The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  As March ground to a halt, a motorist and his girlfriend had a most fortunate escape as they drove along near Carrickmore when a PIRA landmine exploded very close to their car. The couple got out of their car to investigate the damage and concealed gunmen opened fire on them; all the shots missed. An attack was made, possibly by INLA gunmen on the Loyalist Windsor Bar on the Shankill Road but all of the shots missed. The bar was a known UVF haunt. It was also a bar in which members of the Shankill Butchers drank from time to time. It is entirely possible that one or more of its members was in the bar that night and that decided on a course of action some 24 hours later. The following night in a frightening escalation in the terrorist armoury, an IRA unit fired an armourpiercing rocket at an armoured vehicle as they drove along Springfield Road in Belfast. The rocket was fired from the junction of the Whiterock Road and smashed into the vehicle; fortunately the soldiers received only minor injuries.

  The IRA employed their by now familiar tactic of attaching explosive devices to fishing lines in two more locations; in the first at Omagh, the mother of a policeman noticed the device outside her back door and she called the Army who defused the device. In Portadown, an 80lb device was placed at the end of a narrow lane along which a UDR soldier had to drive to reach his home. Again the device failed to explode and the soldier’s life was spared.

  On the last day of the month, as a bus drove into Londonderry City, an armed gang of youths leapt aboard and held the driver at gunpoint. The gang placed three explosive devices under his seat and forced him to drive the bus and the six passengers on board to Strand Road RUC station. As they reached their ‘destination,’ they jumped clear and the bombs exploded. Although some damage was done to the building, there were no injuries. The final death of the month was laid firmly at the door of the Shankill Butchers.

  Francis Cassidy (43) was a seaman who was back in his native Belfast after many years at sea and was staying in a house in the New Lodge area. He had been drinking for much of the evening and was en route, albeit drunkenly, for Victoria Parade. He had reached Spamount Street and was about 400 yards from his lodgings, when a car containing several of the Butchers noticed him staggering along. Two of the killers came up behind him and began assaulting him with fists and feet and then attempted to drag him into their car. He struggled desperately but was eventually subdued and the men sat on him, pinning him in the back of the vehicle. He was driven to several locations in order to obtain weapons before being taken to Highfern Gardens where he was brutally stabbed and then shot dead. His lifeless and mutilated body, throat cut as well as other injuries, was found dumped in the street, where it was noticed by a passer-by who then called the police.

  Deaths in March were down again, with 14 people losing their lives. The Army lost three soldiers all killed by the IRA and the RUC lost an officer. A total of ten civilians were killed, with five being overtly sectarian. Republicans killed ten this month and Loyalists, including the Shankill Butchers, were responsible for the remaining four.

  28

  April

  April would again see deaths below 20 and for this period of the Troubles, this might have been viewed ‘acceptably low.’ In terms of the cost in human misery and longterm grief, it was still far too high. The Provisionals would continue their tactic of targeting off-duty UDR soldiers and a further two policemen would lose their lives. It was a month in which a British soldier was kidnapped and murdered off-duty by the IRA.

  On the first of the month, the British Government came out in support of the idea of treating Northern Ireland as a single constituency, returning three members, for elections to the European Parliament. The Government also supported the use of Proportional Representation (PR) in these elections. The proposals were supported by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party (APNI) but were opposed by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

  On that ‘All Fools’ Day, PIRA were in anything but a jocular mood, as they held a family hostage on the Nationalist Twinbrook Estate in Belfast and forced the husband to drive his car, packed with explosives to Palace barracks in East Belfast. This sick stunt was known as the ‘proxy bomb’ and showed an absolute disregard for the sanctity of life of even their own Catholic community. The man was forced to drive for 30 minutes through Belfast and when he arrived, soldiers on guard naturally forced him to drive to some waste ground 40 yards away from the camp. He was able to do so and as he ran away, the car exploded, smashing windows in soldiers’ married quarters and hurling parts of the vehicle over two lanes of roadway. The man survived with just shock and minor cuts. On the next day – a Saturday – an IRA gang threw a pipe packed with explosives at a transit van as it drove by the Boundary Pub in North Belfast, in the mistaken belief that it was an RUC van. Five of the six occupants – a family on an innocent outing – were treated for shock and cuts caused by flying glass after it exploded alongside. A 13-year old girl in the van was kept in hospital as her wounds were more serious than the rest.

