The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  When she got in, their escort said: ‘OK; lock your doors, and if we get stopped, leave me to do the talking, and just do what I say.’ When she asked who would be liable to stop them he merely shrugged. On the way she was admiring the beautiful countryside with its small fields, but when they saw Belfast for the first time she thought it looked like many other British towns. The escort wasn’t very talkative, merely telling her where they were. The first thing that struck her was the Army and RUC patrols; they seemed to be everywhere. Once over the river the escort was a bit chattier, and when they reached Palace, the next shock was the armed sentries, and the checks to get in. The driver and escort went around the side of the Guard Room without telling her where they were going, or why. It wasn’t until several days later that she realised that they had gone to the weapon unloading bay. At her new quarter, everything was organised and ready for them, but on enquiring about supermarkets she was told ‘best to use the Families’ Shop until your husband has been briefed and knows his way around.’ She realised then that the next two years were going to be, well, ‘different’.

  The author recently became friends with a comrade who served in the UDR and stayed several days with this person for whom I have much gratitude and affection. Mr ‘R’ was the subject of no less than three assassination attempts by the Provisional IRA and escaped on all three occasions. Having interviewed this man and now having some sort of inkling into the way that Republican terrorists tried to destroy his life, one now thinks that one understands the simply unbearable pressure which was placed on the late Gerard Masterson.

  On the 22nd, the UVF announced the beginning of a three-month ceasefire to take effect immediately. This ceasefire was, however, broken on a number of occasions the first of which was on 5 June 1976 when five civilians were shot dead.

  On that same evening, the UFF detonated a no-warning bomb in the Club Bar on University Street, Belfast. A Catholic and a Protestant civilian were killed in the pub which attracted both religions; it had been attacked by Loyalists on a number of occasions. The bar was a favourite of Queen’s University and was packed when the device – planted in a toilet – exploded. Nearly 30 people were injured, some severely and two young students were killed: David Robinson (23) and Paul Hamill (21). Mr Hamill’s brother was standing very close by and suffered a traumatic amputation of his leg. The UDA/UFF had surely done their homework and must have been aware that students from both sides of the sectarian divide used the club on a regular basis.

  May finally ended with yet another sad, senseless and shameful sectarian killing, as the UFF, having lived in the shadow of their more murderous fellow Loyalists decided to fill in the vacuum left by the UVF ceasefire. They were aware that John Ritchie (31) who worked as a milk delivery man at a dairy on Lower Kennedy Way was a Catholic. He had been stalked and followed to the Ballymurphy Estate where they attacked him as he drove past in his slow-moving milk float and shot him dead from point-blank range.

  The toll of the RUC in this month had been nothing less than catastrophic and it was clear that PIRA’s intention had been to destroy the force’s morale, having attempted in the region of 12 murders. The spirit and dedication of the RUC, however was beyond anything which the Republican terrorists could achieve.

  A total of 29 people had been killed or died from their injuries during the month. The Army lost two soldiers to RTAs and a staggering six policemen were killed by terrorism and another officer was mortally wounded. In a mixture of terrorist killings and sectarian murders, 19 civilians were killed; 13 Catholic and six Protestant. One member of the IRA was killed by security forces and a Loyalist paramilitary accidentally shot and killed himself. There were 15 overtly sectarian murders. Republicans caused 10 deaths and Loyalists 15.

  18

  June

  The month started with the death from injuries of Frederick McLoughlin (48), father of four who had been shot by the UVF in Charlemont following the bombing of Clancy’s Bar. There was also an exchange of shots between an Army mobile patrol and PIRA gunmen at the junction of Milltown Road and Cemetery Road in West Belfast. A total of five rounds were fired at the soldiers but no injuries were reported. A chase led to soldiers arresting the gunmen and weapons were recovered.

