The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles". It is believed to have drawn its membership from across the eastern side of County Tyrone as well as north County Monaghan and south County Londonderry.
Francis Hughes was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Bellaghy, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Hughes was the most wanted man in Northern Ireland until his arrest following a shoot-out with the Special Air Service (SAS) in which an SAS soldier was killed. At his trial, he was sentenced to a total of 83 years' imprisonment; he died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
This is a chronology of activities by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1980 to 1989. For actions before and after this period see Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions.
The Troubles in Ardoyne lists incidents during the Troubles in the Ardoyne district of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The Derry Brigade also known as the South Derry Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated in Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. The Derry Brigade along with the Belfast Brigade, East Tyrone Brigade and the South Armagh Brigade were the four most active IRA Brigade areas during the conflict between 1969 and 1998.
The Provisional IRA carried out two separate attacks on the same day on 1 May 1988 against British military personnel in the Netherlands which resulted in the deaths of three RAF members and another three being injured. It was the worst attack suffered by the British security forces during The Troubles from 1969 to 1998 on mainland Europe.
On 11 August 1970, two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed by a booby-trap bomb planted under a car by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Crossmaglen, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. They were the first RUC officers to be killed by republicans during the Troubles and the first security forces to be killed in South Armagh, an IRA stronghold for much of the conflict.
The Lichfield gun attack was an ambush carried out by the Provisional IRA (IRA) on 1 June 1990 against three off-duty British soldiers who were waiting at Lichfield City railway station in Staffordshire. The attack resulted in one soldier being killed and two others badly wounded. On the same day a British Army major was killed by the IRA in a gun attack outside his house in Dortmund, Germany.
On 9 April 1990 the Provisional IRA (IRA) detonated a massive IED roadside bomb under an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) mobile patrol which killed four members of the UDR. It was the worst attack against the UDR since seven years previously when, in July 1983, four soldiers of the same regiment were killed in a similar attack near Ballygawley. It was also one of the worst attacks against the security forces in County Down since the Warrenpoint Ambush of August 1979 when 18 British soldiers were killed and six injured.
The Attack on RUC Birches barracks was an attack on 11 August 1986, the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base at The Birches near Portadown, in North Armagh Northern Ireland. The unmanned base was first raked with gunfire before being completely destroyed by a 200 pounds (91 kg) bomb, which was driven through the gate of the base in the bucket of a JCB digger.
In the late hours of 3 February and the early hours of 4 February 1973, six men, all of whom were Catholics, were shot and killed in the New Lodge area of north Belfast, four of them were shot dead at the junction at Edlingham Street by British Army snipers, the other two men were shot dead by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Irish Nationalists and Republicans believe that collusion took place between the British security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries in the shootings. The six men who were killed became known as "The New Lodge Six".
The Burning of the Burning Embers pub was an early military operation carried out by the Provisional IRA's Belfast Brigade (PIRA). The Burning Embers was used as a base by the Official IRA (OIRA), the Provisional IRA also hoped to burn down the Cracked Cup which was another pub owned by the OIRA along the Falls Road on Leeson Street but the OIRA got information that the PIRA was coming and a gun battle broke out.
On 2 December 1984, a four man Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit was ambushed by a British Army Special Air Service team while attempting to bomb a Royal Ulster Constabulary patrol who they had lured to Drumrush Lodge Restaurant. Two IRA volunteers and one SAS soldier were killed during the action.
On 19 December 1975, two coordinated attacks were carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in pubs either side of the Irish border. The first attack, a car bombing, took place outside Kay's Tavern, a pub along Crowe street in Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland close to the border. The second, a gun and bomb attack, took place at Donnelly's Bar & Filling Station in Silverbridge, County Armagh, just across the border inside Northern Ireland. The attack has been linked to the Glenanne gang, a group of Loyalist militants who were either members of the UVF, the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the closely linked UVF paramilitary the Red Hand Commando (RHC), some of the Glenanne gang were members of two of these organizations at the same time like gang leaders Billy Hanna who was in both the UVF and the UDR and who fought for the British Army during the Korean War and John Weir (loyalist) who was in the UVF and was a sergeant in the RUC. At least 25 UDR men and police officers were named as members of the gang. The Red Hand Commando claimed to have carried out both attacks.
The Official IRA's Belfast Brigade was founded in December 1969 after the Official IRA itself emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. The "Officials" were Marxist-Leninists and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF). The Brigade like the pre-split IRA brigade before the split had three battalions, one in West Belfast, one in North Belfast and the Third in East Belfast. The Belfast Brigade was involved in most of the biggest early confrontations of the conflict like the Falls Curfew in 1970, the battles that followed after the introduction of Internment without trial in 1971 and Volunteers joined forces with the Provisional brigade to fight the British Army and UVF during the Battle at Springmartin in 1972. The first Commanding Officer (CO) of the brigade was veteran Billy McMillen who fought during the IRA Border Campaign. Shortly after the death of Official IRA Belfast "Staff Captain" Joe McCann in April 1972, the battalion structure of the brigade was done away with and command centralized under McMillen.
On 21 December 1978, three British soldiers were shot dead when the Provisional IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed an eight-man British Army foot patrol in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
The following is a timeline of Northern Irish conflict actions which took place in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1998. It includes Ulster Volunteer Force bombings such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974, and other Loyalist bombings carried out in the 1970s, 80s & 90s, the last of which was in 1997. These attacks killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more. Also actions carried out by Irish Republicans including bombings, prison escapes, kidnappings, and gun battles between the Gardaí (police) and the Irish Defence Forces against Republican gunmen from the Irish National Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and a socialist-revolutionary group, Saor Éire. These attacks killed a number of civilians, police, soldiers, and Republican paramilitaries.
The Clive Barracks bombing was a bomb attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 20 February 1989 on a British Army barracks called Clive Barracks at Ternhill, Shropshire. The attack injured two soldiers from the Parachute Regiment, and destroyed a large part of the barracks.
The Strabane Ambush was a British Special Air Service ambush against a three man Provisional Irish Republican Army unit. All three members of the PIRA unit were killed in the ambush. At the time it was the most successful SAS operation against the IRA, until the Loughgall ambush two years later in 1987 in which eight IRA Volunteers were killed.
The following is a Timeline of British Amy and Police undercover operations during Operation Banner during the 1969 - 1998 Northern Irish conflict in Northern Ireland that resulted in death or injury. Including operations by the SAS, 14 Intelligence Company, the Military Reaction Force (MRF), RUC Special Patrol Group and Special Branch.
