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Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, was a massacre on 30 January 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. Thirteen men were killed outright and the death of another man four months later was attributed to gunshot injuries from the incident. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets, or batons; two were run down by British Army vehicles; and some were beaten. All of those shot were Catholics. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) to protest against internment without trial. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months before.
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
Gerard Steenson was an Irish republican paramilitary and a leader of the Irish People's Liberation Organization during The Troubles.
Thomas Power was an Irish republican socialist, also known as Ta Power, who was a leading member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). According to the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM) biography page on Power, he was from Friendly Street in the Markets area of south Belfast, where he had become an activist. He had originally joined the Official IRA but transferred allegiance to the INLA in 1975 while a prisoner in Long Kesh, along with 20 other men.
The 1972 Aldershot bombing was a car bomb attack by the Official Irish Republican Army on 22 February 1972 in Aldershot, England. The bomb targeted the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Brigade and was claimed as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday. Six civilian staff and a Catholic military chaplain were killed and 19 were wounded. It was the Official IRA's largest attack in Great Britain during "the Troubles" and one of its last major actions before it declared a permanent ceasefire in May 1972. Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson was convicted and imprisoned for his part in the bombing.
The Warrenpoint ambush, also known as the Narrow Water ambush, the Warrenpoint massacre or the Narrow Water massacre, was a guerrilla attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 27 August 1979. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed a British Army convoy with two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle outside Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland. The first bomb was aimed at the convoy itself, and the second targeted the incoming reinforcements and the incident command point (ICP) set up to deal with the incident. IRA volunteers hidden in nearby woodland also allegedly fired on the troops, who returned fire. The castle is on the banks of the Newry River, which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initially deployed, at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland, in response to the August 1969 riots. Its role was to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and to assert the authority of the British government in Northern Ireland. This involved counter-insurgency and supporting the police in carrying out internal security duties such as guarding key points, mounting checkpoints and patrols, carrying out raids and searches, riot control and bomb disposal. More than 300,000 soldiers served in Operation Banner. At the peak of the operation in the 1970s, about 21,000 British troops were deployed, most of them from Great Britain. As part of the operation, a new locally-recruited regiment was also formed: the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).
The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, was severely affected by the Troubles. The conflict is widely considered to have begun in the city, with many regarding the Battle of the Bogside in 1969 as the beginning of the Troubles. The Bloody Sunday incident of 1972 occurred in Derry, in the Bogside area.
The Ballygawley bus bombing was a roadside bomb attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on a bus carrying British soldiers in Northern Ireland. It occurred in the early hours of 20 August 1988 in the townland of Curr near Ballygawley, County Tyrone. The attack killed eight soldiers and wounded 28. In the wake of the bombing, the British Army began ferrying its troops in and out of County Tyrone by helicopter.
A Letter from Ulster is a 1942 documentary by Ulster-born movie director Brian Desmond Hurst who, along with his lifelong friend Terence Young (scriptwriter) and fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William (Bill) MacQuitty, created this film promoting a sense of community between the people of Northern Ireland and over one hundred thousand troops from the US based in Northern Ireland at the time. William Alwyn provided music.
Alwyn Harris was a Royal Ulster Constabulary superintendent who was killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 8 October 1989.
On 17 February 1978, a British Army Gazelle helicopter, serial number XX404, went down near Jonesborough, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, after being fired at by a Provisional IRA unit from the South Armagh Brigade. The IRA unit was involved at the time in a gun battle with a Green Jackets observation post deployed in the area, and the helicopter was sent in to support the ground troops. The helicopter crashed after the pilot lost control of the aircraft whilst evading ground fire.
The Hillcrest Bar bombing, also known as the "Saint Patrick's Day bombing", took place on 17 March 1976 in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a car bomb outside a pub crowded with people celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. Four Catholic civilians were killed by the blast—including two 13-year-old boys standing outside—and almost 50 people were injured, some severely.
On 27 August 1975 a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded without warning at the Caterham Arms public house in Caterham, Surrey, England. There were no fatalities, but 33 people were injured, some severely, including three off-duty soldiers who lost limbs.
The 1971 Newry killings was an incident during the Troubles in Newry, Northern Ireland where undercover British Army soldiers shot and killed three Catholic civilians in disputed circumstances on 23 October 1971. Four Royal Green Jackets soldiers were stationed in the town's Woolworths department store after the army had received a tip-off that the Provincial Bank across the street would be the target of a bank robbery by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
In the Altnaveigh landmine attack of 19 May 1981, five British soldiers were killed and their armoured vehicle destroyed by a Provisional IRA landmine at Altnaveigh, a rural area outside Newry in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The landmine was detonated remotely when the vehicle passed over it. The attack happened during a period of heightened tension over the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
The Strand Bar Bombing was a bomb attack on a pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 12 April 1975, during the Troubles. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, threw an improvised bomb into a pub frequented by Catholics in the Short Strand neighbourhood, killing six civilians and injuring about fifty others. It took place during a spate of tit-for-tat attacks by loyalists and Irish republican paramilitaries. The attack was claimed by the UVF unit known as the Red Hand Commando (RHC).
The Chelsea Barracks bombing was an attack carried out by a London-based Active Service Unit (ASU) of the Provisional IRA on 10 October 1981, using a remote-controlled nail bomb. The bomb targeted a bus carrying British Army soldiers just outside Chelsea Barracks. The blast killed two civilians and injured 40 people, among them 23 soldiers.
The 1976 Olympia bombing was a bomb attack on 27 March 1976 carried out by the Provisional IRA at the Olympia exhibition centre in west London. A 2 lb (0.91 kg) bomb exploded in a litter bin at the top of an escalator inside the centre, which at the time was crowded with 20,000 people attending the Daily Mail's Ideal Home Exhibition. 85 people were injured and 4 people lost limbs. One casualty, 79-year-old Rachel Hyams, died from her injuries 21 days later. Police said they received no coded warning from the IRA, but the Sunday Mirror in Manchester said it received a call from the Provisional IRA's “Irish Brigade” claiming responsibility. Due to the outrage caused, the IRA temporarily halted its bombing campaign in Britain.
Throughout the protracted conflict in Northern Ireland (1960s-1998), the Provisional IRA developed a series of improvised mortars to attack British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) security bases. The organisation also purchased both light and heavy machine guns in order to hamper the British Army supply of border bases by helicopter. The IRA fitted vehicles, specially vans and trucks, with both types of weapons. Vans, trucks and tractors were modified to transport concealed improvised mortars to a launch area near the intended target and fire them, while light and heavy trucks were employed as firing platforms mounting machine guns, particularly M60s and DShKs. Improvised armoured vehicles and heavy equipment were also used to penetrate the perimeter of fortified security bases. The IRA vehicles were often disguised as belonging to civilian companies or even government agencies.
References
- 1 2 Royal Green Jackets Association Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 8 March 2013
- 1 2 3 4 "Voice at last for heroes of the Irish war". Express. John Ingram. 25 April 2008 Retrieved 8 March 2013
- ↑ CAIN: Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland. Status of the person killed
- 1 2 Amazon Books review Retrieved 9 March 2013
- ↑ Wharton, Ken (2022). To a Dark Place: Experiences from Survivors of the Troubles. Cheltenham, UK: The History Press. ISBN 9780750998192 . Retrieved 22 January 2022.