Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles

25^th April

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Sunday 25 April 1971

Cenus

The Northern Ireland census was held.

[Various reports based on the census were published over the next few years. The total population was enumerated at 1,519,640. A large number of people (142,500) refused to state their religious denomination. This meant that the percentage of Catholics recorded as 31.4% (477,921) was a minimum figure. Statistical estimates of the probable size of the Catholic population put the figure at 36.8% (559,800), (see Compton and Power, 1986).]

Monday 25 April 1977

The United Unionist Action Council (UUAC), which was led by Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and Ernie Baird, then leader of the United Ulster Unionist Movement (UUUM), announced that it would hold a region-wide strike in May 1977.

The strike was organised to demand a tougher security response from the government and a return to ‘majority-rule’ government at Stormont.

The strike was supported by the Ulster Workers’ Council (UWC), the group that had organised the successful strike of May 1974, and also by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest of the Loyalist paramilitary groups.

The UUAC gave Roy Mason, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, seven days to respond to their demands. The threat of strike action by the UUAC was condemned by other groupings within unionism including the Vanguard Unionist Party (VUP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and the Orange Order.

Saturday 25 April 1981

Paul Whitters

Paul Whitters (15), a Catholic teenager, died as a result of injuries received ten days earlier when he was shot in the head by a plastic bullet by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Two Commissioners from the European Commission on Human Rights tried to visit Bobby Sands but are unable to do so because Sands requested the presence of representatives of Sinn Féin (SF).

Sands had insisted that he would only meet the Commissioners if Brendan McFarlane, who had taken over as leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Maze Prison, and Gerry Adams, then Vice-President of SF, and Danny Morrison, then editor of An Phoblacht, were also allowed to attend the meeting. [On 4 May 1981 the European Commission on Human Rights announced that it had no power to proceed with the Sands’ case.]

Sunday 25 April 1982

Sinn Féin (SF) the Workers’ Party changed its name to the Workers’ Party.

Friday 25 April 1986

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Executive voted to end the special relationship with the British Conservative Party.

[The relationship dated from the first Home Rule crises. The Conservative and Unionist Party was the official title of the conservatives.]

Saturday 25 April 1987

     

Gibson & Cecily Maurice 

A senior Northern Ireland judge and his wife were killed by an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb at Killeen, County Armagh. The judge was the fifth member of the Northern Ireland judiciary to be killed by the IRA. A member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was shot dead by the IRA in County Tyrone.

Monday 25 April 1994

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) shot dead Francis Rice (23), a Catholic Civilian, beside Half Moon Lake, off Suffolk Road, Suffolk, Belfast. The IRA alleged that Rice was a criminal and drug dealer.

[This was the first of a series of killings of alleged drug dealers over the next couple of years. Many of these killings were claimed by ‘Direct Action Against Drugs’ (DAAD) which was believed to be a cover name (pseudonym) used by the IRA.] The IRA carried out ‘punishment shootings’ on 16 men whom it alleged were drug dealers. A number of other men were ordered to leave the country.

Tuesday 25 April 1995

A Catholic man, who was a taxi driver, was shot and seriously injured near Lurgan, County Armagh.

Friday 25 April 1997

A Catholic church, St Nicholas’s chapel in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, was attacked and damaged by arsonists. The attack was believed to have been carried out by Loyalists.

Billy Wright, then leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), was moved to the Maze Prison. The move followed threats made by the LVF against the lives of prison officers, if the prison authorities did not allow LVF inmates to have their own ‘wing’ in one of the H-blocks at the Maze Prison.

Wright and three other LVF prisoner were moved into one wing of H6. The remainder of H6 was occupied by Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners.

See Billy Wright

[Wright was subsequently shot and kille d by the INLA in the prison on 27 December 1997.]

Sunday 25 April 1999

Loyalist paramilitaries carried out a grenade attack on a house in the Legoniel area of Belfast. The Orange Volunteers (OV) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sinn Féin (SF) lost a court action to try to force the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to broadcast the whole of its election video.

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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.

 13 People lost their lives on the 25th  April   between 1976– 1998

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25 April 1972
Joseph Gold  (29)

nfNI
Status: British Army (BA)

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Died four days after being shot at British Army (BA) Vehicle Check Point (VCP), Donegall Road, Belfast.

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25 April 1975

Samuel Johnston  (33)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: non-specific Republican group (REP)
Shot from passing car while walking at the junction of Batchelors Walk and Carrickblatter Road, Portadown, County Armagh.

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25 April 1979

William Carson   (32)

Catholic
Status: Irish Republican Army (IRA),

Killed by: Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
Shot at his home, Rosevale Street, off Oldpark Road, Belfast.

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25 April 1979
John Graham  (55)

Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot by sniper while driving lorry, Seskinore, County Tyrone.

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25 April 1980
Michael Madden  (65)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot at his home, Lenadoon Avenue, Belfast. Alleged informer.

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25 April 1981

Paul Whitters  (15)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)
Died 10 days after being shot by plastic bullet, Great James Street, Derry.

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25 April 1987

Maurice Gibson   (74)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ)

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Chief Justice, together with his wife, killed by remote controlled bomb hidden in parked car detonated when they drove past, Killeen, County Armagh.

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25 April 1987

Cecily Gibson  (67)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed together with her Chief Justice husband, by remote controlled bomb hidden in parked car detonated when they drove past, Killeen, County Armagh.

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25 April 1987

William Graham   (44)

Protestant
Status: Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot at his family’s farm, off Gortscraheen Road, near Pomeroy, County Tyrone

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25 April 1990

Brian McKimm   (22)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
Shot from passing car while walking along Limehill Grove, Ligoniel, Belfast. Assumed to be a Catholic.

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25 April 1993

David Martin   (33)

Protestant
Status: ex-Ulster Defence Regiment (xUDR),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Killed by booby trap bomb attached to his car which exploded while travelling along Flo Road, Kildress, near Cookstown, County Tyrone.

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25 April 1994
Francis Rice   (23)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Found shot, by Half Moon Lake, off Suffolk Road, Suffolk, Belfast. Alleged criminal

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25 April 1998
Ciaran Heffron   (22)

Catholic
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF)
Shot, while walking near to his home, along Glenoak Gardens, Crumlin, County Antrim.

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— A Belfast Child (@ABelfastChild1) January 19, 2020