The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  In Lisburn, close to HQNI, the IRA planted two large bombs in a hotel but EOD were on hand to defuse them. The IRA action switched to Forkhill, South Armagh, and several hoax bombs were planted outside the RUC station and this took time and resources for the Army to declare them safe as well as checking for secondary booby-trapped devices. Finally, close to a Nationalist estate in Ballsmill, also in Co Armagh and very close to the Irish border, a tractor-drawn hay lorry was booby-trapped and exploded and burst into flames as it passed an Army VCP; no soldiers were injured.

  Lurgan and the associated towns of Portadown and Craigavon made up part of what was known as the ‘murder triangle,’ an area known for a significant number of incidents and fatalities during the Troubles. The area embraces Glenanne, Kingsmill – site of the January 1976 massacre of Protestant workers by the IRA – and the scene of the Reavey and O’Dowd family massacres by the UVF. The author visited the triangle in June of 2012 for the first time and trod the same path as the sectarian murderers and their innocent sectarian victims. The area is green, hilly and redolent of an Irish picture-postcard, but it reeks of danger, of aggression, of murder and echoes to the agony of over 100 people violently done to death. On the 25th, a UVF murder gang lay in wait outside a house in the triangle, at Loughgall and when Catholic Patrick McNeice (50) returned home from work, shot him dead with automatic weapons. The motive was purely sectarian and left more children in the Province to grow up without a father.

  On the 29th, there was a ‘blue-on-blue’ of a different type to the normal, although the outcome was still incredibly tragic. During the evening, a car containing an off-duty RUCR Constable and two friends approached an Army VCP close to Bessbrook Mill in Deramore Road. Apparently policeman George Johnston (24) had been drinking and was possibly inebriated. He was involved in a fracas with a soldier manning the VCP and punches were traded as the RUCR man refused to show his police identity card. Another soldier stated that he saw a weapon being pointed out of the window at the back of his comrade and he fired one shot which killed Constable Johnston instantly.

  Today, the Whitefort (sometimes referred to as the White Fort) is known as ‘Belfast’s premier live music venue’ and is still located on Andersonstown Road in the west of the city. The area was as solidly Republican back in July, 1976 as it is today. The one major difference is that drinkers today do not expect the instant death of the period known as the Troubles. On the evening of the 29th, violent death at the hands of the UVF came calling as people drank, laughed, and innocently watched the day’s horse racing on the bar’s TV screens. In what would be known as the ‘Choc Box Bomb’ murders, two men were killed instantly, a third would be fatally wounded and almost 30 injured; some very seriously.

  A man had walked into the bar, carrying an object which eyewitnesses thought was a large box of chocolates, and ordered two drinks. When the barman turned to give him the drinks, he had vanished; almost instantaneously, something exploded causing absolute chaos. It transpired that the man – thought to have been UVF – placed the box on the floor near the counter and quickly turned and walked outside to safety. Joseph Watson (62) and Daniel McGrogan (28), father of two young children, were killed absolutely instantly as they were standing almost on top of the bomb; Thomas Hall was fatally injured and died on 8 September. The bomb, estimated at 10lb, caused massive damage in the closely-packed bar and as stated earlier, there were some major injuries. Retaliation by the Provisionals was only hours away and it begs the question that the Loyalists, accustomed to the bloody tit-for-tat which epitomised that period, surely expected reprisals. In accepting that event, then they are as guilty as the Republicans for the deaths at the Stag Inn the following night.

  The bloodletting was far from over, and the next day – a Saturday – PIRA was responsible for five deaths and the mortal wounding of a sixth. They struck first at a small farm in remote rural land at Druminard, Co Londonderry, when they killed an off-duty UDR soldier. Private John Scott (28) was a farmer who farmed land between Magherafelt and Moneymore. The area is remote and he knew the risks of being a part-time soldier in that part of the world and was aware that he was vulnerable to an attack by the Provisionals. Terrorists had booby-trapped a gate to one of his fields, having observed his activities and his routine. He had driven his tractor to a gateway and jumped down to open the gate, triggering as he did so, a large explosive device; he was killed instantly.

