by Ken Wharton
The bloody year of 1972 will be covered separately in another chapter, and so we move to 1973, the second worst year of the Troubles. On 23 March, the second of the ‘honey trap killings’ took place, this time on the Antrim Road in the north of Belfast. Two years and fourteen days after the ‘honey trap’ murders of the three Scottish soldiers, the Provisionals carried out an almost identical attack. Four off-duty soldiers based at Lisburn’s HQNI (Head Quarters, Northern Ireland) met two women in a pub in the comparatively safe town. Unheeding of the Ligoniel deaths two years previously, the four agreed to accompany the women to Belfast for a ‘party’, accepting their assurances that they were Protestants and naturally loyal to the British Crown. On arrival at a flat on the Antrim Road, close to Girdwood barracks, one of the women made snacks and poured drinks while the second left, ostensibly to bring other ‘guests’. Minutes later, two PIRA gunmen armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun and a pistol burst into the house. The four unarmed soldiers were herded into a nearby bedroom before being forced to lie down on a bed. Without ceremony, the gunmen opened fire in cold blood, ruthlessly shooting the soldiers in their head and back. Three were killed, two of them instantly, while one died later in hospital leaving a fourth man seriously wounded. The three were: Sergeant Richard Muldoon (25), Royal Army Dental Corps; Sergeant Barrington Foster (28), Duke of Edinburgh Royal Regiment (DERR); and Sergeant Thomas Penrose (28), Royal Corps of Transport. One of the women responsible for setting up the attack was Margaret Gamble who was 35 at the time of the murder; she was stabbed to death in retaliation by Loyalist paramilitaries just over three years later, very close to the murder scene.
Coleraine is a little over 50 miles to the north-east of Belfast, around 30 miles east of the city of Londonderry. Given its strategic location, it is somewhat surprising that, with so much blood-letting in its two major neighbours, it suffered relatively little violence. In all, there were twelve Troubles-related killings between 1969 and 1998. However, half of those deaths occurred in a single incident on a pre-summer’s afternoon in June 1973, when a Republican group, almost certainly from the Provisional IRA’s Bogside unit, planted two car bombs in the centre of Coleraine.
A stolen Ford Cortina with a 100lb (45kg) explosive device in the boot was left outside an off-licence in Railway Road, while a second was left outside a garage in Hanover Place. The bombs were timed to explode around 15.00 hours just as the local schools were emptying, leaving the streets full of children eager to get home to play outside on the long, light evenings that the British Isles are blessed with at that time of year.
The similarities with the 1972 bombing of Claudy – 27 miles away – are remarkable: inadequate warnings were given in both, and in the two attacks, the objective was to maximise civilian deaths. The two areas were thought unlikely to attract the attention of the bombers, making them ‘safe’ areas. To cause further confusion among the security and emergency services, a man telephoned through a hoax warning, claiming that a bomb had been left in Society Street; moreover, while he accurately warned of a device in Hanover Square, there was no mention of Railway Road. It is at this point that the dynamics of the operation need to be examined. Society Street is 0.4 miles from Railway Road, which is in the west; from there to Hanover Place is another 0.7 miles away but on the eastern side of the town. The idea was to compel the RUC and Army into moving people to the east away from Society Street, towards the two genuine devices. There was no shortage of schools in the area, with pupils from Castleroe Controlled Primary School in the south of the town with some pupils who lived in the north, heading in the general direction of the first bomb. There were also children from Killowen Primary School at Shuttle Hill who would cross over the River Bann from the west; they too would be walking in the direction of the bomb.
The blast wrecked the off-licence, killing a shop assistant, Elizabeth Palmer (60), as two nearby shops caught fire immediately; the others who caught the full force of the blast were Francis Campbell (70), who was on holiday in nearby Ballycastle with his wife, Dinah (72), and sister-in-law Elizabeth Craigmile (76); all were from Belfast, having fatefully chosen Coleraine to shop. The two others killed were Robert Scott (70) and Nan Davis (60), both from Coleraine. Additionally, scores were injured, with many having arms and legs torn off in the blast. All the dead were Protestants with an average age of 68; it seemed that, to the Provisional IRA, Protestant pensioners were legitimate targets in the campaign to bring about a united Ireland.
A former RUC officer in the town explained to the author that he had doubt that the Republican group – almost certainly either the Provisional IRA or an ad hoc splinter faction – knew that there would be deaths and injuries, as well as the creation of an atmosphere of terror in the Coleraine area. The Railway Road device exploded at 15.00 hours, when the nearby high school was due to let its pupils go home.
Two days later, the Irish News’ editorial read: ‘Horror in Coleraine’. Their report stated:
Those who engineered or committed the Coleraine slaughter do not give a damn about the most basic of all rights: the right to life itself. After Coleraine we are faced again with the terrible pathology of human beings who see nothing in the routine of destruction by methods which can so quickly mean death and indescribable injury to innocent people.
