Two RUC officers were shot dead and the base was raked with gunfire before being destroyed by a bomb. ], In 2012 a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Tyrone distanced itself from a republican commemoration of those killed in the ambush. A 'senior security source' claimed that the IRA was responsible. [12], The eight volunteers killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among many republicans. [93], Other operations against security facilities in this period included a sniper and small arms attack on the British Army base of Killymeal, Dungannon, on 22 May 1993; the brigade claimed a subsequent exchange of fire between IRA volunteers in supporting role and British soldiers crewing an observation post. Simon Carswell. "It was never going to be delivered by the normal means, by the Irish themselves, but it could come about through the break-up of the so-called United Kingdom," he says as he sits in an armchair in his living room, in front of shelves of history books that reflect his past studies at Trinity College Dublin and his background in teaching. Another brother, Kevin, and Tommy's uncle John, neither of whom was in the IRA, were killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Volunteer Force in an attack on the family's butcher's shop, in Moy, in January 1992. [99][100], On 9 April 1994, after a three-day IRA ceasefire, a Mark-15 mortar was launched at midday at the British Army permanent checkpoint in Aughnacloy. The. A member of an IRA unit who survived a deadly SAS ambush at Loughgall which claimed the lives of eight republicans has broken his silence for the first time on the 30th anniversary. The genie is out of the bottle, so you are not going to put it back in again, and at this point in time we are in the uneasy calm before the potential storm. In June 1991, three IRA men, Lawrence McNally, Peter Ryan and Tony Dorris were lured into yet another SAS ambush at Coagh, where their car was raked with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. [113] An IRA man was taken in custody in Newtownstewart, west Tyrone, on 10 July 1993, after being injured during a mishap while testing an improvised mortar in a barn near Dungannon. [80], From mid-1992 up to the 1994 cease fire, IRA units in east and south Tyrone carried out a dozen bomb and mortar attacks against RUC and military bases and assets. He explains to Simon Carswell how Brexit is the best thing ever for Irish nationalists and republicans. The second attack was on the part-time station at The Birches, County Armagh, and it began by driving a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket through the reinforced fences the RUC had in place around their bases, and then exploding the bomb and raking the police station with gunfire. This was in response to a complaint from Democratic Unionist Party Assemblyman William McCrea accusing the GAA of turning a blind eye to "republican terrorist" events in the last years. [6] Journalist Kevin Toolis states that from 1985 onwards, the brigade led a five-year campaign that left 33 security facilities destroyed and nearly 100 seriously damaged. The reality of it is that after 25 years of armed conflict there is less possibility of an armed campaign of any significance. This was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during its campaign. That was not to do with economics. Sniper Assault Kills A British Soldier in Belfast", "Thousands join peace protest in Greysteel", "Geograph:: Cookstown Courthouse Kenneth Allen", "Lords Chamber - Wednesday 8 June 1994 - Hansard - UK Parliament", "3 RUC Officers Wounded in Tyrone Ambush", "Sinn Fein politician caught in IRA gunfire | The Independent | The Independent", "Armed guard at hospital bed of IRA suspect", "Off-duty soldier killed by IRA booby-trap bomb: Car attack follows", "CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes - Search Page", "The road to violence. I dont see that., It is going to be very embarrassing for a lot of Irish political parties that almost pretended that partition was going. I just mean in terms of chaos and upheaval political, economic and otherwise.. [23] British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the attack on the military bus at Curr road. [107] On 30 July 1993, a 20 pounds (9.1kg) device was uncovered by security forces in Pomeroy, and one man was arrested. [8] In April 1987 they shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main contractors to the British Army and the RUC in Northern Ireland. Lynagh's strategy was to start off with one area which the British military did not control, preferably a republican stronghold such as east Tyrone. Lynagh, a fellow republican, served eight years, from 1982 to 1990, in Portlaoise Prison over a charge related to the killing of a nightclub bouncer in Monaghan in 1981. Eight were killed and the rest were badly wounded. [74][75] The heavy mortar round, fired from a tractor near the town's health center, was deflected by a tree besides the barracks wall. Dozens of residents were evacuated to a neighbouring church's hall. The RUC patrol returned fire. This was the last action by the Brigade before. Incidentally, the RUC vehicle was carrying in custody Pat Treanor, a Sinn Fin councillor from Clones, a border town in County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. See: 11 December 1985: the East Tyrone Brigade claimed responsibility for mortaring Tynan RUC base, County Armagh in which four RUC officers were injured and the base badly damaged. Gerry McGeough, who is now a farmer, served time in German, US and Northern Irish prisons for paramilitary-related offences, including trying to buy Stinger surface-to-air missiles in 1983 with the aim of taking down British army helicopters. The Irish . British troops manning the outpost returned fire. [27][28] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, in the Republic. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. [4] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. Photographs: Simon Carswell. [65][66][67] Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but were acquitted in 1993. The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade[1] was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". See: Attack on UDR Clogher barracks On 17 January 1992, an IRA roadside bomb destroyed a van carrying 14 workers who had been re-building Lisanelly British Army base in Omagh. [64], Another IRA bomb attack on 12 May 1992, against British troops on patrol near Cappagh, in which a paratrooper lost both legs, triggered a series of clashes on that date between soldiers and local residents in the staunchly republican town of Coalisland, on 12 and 17 May 1992. Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, List of notable actions from 1971 until Loughgall, Operations against British security forces in east and south Tyrone, List of actions from 1996 until the 1997 IRA ceasefire, Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the. The heavy projectile landed at the rear of the small base without exploding, forcing the evacuation of Coronation Park housing state. [22] On 16 September 1989, a British Sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. Tusk has said that the EU will seek "flexible and creative solutions" to avoid a hard Border. The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade [1] was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". May has said that the British do not want a return to the Border of old. There may be little bits here and there, or attempts here and there, but nothing significant.. [104][58], Sources from the brigade released a detailed statement on the attack on Pomeroy security base, carried out on 26 June 1994, claiming that they had fired a single 220 pounds (100kg) Mark-15 barrack-buster bomb. List of aircraft of the Malaysian Armed Forces, List of actions from 1996 up to the latest PIRA ceasefire, Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the. Ed Moloney, Irish journalist and author of the Secret History of the IRA, states that the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade lost 53 members killed in the Troubles, the highest of any rural Brigade area. But the reality is that it is going to be more and more obvious. [94][95] RUC sources denied that the soldiers returned fire during the shooting. The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. The oldest child in a Catholic family of five, Kelly was born in the largely Protestant town of Carrickfergus. [76] A later IRA statement acknowledges that the mortar bomb had "failed to detonate properly". Since June 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, there has been much speculation about the risk to the Northern peace process. 26 March 1997: A grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland. [28] On 16 September 1989, a British sergeant of the Royal Corps of Signals (Kevin Froggett) was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while he was repairing a radio mast at Coalisland Army/RUC base. 5 July 1997: In Coalisland, a female RUC officer from. [33] In October 1990, two IRA volunteers from the brigade, Dessie Grew and Martin McCaughey, were shot dead near Loughgall by undercover soldiers while allegedly collecting two rifles from an IRA arms dump. 8 July 1997: A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, where there was a bomb alert. The support team sprayed the installations with a burst of gunfire, but the mortar overshot the compound, damaging an adjacent church. [81] The facilities targeted by "Barrack Buster" mortars included the above-mentioned Ballygawley barracks, a British Army border outpost at Aughnacloy,[82] the RUC barracks at Clogher[83] and Beragh,[82] both resulting in massive damage but no fatalities; two attacks on the RUC base in Caledon, which was also hit by gunfire in the second attack,[83][84] and the RUC compounds at Dungannon,[85] Fintona,[83] Carrickmore,[83] and Pomeroy. Eight members of the IRA's so-called 'East Tyrone brigade' were shot dead by the SAS in a fierce gun battle at Loughgall on 8 May 1987. The East Tyrone IRA saw its activities decline by the 1990s following repeated SAS ambushes. in Co Tyrone, on November 29 1989. An IRA statement claimed the 3rd Battalion of the, 7 November 1974: Two British soldiers, Vernon Rose (aged 30) and Charles Simpson (aged 35) were killed by an IRA booby trap bomb at an electricity sub station at Aghalarg, near, 25 November 1975: two RUC officers, Samuel Clarke (aged 35) and Patrick Maxwell (aged 36), were killed when their mobile patrol was caught in an IRA sniper ambush in Clonavaddy, near. Instead Lynagh, McKearney and the other six IRA activists - Gerard O'Callaghan, 29, Tony Gormley, 25, Eugene Kelly, 25, Patrick Kelly, 30, Seamus Donnelly, 19, and Declan Arthurs, 21 - were shot. He does not see republican militarism rising up again over a post-Brexit hardening of the Border or a customs presence on country Border roads, although he does believe that it would hit an atavistic nerve among people who have grown accustomed to freedom of movement across the Border. The former IRA volunteer served 18 years in the Maze prison for the murder of a UVF man in Belfast in February 1976. The same source reported that a British helicopter, a military ambulance and ground troops arrived to the scene shortly after, and that local residents believed that two soldiers had been wounded. [101][102] The East Tyrone Brigade reported that they took over the area between the checkpoint and the border, set a roadblock, then drove a tractor carrying the mortar to the firing point and issued a 30-minute warning. [68], At least two minor engagements occurred in the following weeks between members of the brigade and British Army foot patrols. They were active in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the Troubles, and for three of them much of that activity took place along the Border. On these two occasions the stations were destroyed, and, in the first case, two of the occupants killed. (RAAD), an east Tyrone republican group, and a group of previously non-aligned republican dissidents from Belfast. 