  Retaliation for the previous night’s atrocity at the Whitefort was swift and bloody, taking place less than 24 hours after the attack in Andersonstown. The Stag Inn was a Protestant-owned and frequented hotel at Milltown Road at Shaw’s Bridge in the southern tip of Belfast. It was situated in the Belvoir Park Forest in heavily wooded land and was a popular gathering place for the more affluent of the Protestant population of that part of Co Antrim. At around 20:00 hours, a stolen car carrying PIRA gunmen arrived at the Stag Inn and armed men immediately shot and killed one of the security guards, John McLeave (35) and mortally wounded his comrade, Robert Thompson. Mr Thompson died of his wounds 10 days later. They then entered the bar and began firing indiscriminately with automatic weapons. John Mackey (52) was hit almost a dozen times and died very quickly from the massive trauma. Local man James Doherty (70) was hit several times and died shortly afterwards. The gunmen continued to fire, with one of them experiencing a stoppage and clearing it in a most professional manner, according to survivors before continuing to fire at the terrified drinkers. The killers then drove away, leaving scores of people wounded. The UVF were planning their reprisals within hours of this latest sectarian carnage.

  In the space of just four weeks, the Loyalists had attacked and killed Catholics at the Ramble Inn and the Whitefort and the Provisionals had killed Protestants at the Stag Inn. Nowhere was safe and a dozen people were dead or dying after these latest outrages. There was one final death and it involved another policeman, Thomas Cush (60) who was manning security gates in the centre of Lurgan, Co Armagh. Constable Cush and a female colleague were manning the gates during the busy lunchtime period when concealed gunmen opened fire and mortally wounded him. He died within minutes, and the gunmen fled, leaving a dying policeman in a pool of his own blood and utter chaos as hysterical shoppers ran for cover. He became the tenth police officer to die in less than three months.

  July had seen the deaths of 30 more people; still at the appalling rate of one a day. The Army had lost three soldiers at the hands of the Provisionals and two more policemen had been killed. A total of 22 civilians had been killed; nine Catholics and 11 Protestants. The dead also included the British Ambassador and a member of his staff. Republicans had lost three of their members including two to an own-goal explosion. A staggering 17 of the deaths had been overtly sectarian. Republicans were responsible for 14 deaths this month and the Loyalists for 13.

  20

  August

  The British summer was now in full swing and August was upon the Province. It would prove to be a month when Northern Ireland’s road system killed more soldiers than terrorists; it would also be the month in which a name of a fallen British soldier would forever be synonymous with Northern Ireland: Borucki Sangar. It was a month which witnessed the Troubles-related deaths of no less than five children, including two babes-in-arms, and it was a month which witnessed the birth of the tragically short-lived ‘Peace People movement.’

  There was some mystery but no less tragedy about the death of a Catholic who had converted from Protestantism in Belfast’s Oldpark area. William Bovaird (32) had changed his religion in order to marry the love of his life and he was to pay for this with his life. He was at home with his wife in Annalee Street, close to a sectarian interface in North Belfast. UDA/UFF gunmen burst into his house and he was shot dead in front of his distraught wife. The killing was not at first attributed to a Loyalist murder gang and rumours quickly spread that he had been killed by the IRA because he had ‘dared’ as a Protestant to live in their area. This then led to the killing – just
hours later – of a Catholic by the Shankill Butchers as a ‘reprisal’ for Mr Bovaird’s murder.

  This author finds it highly unlikely that this was the motivation for the second murder as the psychopaths who followed Lenny Murphy needed not the slightest excuse to kill Catholics. It was a blind hate and an inherited prejudice which motivated them, perhaps even provided them with a self-justification. It is, perhaps, part of the myth, the folklore, which surrounds the Butchers that their followers consider them as ‘soldiers’ fighting in a ‘Holy War’ against Catholics; participants in a Loyalist Jihad? Indeed, the author Martin Dillon in his excellent Trigger Men (Mainstream Publishing, 2003) refers to Loyalist killer Kenny McClinton expressing his desire to: ‘….cut off the heads of Catholics and impale them on railings in West Belfast.’ Whatever the reason for the murder, Murphy’s predatory gang chanced upon Mr Cornelius Neeson (49), who was walking home to the Cliftonville area from North Queen Street where he worked at a local bingo hall. They had been cruising through the Oldpark and Cliftonville areas on the look-out for Catholics and Mr Neeson fitted the bill. As he reached the junction of Manor Street and Cliftonville Road, they grabbed him, stunning him by hitting him over the head with an axe. He was then viciously stabbed and beaten before being left for dead and the Butchers made good their escape.