One of those convicted of the outrage was Sean McGlinchey, brother of the founder of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) Dominic ‘Mad Dog’ McGlinchey. He allegedly said: ‘Youse know I done it and that’s it. There are six people killed but we never meant that. I am up to my neck in it. I didn’t intend the bombs to injure anyone.’*
Belfast journalist Kevin Myers wrote:
Men – and the occasional woman – were being killed because of their religion every day, yet no backlash against terrorists occurred in the communities in which they operated. That summer of 1973, the IRA blew up a group of elderly Protestants, pensioners who were on a shopping expedition to Coleraine, killing six and making as many again limbless or blind. Did this even slow the gallop of the IRA campaign? Not by a half step, for the butchered and maimed were merely Protestant.**
An RUC source, now retired, told the author:
If the two bombs had gone off another 15 or 20 minutes later, there would have been scores of schoolkids killed and maimed in the blast. Back in 1973, there would have been a few sweetie shops around, and they would have been like magnets for those wee boys and girls having just finished school for the day. It is not difficult to imagine that instead of limbless pensioners, there would have been kids without arms and legs, their lovely school uniforms red with blood; satchels and pens and notebooks shredded and blood-soaked. Is this the long war which the IRA waged; against old age pensioners at the end of their lives and schoolkids at the beginning of theirs?
It is worth examining the duplicity of the Republican paramilitaries at this juncture. They have admitted to a whole series of mendacities in the post-Troubles period, as their political wing, Sinn Féin, have sought to present an image of themselves as freedom fighters turned statesmen, to assist their elevation on to the world’s political stage. After all, they can point to moments when they have shaken the hands of world leaders, including presidents of the USA, Prince Charles, even Queen Elizabeth II. It is only in recent years that they have admitted to their role in the disappearance of Jean McConville, the Belfast mother-of-eleven who was abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA in December 1972, among others.
On 3 September 1971, the Provisionals opened fire on a British Army patrol in Ivy Drive, Belfast; one of their rounds ricocheted, hitting Angela Gallagher, who was only 17 months old. On 6 September 2007, thirty-six years later, the IRA issued the following statement: ‘The IRA offer sincere apologies for the pain and heartache they have suffered as a result of our actions.’ They have also recently admitted to their role in the death of William Gordon Gallagher (9) at his home in Londonderry in 1973. The local PIRA unit planted a small but deadly device in a hedge at a house in Lee
nan Gardens in the Creggan with the intention of killing or maiming a passing foot patrol. On 25 February 1973, the local unit planted two devices in gardens on the Creggan, before telephoning the police and informing them that a device had been planted. The intention was to lure SF into the area before detonating the device; it was a classic ‘come on’. Soldiers investigated but, on finding nothing, they withdrew from the area. Shortly afterwards, William Gordon Gallagher (9), who was innocently playing in his garden, stumbled across a trip wire connected to the 10lb (4.5kg) device; without warning, it exploded, causing him terrible injuries. An off-duty nurse and several neighbours rushed to his side, finding him in a terrible state; one neighbour told of the boy’s agonised words: ‘Help me, mister; I’m hurt.’ He was rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital, where he died from his wounds. A spokesman for the Provisionals announced that they had left the ‘unarmed’ device in the garden for later collection, but that the Army in ‘black ops’ mode had sneaked back to plant a detonator, thus causing the death of the young boy. Sinn Féin persisted with this story for thirty-nine years until 25 February 2012, when they finally admitted that they had lied to blacken the name of the British Army. In an admission issued through the Pat Finucane Centre in Londonderry they said, ‘Republicans fully accept their responsibility for the death of Gordon and apologise to the parents and family of Gordon Gallagher for the pain and grief caused. Republicans remain truly remorseful and profoundly sorry for the circumstances that led to Gordon’s death.’***
It wasn’t, however, the first time that they had lied to deliberately mislead the Nationalist community, to gain political and military support; nor would it be the last. The Provisionals demonstrated a frequently fatal recklessness by turning residential areas into shooting galleries and battlefields. On 14 November 1973, a PIRA unit from Londonderry’s Brandywell opened fire on a foot patrol from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment as they moved along Lecky Road, close to the Brandywell Stadium. There were plenty of children playing in the immediate area, including Kathleen Feeney (14), who was standing with her friends. Suddenly, three blasts from a whistle sounded; like magic, parents began calling their youngsters indoors. Just seconds later, a shot from an Armalite rang out, hitting the young girl in the head, mortally wounding her. Ignoring his own safety, a young soldier placed himself potentially in the gunman’s line of fire, as he battled to save the child’s life by administering first aid. She died at the scene.
Kathleen Feeney, 14, who was shot dead by an IRA gunman in Londonderry in a failed ambush on British troops in November 1973.
Kathleen’s funeral cortege.