  The Provisional IRA have always maintained that they were/are not a sectarian organisation and that they did not kill purely for sectarian reasons. This was quite unlike the INLA, which was an off-shoot of the Official IRA and the IPLO, which was born out of the constant internecine squabbling of the INLA; both of which killed for purely sectarian reasons. However they – the Provisionals – killed for purely sectarian reasons when it suited them and their purposes. This was no more evident than the abduction, torture and murder of Hugh Clarke (31), father of three by PIRA members. Mr Clarke – a Protestant – was working on a farm at Mullaghbawn in South Armagh, when he was seized and driven off. His body was found dumped close to Crossmaglen; he had been shot three times in the head. The Provisionals denied responsibility and instead the murder was claimed by the Republican Action Force – a cloak of convenience for PIRA – stating that the murdered man was a member of a Loyalist organisation and that he had been involved in the killing of a Republican. The claims were of course entirely spurious and were vehemently denied by his widow.

  ATO ‘Wheelbarrow’ examines a suspicious package in Royal Avenue, Belfast. (Mark ‘C’)

  Airey Neave, then the Conservative Party spokesperson on Northern Ireland, said that Provisional Sinn Féin should become a proscribed organisation and immediately declared illegal. He was already making enemies among the Republicans and he had already been listed on both the INLA’s and Provisionals’ hit list.

  On the 4th, the Provisionals targeted two cafes in central Belfast and over 40 people – including a tiny baby – were injured in the twin blasts. The two cafes were Isobel Ervine’s and The Rosemary in, appropriately enough, Rosemary Street. and both were packed. The first explosion came exactly one minute after the warning was telephoned through and the second occurred a further minute afterwards; in other words, there was no time to adequately evacuate the establishments. There was widespread damage to both places and to surrounding buildings. There was an attack on an RUC mobile, later that day in north Belfast. The police had been lured out to Duncairn Gardens in what was clearly an IRA ‘come on’, and a terrorist unit was positioned at the junction of Edlingham Street and Upper Meadow Street in the New Lodge. Over 20 rounds were fired at the RUC vehicle but none of the officers was hurt in the well-laid ambush. The action for the day was finally complete when the IRA tried to plant a device near to the RUC station in Kilkeel, Co Down. A youth involved tried to run away from the police when he was discovered and he was shot and wounded.

  On the following day, the 9/12 Lancers were involved in a fatal explosion in the border country of Co Fermanagh. The regiment (motto: Ich Dien: I serve) who went under the Indian Mutiny-earned nickname ‘The Delhi Spearmen’ were based in the Belleek area and were patrolling along the border crossing into the Republic. As they entered Manger, a large PIRA landmine exploded under a Saracen and two soldiers were seriously injured, one of them mortally. Trooper Sean Prendergast (22) died in hospital shortly
afterwards. The Regiment, whose battle honours include the retreat from Mons (1914) and Dunkirk (1940), lost four men during the Troubles, including Trooper Prendergast in this squalid part of Northern Ireland.

  Royal Avenue: afterwards. (Mark ‘C’)

  On 6 April, having stalked him for some time, the IRA killed a part-time UDR soldier in Londonderry. Lance Corporal Gerald Cornelius Cloete (46) a father of five who lived in Glenside Park was driving to work at a local factory, when a car containing IRA gunmen deliberately rammed his vehicle in a carefully arranged ambush. They then shot him five times in the head and chest as he struggled to get out of his wrecked vehicle. He was English-born, and had served in the Royal Navy from 1946-61; his son was serving in the Army at the same time.

  Armed PIRA members hijacked a beer tanker at the junction of Donegal Road and the Falls Road and loaded it with 150lbs of explosives. The hijacked driver was threatened with death if he didn’t drive it into Belfast City Centre. En-route, he managed to alert the police at the Royal Avenue security barrier and he abandoned it outside a branch of the Northern Bank in Donegal Square. The resulting explosion caused extensive damage to both the bank and to surrounding buildings.