  The following day, after bravely fighting for her life, WPC Linda Baggley (19), who had been fatally wounded by PIRA gunmen in Londonderry, died of those wounds. In what was a double tragedy, she had been wounded close to the spot where her policeman father had also been killed. He was also an RUCR Constable and was shot and killed by the IRA on 29 January, 1974 [see Sir, They’re Taking The Kids Indoors by the author, Chapter 13]. She became the first female officer to be killed by terrorists during the latest ‘tranche’ of Troubles which have affected Ireland over the last 500 years.

  Miss Baggley was shot by PIRA gunman Kieran Fleming; he was convicted of the killing and was sentenced to imprisonment in HMP the Maze. He escaped from the Maze in 1983 but was later drowned following a gun battle with the British Army in December, 1984. On Sunday morning, 2 December 1984, Fleming and Antoine MacGiolla Bhrighde stole a van in Pettigo, Co Donegal which was then loaded with beer kegs, containing 900lb of explosives. Shortly afterwards, they crossed the border and drove to the Drumrush Lodge Restaurant in Co Fermanagh. Once there, they planted a landmine in a lane leading to the restaurant and wired up a device which was connected to an observation point. From there a hoax call was made in order to lure the Army to the restaurant. On the approach of the RUC, the device was detonated, but it failed to explode and a firefight broke out, during which Lance Corporal Al Slater was killed, although his comrades also killed MacGiolla Bhrighde.

  Fleming and others in the PIRA unit then came under heavy fire from the SAS unit and retreated. Fleming, unable to swim, became trapped between the SAS units and the swollen River Bannagh and was swept away and drowned. It is not recorded if the murderer’s head was held under water by the boot of an obliging soldier.

  The Provisionals are known for many things: cold-blooded ruthlessness, professionalism and a remarkable Int unit which operates on a national basis. They are also known as cowardly, opportunistic killers and it was a combination of two of their ‘attributes’ which led to the death of the eighth policeman to die in less than four weeks. Detective Constable Ronald McAdam (31) was on an off-duty trip to the RVH in Belfast with his girlfriend who was visiting for a medical examination. As they returned to their car, a masked PIRA gunman walked up behind them and shot the policeman three times in the back, killing him almost immediately. Some 36 years after the murder, the speculation still exists as to how the decision to kill the RUC man was made. Was he spotted by a ‘dicker’ in the hospital grounds; was he fingered by a sympathiser amongst the RVH staff or was it merely evidence of the proficiency of their Int?

  Londonderry. (Walter Stirling)

  The third person to die that day was Jackie Parsons (51) a man, although a Loyalist, was not a paramilitary and his only connection with politics had been as Chairman of the Woodvale Defence Association. He was nonetheless singled out by the Ardoyne PIRA and using a stolen car, they drove to his home in Cambrai Street, close to the Mountainview Tavern in the Shankill area. They entered the unlocked house and shot Mr Parsons a total of five times at point-blank range. Before the day was out, the UDA/UFF enjoying the respite from the UVF targeted a man with only tenuous Republican connections in the Comber, Co Down area. The un-named man was visiting the Spratt family in the rural town, south of Newtownards when the Loyalist murder gang sought him out. No doubt acting upon information from their own brand of dickers, they smashed the front window of the Spratt’s house and fired through the smashed glass, hitting and killing David (23), who was entirely innocent. Loyalists also attempted to kill a young Catholic man in Serpentine Parade in North Belfast. The Serpentines are located approximately equidistant between the Antrim Road and Shore Road. The Loyalist gang knocked on the front door and shot the young man before running off; he was wounded in the
hand but fortunately survived.

  On the same day, an off-duty RUCR officer was driving along Black’s Road in the southwestern outskirts of Belfast. His car was approached by gunmen on a motorbike, and they opened fire as they were forced to slow down in rush-hour traffic. The policeman was hit in the back and badly wounded as the gunmen weaved off into traffic. They were, however, spotted by an RMP patrol who chased them and forced them to crash on a roundabout. The gunmen were arrested and a handgun was recovered; the wounded RUCR officer survived. In response to the ongoing upsurge in violence, the British government announced that it was sending an additional 200 troops to Northern Ireland. To the men on the ground, this represented approximately two additional companies; to combat the increased threats, seasoned observers noted that several battalions might be more appropriate.