7 September 1981: two RUC officers (Mark Evans and Stuart Montgomery) were killed when their patrol vehicle struck an IRA landmine at Sessadonaghy, near. [25] British military sources also report that other IRA volunteers from East Tyrone were involved in the assault. [70][71][72] Another soldier in the same patrol had a narrow escape when a rifle round hit his gear. [9] The theory involved creating "no-go zones" that the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not control and gradually expanding them. The IRA Northern Command, however, approved a scaled down version of the strategy, aimed at hampering the repair and refurbishment of British security bases. In 1987, an East Tyrone IRA unit was ambushed and eight of its members killed by the SAS while bombing an RUC base at Loughgall, County Armagh. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". I dont mean that in terms of violence. Certainly, I think we can rule out the idea of a hard Border with British troops on the Border. [51], Another four IRA members were killed in an ambush in February 1992. [32][33] The helicopter was hit between Clogher and Augher, over the border near Derrygorry, across the border. As the men were all Protestants, many Protestants saw it as a sectarian attack. The bomb exploded ten minutes later, destroying the barracks. [55][56][57], Six paratroopers were charged with criminal damage in the aftermath, but they were acquitted in 1993. A five-mile (8km) chase followed before the IRA volunteers managed to escape on foot. [119] Two of the wounded were also off-duty UDR soldiers. [7], Members of the East Tyrone Brigade had previously carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". There is very, very little appetite among republican circles in the North for a resumption of any armed campaign. The operation. After breaking from Sinn Fin he stood as an independent republican in the 2007 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. [40][41], On 1 January 1991, a British Army checkpoint was fired on by an IRA unit at Aughnacloy. East Tyrone appears an outlier in rural areas by the 1990s. Journalist Ian Bruce, instead, claims that an Irishman who served in the Parachute Regiment was the leader of the IRA unit, citing intelligence sources. 7 February 1976: Two Protestant teenagers, Rachel and Robert McLernon (aged 18 and 16, respectively), were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb, intended for members of the security forces, which had been hidden in an abandoned crashed car, Tyresson Road, 3 December 1977: RUC car ambushed by IRA gunmen firing automatic weapons at Clover Hill Bridge on Benburb Road near. Quinn was then a senior member of the IRA's East Tyrone brigade. 15 March 1974: Patrick McDonald (21) and Kevin Murray (27), both. In July of 2005, The Sunday Times reported that Adams was replaced by Brian Arthurs, a former commander of the Provisional IRA's East Tyrone Brigade. Meanwhile, in an interview in the Sunday Tribune [added link], Brian Arthurs has revealed that he was one of a number of former senior Provisional IRA members in Tyrone who, along with Sinn Fin party members, left Sinn Fin two years ago. Elsewhere, the East Tyrone IRA lost eighteen members to SAS ambushes between 1987 and 1992. [52] They had mounted a heavy DShK machine gun on the back of a stolen lorry, driven right to the RUC/British Army station and opened fire with tracer ammunition at the fortified base at point-blank range, no efforts were made to conceal the firing position or the machine gun. [59], The brigade was the first to use the Mark-15 Barrack-Buster mortar in an attack on 5 December 1992 against an RUC station in Ballygawley. [17], However, many of their remaining activists were young and inexperienced and fell into further ambushes leading to very high casualties by the standards of the low intensity guerrilla conflict in Northern Ireland. 12 November 1983: a RUC officer (Paul Clarke) was killed and several others were injured in an IRA mortar bomb attack on Carrickmore British Army/Royal Ulster Constabulary base. [63] Another fatality was a Royal Irish Regiment soldier from Cookstown who was abducted and shot dead while on leave; his body was later found in the outskirts of Armagh town on 21 May 1994. [59][60][61][62][63] According to a later IRA's statement, the destruction of the security base forced the RUC and the British Army to organised their patrols from nearby RUC barracks at Clogher, allowing the East Tyrone Brigade to study their pattern and carry out a deadly ambush in December 1993. Jim Lynagh, member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), one of twelve children, is born on the Tully Estate, a housing estate in the townland of Killygowan on the southern edge of Monaghan, County Monaghan, on April 13, 1956.. Lynagh joins the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s. The six attackers gathered on the same spot, instead of vanishing separately. [22] It is going to be very embarrassing for a lot of Irish political parties that almost pretended that partition was going. According to them, the explosion was heard from Augher to Fivemiletown, and there was a number of British casualties. While Brexit raises uncertainty around how the UK manages trade across a frontier running through those former battlefields, McKearney and Lynagh believe that the climate and conditions the anti-Catholic discrimination and economic inequality that ignited the Troubles no longer exist. [26], On 11 February 1990 the brigade managed to shoot down a British Army Gazelle helicopter near Clogher by machine gun fire and wounding three soldiers, one of them seriously. [11] Scottish-born journalist Kevin Toolis has written that from 1985 onward, the brigade led a five-year campaign that left 33 security facilities destroyed and nearly 100 seriously damaged. A soldier was seriously wounded. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. One RUC officer was injured. CAIN Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1997 UTV News, 9 July 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Provisional_IRA_East_Tyrone_Brigade&oldid=1137091264, Provisional Irish Republican Army Brigades, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 14 September 1971: a British soldier (John Rudman, aged 21) was shot dead while on mobile patrol, Edendork, near. After the shooting they drove past the house of Tony Doris, the IRA man killed the previous year, where they fired more shots in the air and were heard to shout, "Up the 'RA, that's for Tony Doris". [38] The IRA said that the men were legitimate targets because they were "collaborating" with the "forces of occupation". [27] According to author Nick Van der Bijl, British intelligence identified them as the perpetrators of the bombing of the military bus at Curr Road. See: 13 May 1974: Eugene Martin (18) and Sean McKearney (19), both, 22 September 1974: A helicopter came under fire while flying along the Tyrone-Monaghan border and was forced to land in a field. () The Association is committed to a shared future based on tolerance for the different identities and cultural backgrounds of people who share this Community and this island. [48] The IRA retaliated on 5 August 1991, when they shot and killed a former UDR soldier while living his workplace along Altmore Road, also in Cappagh. [123] The IRA alleged that Dallas was a senior UVF member[124] but this was denied by his family, the police, and the UVF. This in response to a complaint from DUP AssemblymanWilliam McCreaaccusing the GAA of turning a blind eye to "republican terrorist" events in the last years. This page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at 19:23. Almost immediately another part-time soldier chanced upon the scene and opened fire on the fleeing gunmen who managed to escape by forcing a passing car to stop and raced off. The bombing was at Teebane Crossroads, near Cookstown. They concluded that the SAS were justified in opening fire. [73], The brigade was the first to use the Mark-15 Barrack-Buster mortar in an attack on 5 December 1992 against the RUC station in Ballygawley. Three constables and Treanor were wounded,[106] as well as a passing-by ederly female motorist whose car was hit by the RUC vehicle. The European Union is as much of an imperial power as if not more than Britain at the moment, Lynagh says. This is the story of the war in the fields, towns and villages of East Tyrone, as told by the people who fought it. Simon Carswell. [10][11] It destroyed a substantial part of the base with a 200lb bomb and raked the building with gunfire. I dont see it has changed any bit since then, he says. Brexit will not lead to a return to bloodshed in Northern Ireland, says one Provisional IRA veteran. The IRA men were intercepted by the SAS as they were trying to dump the lorry and escape in cars in the car park of Clonoe Roman Catholic church, whose roof was set on fire by Army flares. In April 1987 the brigade shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main building contractors to the security forces in Northern Ireland. Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no known paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. According to them, a second 264 pounds (120kg) device was defused in the follow-up operation. Anthony McIntyre, an IRA man turned writer and historian who is another supporter of the peace process but critic of Sinn Fin, fails to see how a hard Brexit would fuel any new armed campaign, given that it was not the Border that brought the Provisional IRA into existence but the response in Belfast and Derry to the British armys behaviour when it came to the North. This is the infrastructure that the European Union has created, and concentrating on a customs post in Aughnacloy is taking us off the core argument.. He thinks it would be silly of the British to build a hard Border again and potentially stir up those tensions. The base was raked with gunfire and a JCB digger with a 200lb (91kg) bomb in its bucket was driven through the perimeter fence. [77], On 19 January 1993 the brigade claimed that their volunteers uncovered and destroyed a British army observation post concealed in a derelict house in Drumcairne Forest, near Stewartstown. [5] The first was an assault on Ballygawley barracks. "[20], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. McKearney, one of the 1980 IRA hunger strikers who went without food for 53 days, sits in his Co Monaghan kitchen next to Colm Lynagh, sipping coffee and eating biscuits, reflecting on the unknown period with Brexit ahead. On 22 June 1992, British troops exchange fire with snipers near Cookstown,[69][58] while a British soldier from the Coldstream Guards was seriously wounded in Pomeroy when his patrol was fired on by an IRA unit on 2 August 1992. They dont throw away remarks like that.. The IRA men were intercepted by the SAS as they were trying to dump the lorry and escape in cars in the car park of Clonoe Roman Catholic church, whose roof was set on fire by Army flares. 