  Two days after the murder of the UDR soldier, a mobile RUC patrol had cause to stop a car containing three men in Gortagilly, Co Londonderry for routine questioning. However, as the three officers tried to stop them, they sped away and the police gave chase. The suspect car crashed in a ditch, but the occupants got out and opened fire on the three officers, killing two of them immediately and badly wounding the third. The IRA men then left the dead and wounded and began to run away but another RUC vehicle approached and a short firefight broke out. The men escaped in the direction of Cookstown. The dead RUC men were Constable Kenneth Sheehan (19) and Constable John McCracken (22) who were members of the RUC SPG. It was a major blow to the police force as well as to the families of the two dead men. The RUC almost lost four more members a few hours later when two male and one female officer were badly injured in IRA bomb attacks in Castlehill Park, Belfast. Separate devices had been left outside the homes of senior civil servants. One female officer was injured whilst evacuating the area and a minute later the other two policemen were injured by a second device. A fourth officer was badly cut in the face when IRA gunmen fired several shots through his windscreen as he drove from Carnagh to Keady in South Armagh; he managed to drive out of the ambush.

  On the 9th, in circumstances which may be considered both controversial and mysterious, Myles McGrogan (22), having been abducted by the Provisionals earlier, was shot dead by them. It was alleged that he had been touting (spying and informing) on behalf of either the RUC or Army; his body was found on Colin Glen Road, Dunmurry and he had been killed by a single shot to his temple. The 10th was the traditional Republican Clubs’ Easter commemoration in the Nationalist areas, and it resulted in a day of tragedy for a family in Belfast, with 2 members killed in separate but inextricably linked incidents. A UVF gang which contained a man later found guilty of the McGurk’s bar atrocity – see ‘The Bloodiest Year’ by the author – Robert Campbell and ‘Tonto’ Watts planted a parcel full of explosives outside a derelict shop in Beechmount Avenue, Falls Road area. Campbell and Watts mingled with the crowds watching the parade. The device exploded without warning and scores were injured, with little Kevin McMenamin (10) being killed instantly. In the tension of the period, both OIRA and PIRA members accused each other of sparking off the violence and there were several shootings and assaults as rival members clashed. Later on, the Uncle of the young victim, John Short (49) was walking with another relative in nearby Springfield Road, when a car containing PIRA gunmen pulled alongside them and opened fire. Both men – neither with any paramilitary links – fell to the ground and John Short died shortly afterwards; his relative survived. It is thought likely that the PIRA gunmen mistook the 2 innocent men for OIRA members. Watts was jailed for his part in the cowardly murder, in 1978; following his release from prison in 1989 he left the organisation and in 1995 became a preacher having embraced Born-again Christianity while serving his sentence.

  There is a major element of mystery surrounding the abduction of RCT Sergeant William Edgar (34). He lived in the south of England where he was based with his RCT regiment and was known to visit Londonderry from time to time. On 15 April, 1977, whilst on a family visit to his sister, he was abducted by the IRA whilst drinking in the Waterside district and taken to be interrogated. He was shot three times in the head and his body was dumped at a graveyard above the Bogside. The IRA claimed that he was an undercover soldier and, although this was palpable nonsense, they stuck to their outrageous story in order to excuse yet another cold-blooded killing of an unarmed man.

  On the same day that the RCT Sergeant was found murdered, there were three lucky escapes for a policeman, a soldier and a group of young children. A 34-year old off-duty RUC Constable was sitting in his car with his two young sons outside a butcher’s shop in Lurgan, whilst his wife purchased meat. PIRA gunmen pulled alongside and fired several shots into the car before speeding off. Both boys were cut by flying glass and the officer was badly wounded. In Crossmaglen, a foot patrol of soldiers was returning to the RUC base there and as they ran across the Market Place, a device exploded in a derelict building. A soldier was blown off his feet and slightly injured; he survived. Finally a group of children playing near the main railway line at Holywood, Belfast found some IRA explosives and took them home. As they reached their home in Mashona Street, East Belfast, one of the detonators exploded and they were all slightly injured.