  This author has been extremely critical of the Provisional IRA’s irresponsibility in handling ordnance and using their community’s residential areas as a war zone. This was in evidence again on the 5th of the month when young children playing in the Cavendish Square area of the Falls found an IRA hand grenade. The children were observed playing with the live and primed explosive device. Once this was discovered, an Army EOD was called in by concerned locals and it was defused. It is not recorded whether or not PIRA gunmen in the area gave the Army a free rein to help protect the children that they themselves had endangered. The controlled explosion shattered many windows in the area; courtesy of the Provisional IRA! It was one of two separate incidents involving carelessly disposed PIRA explosives during this month.

  Two days later, a gang of Loyalist thugs, loosely connected with the UDA singled out one of life’s derelicts, William Spring (51) who though nominally a Protestant was staying in a men’s hostel in the Divis/Falls area. The Loyalist thugs, perhaps ‘wannabes’ might be a more appropriate description, thought that they had found a hated ‘taig.’ These Loyalist ‘heroes’ took the helpless alcoholic to a ruined house in the Oldpark area where they beat and then shot him.

  On the same day, it was a case of more ‘wannabes’ although this time from the Republican side and a group, either on the fringe of PIRA or operating independently was involved. Two young Republican thugs approached a taxi and persuaded the driver and his passenger to let them ride part of the way and that they would share the fare. However, when the taxi driver stopped to let them out at Hesketh Road in the Ardoyne, they immediately shot the two other men. The taxi driver was injured but his equally entirely innocent passenger – a Protestant – Alexander Patterson (42) died at the scene. A lone, undercover soldier sitting in a parked car witnessed the shootings and was able to follow the killers to their homes. Thanks to his identification, they were quickly apprehended and eventually tried and sentenced for the murder. On that same day, Loyalist killers attempted to kill a Catholic man in Mountainview Terrace and forced their way into his house close to the Crumlin Road in Belfast. The man raced upstairs and the would-be murderers fired two rounds into a bedroom where two small children were sleeping. Both children were injured, one seriously and the murder gang escaped in a waiting car.

  As the slaughter continued, seemingly unabatedly, a family on the English mainland received a visit from one of their daughter’s CVOs. Women’s Staff Sergeant Alison Sybil Stryker (24) from Shorncliffe in Kent was killed in an RTA in Northern Ireland. The Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) is no more; the regiment was disbanded and female soldiers are now attached to male battalions. Its motto was: Suaviter in modo, fortiter in Re (Gentle in manner, resolute in deed) and the Corps worked alongside their male counterpoints in all parts of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Eight of their number died in or as a consequence of the Troubles and included two killed by a PIRA bomb in Guildford, Surrey and one was shot accidentally in Londonderry.

  On the 4th, a PIRA murder gang called at the Old Wheel Store, the business premises of Sydney McAvoy in Upper Dunmurry, South Belfast. The Protestant businessman had been responsible for the capture and conviction of two PIRA thugs who had attempted to rob him. The masked men fired at him several times and succeeded in slightly wounding him before running off. The brave shop-owner had only 17 days to live, as the Provisionals bided their time.

  The Provisionals were back in action on the following day and targeted the Times Bar in the York Street area of North Belfast and only a few hundred yards from the Republican New Lodge. A car was stolen in or around Sheridan Street – and later abandoned there also – and driven to the outside of the Times Bar. A device exploded without warning and in the blast Robert Groves (50) was killed instantly and Edward McMurray (41) died almost immediately. In the chaos and carnage, almost 20 people were injured; some dreadfully and there were several traumatic amputations. The blast caused extensive damage to the pub and a large number of other neighbouring premises; several houses received some structural damage also. A local unit of the UFF had received intelligence suggesting that one of the bombers was Kevin Mulgrew and they raced into the New Lodge to find and kill him.

