Springhill Avenue shooting 1987

Last updated
Springhill Avenue shooting 1987 / Part of INLA/IPLO feud
Part of the Troublesđ
Date15 March January 1987
Location
Springhill Avenue, Ballymurphy, Belfast City, Ireland
Result Successful INLA ambush and getaway
Belligerents
CommunistStarryPloughFlag.svg Irish People's Liberation Organisation StarryPlough.svg Irish National Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
CommunistStarryPloughFlag.svg Gerard Steenson   † StarryPlough.svg Hugh Torney
Strength
2 IPLO volunteers 3-4 INLA gunmen
Casualties and losses
2 killed 0

The back story to the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) / Irish People's Liberation Organization (IPLO) feud is complicated and stems from the Supergrass Trials of the early 1980s in which high ranking INLA man Harry Kirkpatrick who sentenced dozens of people away to prison on Kirkpatrick's word alone. One of those sent to prison because of Kirkptarick was Gerard Steenson, the INLA Belfast Brigade's leader & potential for next in line to be the leader of the organization.[ citation needed ] Around this same time 1983 - 1984 the INLA started suffering on the military front, not able to put the plans & operations together from 1978 - 1983 period that hard turned them into a respectable & feared urban gurrilla/terrorist organization.[ citation needed ] People left the INLA like Gerard Steenson and Jimmy Brown and others were expelled for their views on how the group should be run. The IPLO's new manifestio was to destroy the INLA & IRSP leadership as they believed that group was no longer dedicated to revolutionary socialism and make the IPLO & their small political group the Republican Socialist Collective as the main Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM) in Ireland.[ citation needed ] On the 21 December 1987 the IPLO strcuk first blood, killing Tomas McCartan (31). [1] Although moderates on both sides wanted to resolve the problem incase it turned out like the mid 70's with Provo's and Sticks, or the mid - late 70's INLA vs Sticks. On the 20 January 1987 it looked like senior members were going to put a stop to the internal Republican feud. At the Rosnaree Hotel shooting there was a senior delegate from both the IPLO & INLA, but little went according to plan at least for the INLA, and the IPLO volunteers opened fire & INLA delegates which included Hugh Torney was badly injured aand other INLA Volunteers, Thomas "Ta" Power was killed outright along with INLA volunteer John O'Reilly.[ citation needed ]

Irish National Liberation Army Irish republican socialist paramilitary group

The Irish National Liberation Army is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group formed on 10 December 1974, during "the Troubles". It seeks to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. It is the paramilitary wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).

Supergrass English alternative rock band

Supergrass were an English rock band formed in Oxford in 1993. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey.

Henry Kirkpatrick is a former Irish National Liberation Army member turned informer against other members of the INLA.

Contents

Up until March the feud had been mostly one way traffic with most killings being carried out by IPLO men against INLA Volunteers, but on the 7 March the INLA killed IPLO man Thomas Maguire near the village Meigh in County Armagh. [2] A week later and a day before the shooting in Ballymurphy the INLA shot dead IPLO man Fergus Conlon near Forkhill in Armagh. It's believed Conlon had been interogatted by Dessie "the border fox" O'Hare before he was killed. [3]

Meigh village in United Kingdom

Meigh is a small village and townland near Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 444 people in the 2001 Census. It lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area.

County Armagh Place in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

County Armagh is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and one of six counties that form Northern Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 1,326 km² and has a population of about 174,792. County Armagh is known as the "Orchard County" because of its many apple orchards. The county is part of the historic province of Ulster.

Forkhill village in the United Kingdom

Forkhill or Forkill is a small village and civil parish in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is within the Ring of Gullion and in the 2011 Census it had a recorded population of 498. It lies within the former barony of Orior Upper.