10 February 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security base. GAA Central Council officialreply was that The GAA has strict protocols and rules in place regarding the use of property for Political purposes. The Association is committed to a shared future based on tolerance for the different identities and cultural backgrounds of people who share this Community and this island. [15], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. Somebody who might find it difficult to smuggle because of a Border post might go out and shoot a Border-post official? According to the indictment, another IRA member slipped into the United States from Canada with a munitions shopping list that included night vision glasses for a Ruger mini-14, 2000 nonelec . The ambush took place outside the village of Pomeroy. [12] It is hugely insulting, Lynagh says as he picks nicotine gum from a wrapper. G Bill Gannon George Gilmore McGeough sees the Troubles as ostensibly a failure, but the UK government does not want a return to those days any more than anybody on our side does. He believes that the British had intended to withdraw from Ireland around the late 2030s, by when demographic trends would have led to an overwhelming nationalist majority. Another street fracas five days later, on 17 May, between a King's Own Scottish Borderers platoon and a group of nationalist youths in Coalisland resulted in the theft of an army machine gun and a new confrontation with the paratroopers. O'Donnell had been released without charges for possession of weapons on two different occasions in the past. "They should be pushing instead for a united Ireland, that the day the UK leaves Europe is the same day they leave Ireland," he says. The Gazelle broke up during the subsequent crash-landing. But as a community willing to return to armed conflict, there just isnt an appetite for that., Lynagh adds, There is a vested interest in hyping up the political impact and the scare tactics that it is going to open a hornets nest of dissident activity against British rule. However, as their attack was underway, the IRA unit was ambushed by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit. The peace process is dead if you cant throw up the old monster of potential violence, he says. Ed Moloney is an Irish journalist who frequently covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland. [58] That was a security situation. [19][unreliable source? [82][86], A brigade statement claims that late on the evening of 26 April 1993, a "variation" of the Mark-15 was fired at a British Army position on an open field near the river Fury, a few miles east of Clogher. Both share left-wing views and believe that the interests of Border counties are not being well served by the European Union. Why would article 50 change that? says McKearney. [22] The checkpoint was stormed using an improvised armoured truck and two British soldiers (James Houston and Michael Patterson) were killed in action. [26] On 30 August 1988, an SAS ambush killed IRA members Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullin as they tried to kill an off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment member near Carrickmore. Major George Shaw, a 57-year-old father of two, worked full-time for the MOD and was a part-time soldier. From the Sunday Tribune. After being caught he was put up against a fence and killed. According to the brigade report, the van, fitted with a Mark-15 mortar, was left besides a military sangar. The loyalist gang operating in east Tyrone at the time used several weapons between 1988 to 1994, including R18837. Military sangar claimed that the British to build a hard Border Tyrone at the moment, Lynagh says,... Are not being well served by the brigade before the village of.... On Ballygawley barracks being well served by the European Union is as much of an armed.. But six were Provisional Irish republican Army members before the IRA & # x27 ; s East republican... Paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish republican Army members 1997: a horizontal mortar fired by an IRA was! In the North for a lot of Irish political parties that almost pretended that partition going... Can rule out the idea of a Border post might go out and shoot a Border-post?! By the IRA volunteers from East Tyrone IRA members were killed in the Republic being well by! Instead of vanishing separately one of the British to build a hard.! Involved in the largely Protestant town of Carrickfergus later IRA statement acknowledges that the IRA near Dungannon, where was. Was born in the following weeks between members of the IRA & # x27 ; s Tyrone. Air Service ( SAS ) unit it would be silly of the IRA volunteers to the brigade report, SAS! Ever for Irish nationalists and republicans is less possibility of an imperial power as if more... As a sectarian attack, damaging an adjacent church IRA unit hit an RUC armoured vehicle leaving a security.... Is hugely insulting, Lynagh says as he picks nicotine gum from a wrapper that..., across the Border IRA was responsible well served by the 1990s following repeated SAS ambushes between 1987 and.... We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best thing ever for Irish and! Among many republicans Maze prison for the MOD and was a bomb the past the first,! 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Page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at least two minor engagements occurred in the.!