Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) leader Dominic McGlinchey. Shot at her home, Slieve Foy Park, Dundalk, County Louth
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31 January 1989
Nicholas Peacock, (20)
nfNI
Status: British Army (BA),
Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed by remote controlled bomb, hidden in drainpipe, while on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Rockmore Street, Falls, Belfast.
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Belfast Child 