  PIRA’s ‘commercial war’, Royal Avenue, Belfast. (Mark ‘C’)

  On the 17th, the Army killed a member of the Provisional IRA when they shot Trevor McKibben (19) who was observed carrying a rifle. Under ROE, the soldiers who observed him at the junction of Flax Street and Butler Street in the Ardoyne were entitled to shoot and did so. He died at the scene and a rifle was recovered. Several hours of intense rioting followed and the Army were forced to fire CS gas canisters and baton rounds (rubber bullets). The PIRA man’s funeral was marred by a UVF car bomb which resulted in the death of another PIRA volunteer [see later in this chapter].

  There was yet more evidence of the IRA’s total disregard for the safety of their own community and their irresponsibility and breath-taking arrogance cannot be repaired by pious apologies, 20 or 30 years after the event. They demonstrated their sheer callousness by mortaring the Army’s temporary base at Craigavon Bridge, Londonderry on the 18th, despite the proximity of civilian residences. At least three devices fell short and exploded in Foyle Road, damaging 16 houses and resulting in injuries to three young children who were hospitalised. Another device exploded near a busy Youth Club and there was another explosion in Lower Bennett Street. Only one of the five devices fired actually landed near the camp; there were no major injuries. The firing point was at Alexandra Place and it is inconceivable that the PIRA operators wouldn’t have been aware of the danger to civilians.

  In the very early hours of the 19th, a blatantly sectarian murder took place in Ahoghill, Co Antrim a sleepy little village, around four miles from Ballymena and north of Lough Neagh. In a period of controversy, the death of William Strathearn (39), father of seven is deeply controversial and again the ugly head of collusion was raised. Mr Strathearn owned the village VG store in Portglenone Road, and was awakened by knocking on the shop door at around 02:00. Naturally he cautiously called out of a window and enquired what the disturbance was. A man called up that his child was ill and that he desperately needed painkillers. Mr Strathearn went downstairs and obtained aspirin for the ‘sick child’ and unlocked the front door, whereupon he was confronted by several armed men. Without any further words, they shot him twice at close range and he fell to the ground and died almost immediately. What was doubly controversial was the fact that the armed men included two serving members of the RUC who were working with the UVF. Officers Weir and McCaughey were tried and convic
ted of the murder.

  John Oliver Weir, although born in the Republic of Ireland, served as an officer in the RUC Special Patrol Group (SPG) but was also a member of the UVF. It was alleged that he was a member of the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade led by Robin ‘the Jackal’ Jackson, and was a part of the Glenanne gang, a group of loyalist extremists that carried out sectarian attacks mainly in the County Armagh area in the mid-1970s. Along with his RUC colleague Billy McCaughey, Weir was convicted of the 1977 sectarian killing of Catholic chemist William Strathearn and sentenced to life imprisonment. The killing stunned the community and provided ‘justification’ for the IRA’s constant accusations of collusion between the SF and the Loyalist paramilitaries.

  In what would be an echo of an atrocity some 11 years in the future when Loyalist ‘freelancer’ Michael Stone attacked and killed mourners at the Gibraltar1 funeral, the UVF chose the funeral of PIRA volunteer Trevor McKibben to detonate a car bomb. As the funeral was beginning to gather at Etna Drive in the Ardoyne, a stolen car said to contain 100lb of explosives detonated without warning. Sean Campbell (19) was actually walking past the car when it exploded and was killed instantaneously and another man was fatally injured; John McBride (18) died of his severe injuries the following day. A further 40 people, including two children were injured, some very seriously and they were ferried in ambulances to the nearby Mater Hospital on Crumlin Road. Mr Campbell was the third member of his extended family to die as a consequence of the Troubles. The author has seen a photograph of the wrecked car; it is shredded beyond belief, such was the impact of the blast. That only two people were killed, given the explosion and the packed nature of the crowd, is a little short of a miracle. The UVF’s intention was to kill dozens.