Shootinng/Ambush

INLA & IPLO leaders had been talking and decided that a truce should be arraenged. IPLO leader Steenson and another IPLO volunteer droove to Springhill Avenue, an estate in Ballymurphy. But when they got to the point about were they were supposed to meet the INLA delegate, between 3 - 4 INLA volunteers with pistols riddled the car with bullets, hitting both IPLO volunteers numerous times. The Ambush was in revenge for the Steenson led ambush in 20 January 1987 at the Rosnaree Hotel shooting [4] The INLA said in a statement after the shootings "Mr. Steenson had been killed for his continuous and concerted efforts to undermine the authority of the republican socialist movement." [5]

The Rossnaree Hotel shooting was an event that took place in the Republic of Ireland on the 20 January 1987 under the false pretence of peace talks between the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). Two gunmen from the newly formed IPLO shot four Volunteers from the INLA the killing two, Thomas "Ta" Power (34) and John O'Reilly (26). Hugh Torney the leader of the INLA faction and another INLA Volunteer Peter Stewart were both injured in the attack that took place at Rossnaree Hotel in Drogheda, County Louth.

In revenge for the Ballymurphy ambush, the IPLO killed two more INLA volunteers, on the 21 March INLA Vol. Emmanuel Gargan was shot dead in a bar in the Ormeau road. The day later on the 22 March Kevin Duffy's body was found in a children's playground in Armagh. [6] Four days later the feud ended on the 26 March 1987, 11 people lost their lives in the feud & about another dozen were injured. [7] The much larger Irish Republican group the Provisional IRA denounced the groups feuding as "psuedo patriots". [8]

Armagh County town of County Armagh in Northern Ireland

Armagh is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All Ireland for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. In ancient times, nearby Navan Fort was a pagan ceremonial site and one of the great royal capitals of Gaelic Ireland. Today, Armagh is home to two cathedrals and the Armagh Observatory, and is known for its Georgian architecture.

See also

Sources

Jack Holland was an Irish journalist, novelist, and poet who built a reputation chronicling "The Troubles" in his native Northern Ireland. He published articles, short stories, four novels, and seven works of non-fiction, mostly dealing with the politics and cultural life of Northern Ireland. His last book, Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice, was something of a departure from his usual writings, and its original publisher abandoned the finished manuscript shortly after Holland's death, which followed a brief struggle with cancer. However, the book was later published posthumously by a different publisher.

Ken Wharton is an English writer and former British soldier who has written a series of non-fictional books on the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. The books are based on first-hand accounts by soldiers of all ranks who served in the Operation Banner campaign as well as Wharton's own personal experiences from his two tours of Northern Ireland.

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Irish Peoples Liberation Organisation

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Jimmy Brown was a Belfast member of the Official IRA, then Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), and latterly of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO).

Gerard Steenson was an Irish republican paramilitary combatant in Northern Ireland.

Hugh Torney, was an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary leader best known for his activities on behalf of the INLA and Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in a feud with the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), a grouping composed of disgruntled former INLA members, in the mid-1980s.

The South Armagh Republican Action Force sometimes called simply the Republican Action Force was an Irish republican paramilitary group that was active from September 1975 to April 1977 during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Its area of activity was mainly the southern part of County Armagh. According to writers such as Ed Moloney and Richard English, it was a covername used by some members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. The journalist Jack Holland, alleged that members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were also involved in the group. During the same time that the South Armagh Republican Action Force was active the INLA carried out at least one sectarian attack that killed Protestant civilians using the covername "Armagh People's Republican Army". According to Malcolm Sutton's database at CAIN, the South Armagh Republican Action Force was responsible for 24 deaths during the conflict, all of whom were classified as civilians.

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Crumlin Road Prison bombing


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References

  1. ↑ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch86.htm#211286
  2. ↑ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1987.html
  3. ↑ Ken Wharton - Another Bloody Chapter In An Endless Civil War. Volume 1: Northern Ireland 1984 - 1987 p.303
  4. ↑ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=20&month=01&year=1987
  5. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/16/world/irish-guerrilla-leader-slain-feud-death-toll-rises-to-10.html
  6. ↑ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1987.html
  7. ↑ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch87.htm#26387e
  8. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/29/world/a-dozen-die-as-ulster-s-rebels-feud.html
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