  Kevin Mulgrew was not in the area, so the UFF men went to Camberwell Terrace which sits just off the Antrim Road. They politely knocked at the door and when Colm Mulgrew (28) answered the door, they shot him several times in the head and chest and he died shortly after reaching the nearby Mater Hospital. It was simply a case of if the main Mulgrew was not ‘killable,’ then any Mulgrew or any ‘Republican’ would do. This author is aware of the man’s possible Sinn Fein membership, but is happy to state that in his opinion, the murdered man was not a member of any paramilitary organisation.

  THE TIMES BAR BOMBING, JUNE 1976

  Private B.R., Ulster Defence Regiment

  At this stage in my life I still hadn’t joined the UDR, but was into football in a big way. I remember that I had just finished playing football at Crusaders’ ground and was walking home to my house in the Tigers Bay area; it was June and a balmy summer evening about 6 or 7pm.

  On my way, I called into my mother-in-law’s house in Mountcollyer Avenue to see my wife Sandra who was there; the house was approx 100 yards one way from the bar and the same to the local RUC station the other. Sandra asked me to call round to the Times Bar with a message for her Uncle Jim, so I walked the short distance round to the bar, met Jim and a few other friends of mine. I declined drinks as I wanted to get home and get changed. I left the bar and when I got to the corner of Mountcollyer Avenue, a car pulled up beside me: two males in front, one in the back. We sort of had a staring contest for a few seconds; of the type where you are thinking, ‘what are you looking at?’ This took place only for a few seconds before I walked on; later I was to find out this was the bombers, en route to the Times.

  I quickly walked the remaining distance to my mother-in-law’s to get the Mrs and had just reached the front door when there was a deafening explosion and the whole ground shook beneath my feet. I knew it was very close and immediately thought of the Times or the other nearby pub, the Alex Bar. I looked down the street and could see the Alex intact and then knew it must have been the Times.

  I ran down the street to the Junction of Mountcollyer Avenue and York Road; I looked to my left and could see it had, indeed been the Times that had been hit. The front of the bar had been blown out and there was rubble all over the street. When I got to the scene there were at least six people wandering about, covered in blood and dust and obviously disorientated; I could see that one of them had had an arm blown off, and I was shocked to see it was an old mate of mine called Billy. I then stood on what I thought was a tailor’s dummy or mannequin, but I later discovered it was actually the body of Eddie McMurray, one of the friends I had been talking to less than 15 minutes earlier; he was one of the two killed that night.

  “Dear mum, this is how we sleep”. (Walter Stirling)

  I then started to search through the rubble looking for my wife’s uncle Jim and eventually found him half-buried in rubble, covered in blood and dust and trying to get himself free of the debris. I was then joined by
my friend, Jack and a cousin of my wife also called Jack; between us we dug out Uncle Jim and got him out into the street. I then realised that both Jacks had also been injured and were bleeding heavily.

  A couple of days later I was able to visit Uncle Jim in hospital and asked him what he remembered about the bombing. He said that he was approx 12 feet from the front door, which at the time was right on the corner of Mountcollyer Road and York Road. Apparently the door opened and there was two guys standing there; one with a gun, the other a bag, and the guy at the back leant over the first and starting shooting with an automatic pistol; these shots made everyone dive for cover. At that point, the front one then threw the bag onto the floor of the main bar and ran out. He told me ‘it seemed like only seconds later it exploded and all I remember is waking up, covered in rubble and being completely dazed; next thing I was getting lifted out onto the street, I discovered later it had been BR and my nephew but I can’t remember that.’

  Although Jim and a lot of others had been injured, only two had died, thank God; it could have been so much worse. Much later I found out that one of the bombers had been recognised as K.M. (AKA ‘Little Napoleon’) a well-known Provo terrorist and a man myself and my family unfortunately had some very bad experiences with when I was in the UDR, but that’s a story for later books. Anyway it transpired that the local UFF had an on-the-spot meeting and decided to send a hit team to take him out, as he lived nearby on the Limestone Road. That night they arrived at his door, knocked and when it was answered they shot who they thought was K.M. several times but it turned out it was his brother C; they were very alike.