A spokesman for the Provisionals promised retaliation, claiming that she had been killed by a bullet from a British Army SLR. The spokesman said, ‘We say categorically that the shooting of young Kathleen Feeney was the work of the British Army and not of the Republican movement.’ It was a stance that they steadfastly maintained for thirty-two years, finally admitting the truth on 25 June 2005. They stated, ‘We found, as the Feeney family have always believed, that Kathleen was hit by one of a number of shots fired by an IRA ASU that had fired upon a British Army foot patrol. The IRA accepts responsibility for the death of Kathleen Feeney. Our failure to publicly accept responsibility for her death until now has only added to the hurt and pain of the Feeney family. The leadership wishes to apologise unreservedly to the Feeney family for the death of Kathleen and for all the grief that our actions have caused to them.’*
Another incident took place on 3 June 1981, when the Creggan unit fired on an Army foot patrol between Bligh’s Lane and Central Drive. Several shots were fired, all but one missing their intended targets. Creggan resident Joseph Lynn (60) was hit in the head, and fatally wounded; he was found to be dead on arrival at the Altnagelvin Hospital. A later Sinn Féin press conference claimed that a soldier standing in the grounds of Holy Child School had deliberately fired at Mr Lynn. However, the gunman was later caught when troops opened fire on his car, finding the weapon after he crashed; it was proven forensically to have been the same one that had killed the 60-year-old. To date, the Provisional IRA has never apologised, either for killing the Creggan man or for intentionally misleading the Nationalist community.
There was a further incident in the summer of 1988 in which PIRA were responsible for the deaths of three members of the Catholic community, the exception being that they have yet to apologise. On 22 August of that year, members of the Provisionals’ Creggan unit kidnapped a local man, holding him in ‘custody’ in a local safe house. The unit had planted a booby-trapped device that was designed to explode when the front door was opened. It was expected that neighbours would be alarmed that they had not heard from the man, thus calling in the RUC. However, in what became known as the ‘good neighbours’ bomb’, Sean Dalton (55), Sheila Lewis (60) and Thomas Curran (57) were killed when they inadvertently triggered the bomb when they entered the house to investigate.
THE REAVEYS, O’DOWDS AND KINGSMILLS
The year 1976 was only four days old when the UVF murdered six Catholic civilians at remote spots in Co. Armagh in senseless sectarian attacks. Both the Reavey brothers and the O’Dowd families lived in isolated rural areas: Brian and John Reavey at Whitecross, while the O’Dowds lived just 19 miles away at Ballyduggan. In the first instance, UVF gunmen burst into the Reavey house, shooting dead both John (24) and his brother, Brian (22), and fatally wounding Anthony (17), who died in hospital twenty-six days later. The attack took place during the early evening on a bitter winter’s day. The gunmen, almost certainly from the Glenanne Gang of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade, fired a total of forty-three rounds inside the farmhouse. The author visited the scene in 2013 and was struck by the silence, the isolation and a pervading feeling that some act of evil had taken place here previously. This author is not deeply religious, nor especially ‘gifted’ with a supernatural instinct, but there was an atmospheric sadness about the off-white-coloured cottage.
Just a mere ten minutes later, a second UVF unit carried out an identical attack at Ballyduggan, a short thirty-minute car journey away, on another isolated farmhouse between Markethill and the British Army base at Bessbrook Mill. The O’Dowd family were enjoying a drink inside their warm house, protected from the biting wind and cold of an Armagh winter. It was a Sunday evening as they laughed and sang, unaware that less than 20 miles away, three Catholics like themselves were lying dead or dying in the bullet riddled, cordite-stench of what was their home; unaware also of the Loyalist murder gang which at that very moment were preparing to visit death upon them. Barney O’Dowd was seated at the piano, four young children standing around him, singing happily away, innocent of the evil that lurked just feet away. There was a crash as a door opened – the O’Dowds had accidentally left their front door key on the outside of the house. Startled, the family members turned in shock to be confronted by their worst nightmares: three men wearing ski-masks pointing machine guns and pistols at them.
Without hesitation, the gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons, spraying anything human within their sights, hitting Barney, two of his sons, and his brother, causing them to crash on top of the children. The firing went on for what seemed be an eternity; the wounded man said, ‘... we thought the shooting would never end ...’ Soon only the children’s frightened screams punctuated the silence. Barry O’Dowd (24), his brother Declan (19) and their Uncle Joe (61) were all killed. Just before the UVF gunmen left, one of them walked over to the wounded Barney, shooting him twice more at point-blank range; miraculously, he survived.
Retaliation was never far away in that troubled land, although the events of just twenty-four hours later at Kingsmills had very clearly been planned some time before the UVF’s attacks at Whitecross and Ballyduggan. The Irish Times claimed at the time that the following night’s events were a spontaneous reaction carried out by the Provisionals in response to the sectarian slaughter of the Catholic families. This, however, was not the case, and while it may have made good newspaper
copy as a ‘revenge attack’, it certainly wasn’t a spontaneous retaliatory act.
One must remember that the Provisionals were far from being a muddled group of terrorists, devoid of tactics or intelligence; they were a professional terrorist organisation. They were professional, strategically aware as well as great planners. Their vast army of dickers in what, after all, is ‘their’ county of Armagh had supplied them with copious amounts of information relating to SF movement, reaction times and standard responses. They had also supplied them with the information that a factory bus made the nightly run from a textile factory in Glenanne, taking workers to their homes in and around the Bessbrook area. The driver of the minibus carrying eleven workmen was Robert Walker (46); he lived in Glenanne and would return there after dropping off his workmates on that frosty evening.