  He was found by a passing motorist with terrible head and facial injuries caused by heavy objects and by the axe which one of his killers had repeatedly hit him with. He was rushed to the nearby Mater Hospital on Crumlin Road, but he died within hours. A brother of Mr Neeson’s said: ‘I saw the state of my brother’s body after he was butchered on the street. I said, ‘That is not my brother’. Even our mother would not have recognised him.’ On that murder, Murphy was locked up in prison. To convince the RUC detectives that he wasn’t involved, Murphy relayed instructions for the continuance of the murders in spite of his absence.

  At around the same time, a soldier on a routine mobile patrol in Stewartstown, West Belfast was shot and wounded when a lone gunman opened fire from Nationalist housing. After firing several shots, he melted away into the rabbit warren of homes, having left the weapon to be stripped down into its component parts by sympathisers, leaving no trace of his or its existence. There was, however, no such escape for a soldier from the Royal Hampshires the following day in Dungiven, Co Londonderry. The regiment was based at the RUC Station in the town and a seven-man unit was on a routine foot patrol and had just reached Main Street, when a gunman, hiding in a ruined building, blasted one of the soldiers in the head with a shotgun; he died instantly. When his comrades rushed into the building, a booby-trapped device was found which, if triggered, would have caused carnage amongst the other troops. Private Alan Watkins (20) was from the Portsmouth area and is buried at Milton, Hampshire.

  On the 3rd, the Newry IRA attempted to kill an off-duty UDR soldier in the border area, south of the town. The officer – a member of HM Customs – was driving to work when gunmen opened fire. The shots missed but a follow-up Army unit had a narrow escape as the terrorists had left a small but deadly explosive device.

  Portrush, in the far north of the Province, is a small coastal Co Antrim village which faces both the Irish Sea in the north and the massive inlet which acts as the border with the Republic of Ireland to the west. As such, it is considered an important town in Northern Ireland. A bombing unit from the Provisionals planted a total of eight devices in cars and buildings around Portrush and then telephoned warnings through to the Samaritans and to the SDLP MP, John Hulme. The RUC and Army were able to act quickly enough and there were no injuries, but 10 major fires were started, causing extensive damage to the main shopping area. On the same day in Londonderry City, soldiers were attacked by several PIRA gunmen in Queen Street as soldiers patrolled along Clarendon Street. There were no injuries but a gunman was seen running along Princess Street and he was fired at but not hit.

  On the 5th, another bombing blitz by the IRA took place in Belfast City Centre. The Calor Gas Centre in Grosvenor Road was severely damaged and the Balmoral Golf Club had a lucky escape when a member of staff bravely carried a bomb outside the main building. Another device exploded on the ground floor of the Thompson Building in Castle Lane, blasting the entire area and causing considerable damage to Jackson’s The Tailors and to a British Rail office. Further devices were left in buildings in Montgomery Street, but Army EOD was able to defuse them. The day was far from over and there were two more major incidents that day as another device was planted at Fortwilliam Golf Club on the Shore Road in North Belfast. Within the hour, a Catholic man was walking along Springmartin Road when a Loyalist gunman fired several shots at him. He was hit three times in the back and fell badly injured. The gunman was hiding in a ruined building in Springfield Park and escaped in a waiting car, in the direction of the Shankill.

  On the 6th, a PIRA unit planted a bomb in a draper’s shop in York Street, Belfast and there was another sectarian murder attempt by Loyalists near the Dunmore Greyhound Stadium in the Antrim Road. There were no injuries in either incident. Republicans were also involved later in the day, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the windscreen of an RUC Land Rover in Garvaghey Road, Portadown. Three officers were travelling in the vehicle at the time, and as the device exploded, one of the front seat men was showered by glass and other shrapnel and badly injured in the eyes.

