Charlemont pub attacks

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Charlemont pub attacks
Part of the Troubles
Relief Map of Northern Ireland.png
Red pog.svg
Clancy's Bar
Red pog.svg
Eagle's Bar
Location Charlemont, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Date15 May 1976
22:50 and 22:52 (GMT)
Attack type
 Mass shooting, bombing
Deaths4
Injured18
Perpetrators Ulster Volunteer Force

The Charlemont pub attacks were co-ordinated militant Loyalist paramilitary attacks on two pubs in the small village of Charlemont, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on 15 May 1976. The attacks have been attributed to the Glenanne gang, a coalition of Loyalist paramilitaries and subversive members inside the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) and the British Army. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Background

Since late 1975 there had been a number of deadly sectarian attacks carried out by both Irish Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries in County Armagh. On 15 December, 17-year-old Catholic civilian Ronald Trainor, a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (believed to be the political wing of the Irish National Liberation Army), was killed by the UVF in Portadown. On 19 December 1975 the Loyalist Red Hand Commando claimed responsibility for killing three Catholic civilians in a pub in Silverbridge, County Armagh. [5] On 31 December the Irish National Liberation Army using the covername "Armagh People's Republican Army" killed three Protestant civilians when they bombed a pub near Portadown. [6] At the start of January 1976 UVF gunmen killed six Catholic civilians in a double attack in County Armagh. The next day, a group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force shot dead 10 Protestant civilian workmen in what became known as the Kingsmill massacre. [7]

Attacks

Locals claimed that the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) had been patrolling the village for a number of nights beforehand, but were absent the night of the attacks.

On the night of 15 May 1976, at around 10:50 pm, the Eagle Bar in Charlemont, County Armagh, was sprayed with gunfire from a Sten submachine gun. Four people were shot and injured in the attack. Probably more would have been injured had the owner of the bar not placed security shutters on the windows in case of an attack. One of those who was injured was Fred McLoughlin (47) who died two weeks later in hospital from his injuries.

Almost immediately after the gunfire at the first pub ended, a bomb exploded at the front of the nearby Clancey's Bar. The force of the blast brought the ceiling crashing down on the people inside the pub. Three people were killed in this bomb attack, including Sean O'Hagan (22), Robert McCullough (41) and the pub's owner Felix "Vincy" Clancy, aged 54. Clancy had just returned from the Eagle Bar a few minutes earlier. About 15 people had been injured in the attack, some of them seriously. [8]

On the same day as the Charlemont attacks, members of the UVF's Belfast Brigade carried out another bomb attack on the Avenue Bar, located on Union Street in Belfast city centre, killing two more Catholic civilians in the process. In total, six Catholic civilians were killed by the UVF throughout day. [9]

Aftermath

A member of the British Territorial Army Gerald Beattie and British UDR soldier David Kane were convicted of the shooting at the Eagle's Bar, and a RUC reservist Joseph Lutton for the bombing at Clancy's Bar, although Lutton named Beattie and Kane as having also taken part in the bombing at Clancy's they were given no further time on to their sentences or even interviewed about the bombing. [10] Two days after the Charlemont attacks the Republican Action Force claimed responsibility for killing Protestant civilians Robert and Thomas Dobson in Moy, County Tyrone, apparently in retaliation for 15 May pub attacks. [11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Former Policeman blows the whistle on murderous Glenanne Gang in new documentary The Irish News, 15 June 2018
  2. ↑ "Son speaks out on anniversary of Glenanne gang pub killings". The Irish News. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1976". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  4. ↑ Young, Connla (24 January 2020). "MoD documents link Robert Nairac to Miami Showband massacre". The Irish News. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  5. ↑ Malcolm Sutton. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  6. ↑ Malcolm Sutton. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  7. ↑ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1976". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  8. ↑ "NORTHERN IRELAND (Hansard, 17 May 1976)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  9. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "One bomb killed two people at the Avenue Bar, Union Street, Belfast". A Chronology of the Conflict - 1976. CAIN: Web Service. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  10. ↑ "'The police were there to protect you. Not shoot you' - Benburb family speaks out 40 years after father's murder". Tyrone Times. Archived from the original on 4 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  11. ↑ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
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