  B’ Company, 2RGJ, Borucki Sangar. (Mark ‘C’)

  On 8 August, Robert McCreight (68), who had been wounded in the IRA attack on the Protestant-owned Stag Inn the previous month, died of his wounds. On that same day, Private James Borucki (19) of the Parachute Regiment was killed by an IRA booby-trap in the centre of Crossmaglen. He was killed when a package placed on a bicycle exploded as he walked by.

  THE KILLING OF JAMES ‘SNOOK’ BORUCKI, CROSSMAGLEN 8 AUGUST 1976

  Tommy ‘Nobby’ Clarke, Royal Corps of Transport

  I have been asked once again by my friend, the author of this book, to put into words my four months spent in Crossmaglen. I was also asked about the events of that day in August 1976 when 19-year old James Borucki was killed by an IED, an IED left on the corner of the market square in the village of Crossmaglen, with no regards to the civilian population of men, women and children by the Provisional IRA.

  Having served in Northern Ireland and most of its provinces between 1971 and 1976 and with probably every regiment and unit within the army, I thought I had seen it all; military and civilian casualties by the dozens, from gunshot wounds, to petrol bomb burns, nail bomb attacks. I even witnessed ‘tar and feathering’ attacks on civilians by the IRA, especially on young women who were accused of fraternising with the army; little did I realise that in 1976 my worst experience was to come.

  My mate ‘Chink’ Joiner and I had been deployed with our RCT Squadron from its home base in Germany in June 1976 and were immediately air lifted into Crossmaglen by helicopter as already described in the author’s previous books. Along with our own SOPs (standard operating procedures), we had to quickly learn those of the unit we were attached to; on this occasion, 3 Para. We had to abandon all our driver training skills and techniques learned and developed back in BAOR and quickly blend in to the techniques and ways of this elite unit and become a ‘grunt’, not only that, a ‘crap hat’ grunt. They had two Saracens based with them and these had major limitations due to the terrain mostly covered by patrols; consequently, they were not used a great deal. They were invaluable because of the firepower they could lay down with their .50 calibre Browning machine guns and protection from small arms fire.

  Our tasks were wide and various, with guard duties in one of the two heavily fortified sangars front and back, and as L.Z. (landing zone) controller for the many helicopter flights in and out 24/7 by the back gates of the base. We were also responsible for getting information to patrol leaders who would radio in vehicle registration number plates they had stopped at VCPs. We inputted this into a device and within two minutes, everything about that
vehicle and its owner came through on a telex machine to be passed on to the person calling in; it was never dull.

  It was on one of these patrols that I got teamed up with a Para by the name of James Borucki. We got talking about this and that and was amazed to find out with a name like his, he was from Yorkshire; this got us talking even more as my wife is also a Yorkshire lass, so I think we had found some common ground. He told me to call him ‘Snook’ and after that we just seemed to bump into each other regularly, although there wasn’t much chance of avoiding anyone when back at base; overcrowding and living on top of each other was the norm.

  Sunday 8 August 1976, is a day that will live with me for the rest of my life. Even after, in later years when I lost my eldest son in a motorcycle accident, my feelings never matched those of that Sunday in August. I was on duty in the Ops room which I didn’t mind as you shared a little room with a member of the SAS, who monitored all radio traffic and was a relay station for their covert ops. One of the advantages was that you could watch a CCTV through the hatchway into the control room which monitored the market square in the village of XMG itself and so could see anything or anybody approaching the base from the town direction.

  I noticed ‘Snook’ in one of the dilapidated old armchairs; he was kitted up ready to go out on patrol. I got my stuff and went to him and asked if he was ok, and he said he and the lads were pissed as they were going out on a patrol to secure an area around the base as some top wanker was practicing his helicopter landing skills. He told him that it sounded like a doddle and he asked me if I fancied taking his place. I told him I was on intelligence duty but if he cleared it with his CSM I’d go. He asked me to hold on to his rifle and went to see if we could swap, but was back about five minutes later not looking too happy, and said he couldn’t swap and he was to go out with his patrol.