by Ken Wharton
On the 4th, PIRA added a worryingly new dimension to the war, when a sniper in a concealed position fired at an Army helicopter as it landed at Jonesborough, Co Armagh. The base was only 300 yards from the Irish border and the gunman was operating from the safety of the Republic. The round shattered the helicopter’s windscreen, but no soldiers were injured. The previous day at nearby Flurrybridge, a sniper also fired at an Army border patrol; there were no injuries in that incident either.
Seamus Costello was a former member of the OIRA and led a militant breakaway from them in 1973/4 and founded the IRSP and its political wing, the INLA. He was an intellectual and argued for a combination of socialist politics on economic issues in tandem with Republican terrorist activity. He had, allegedly, masterminded the OIRA attack on the Officers’ Mess of the Parachute Regiment in Aldershot on 22 February, 1972 [see The Bloodiest Year by the author]. On the 5th, having survived a previous attempt on his life and knowing that he was a marked man, he was shot dead in Dublin. In addition to his terrorist activities, he was also a self-employed electrician and had just driven up to a DIY shop in Northbrook Avenue in the North Strand area. An OIRA gunman – Jim Flynn – just happened to be in the area and without OIRA sanction, took it upon himself to kill Costello. He took a sawn-off shotgun from his car and then ran across to Costello and shot him twice, before reloading and shooting him twice more. He then ran off, leaving the INLA man mortally wounded and he died very shortly afterwards. The INLA finally caught up with Flynn and shot him dead on 4 June 1982, on North Strand Road, Dublin just a few yards from where he had killed Costello. The INLA leader’s funeral was attended by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, the then president of Sinn Féin, Michael O’Riordan of the Communist Party of Ireland, Bernadette McAliskey and local Wicklow MPs Liam Kavanagh (Labour), Ciarán Murphy (Fianna Fáil) and Godfrey Timmins (Fine Gael). At his funeral, Senator Nora Connolly O’Brien, daughter of the Easter Rising leader James Connolly, gave the oration.
The Nationalist Andersonstown area of Belfast. (Mark ‘C’)
On the 6th, there was an attempt by the IRA to free some of their prisoners from Portlaoise Jail in the Irish Republic. Gardaí and Irish soldiers were forced to open fire at masked intruders and there was no further action. The Provisionals were busy inside the North later when they held up electricity workers at Crossmaglen. The workers were laying cable when masked gunmen forced them to stop work on a cross-border link. Finally, in Belfast an armed gang, thought to be INLA, opened fire on an off-duty UDR soldier, outside an off-licence, but he returned fire and they ran off.
On the 8th, the Provisionals killed another PO, this time, the Chairman of NIPOA (Northern Ireland Prison Officers’ Association) in Belfast. Desmond Irvine (40) had just attended a conference in Wellington Park, close to Malone Road in South Belfast. Mr Irvine, who worked at HMP the Maze, had just driven off when masked gunmen who had been hidden opened fire on his car with automatic weapons. At least nine rounds struck his car and he was hit in the head, mortally wounded. He died en-route for hospital.
In South Armagh on the same day, PIRA gunmen fired over 60 shots at Forkhill RUC station. The shots were fired from Carrive Grove, over a mile away. There was much damage but no injuries to the police stationed there. In Belfast, a PIRA unit planted a 20lb device outside the RVH which damaged the newly-built security screen there. The screen had been erected in order to protect workers – who had already been threatened by the IRA – building a security wall at the Falls Road end of the hospital. Two women were slightly injured in the explosion and Army Engineers later repaired the screen.
That same evening, Margaret Hearst (24), a part-time female soldier in the UDR, was murdered by the Provisionals at her caravan home in Middletown, Co Armagh. She had been a Greenfinch for several years and was an unmarried mother of a three-year old little girl, who also worked as a civil servant. As she relaxed in the caravan, masked gunmen threw an empty milk churn through the window, shattering it and shouted: ‘Where’s the UDR girl?’ Miss Hearst, who had been sleeping at the time, sat up just as the gunmen burst into the caravan. They shot her ten times as she fell back, helpless on the bed, and a round went through the flimsy partition wall and just missed her sleeping toddler, hitting her Kermit the Frog toy as it lay on the pillow next to her head. Leaving the female soldier dead, the killers crossed the border into Co Monaghan in the Republic and went to a dance. The killings are known to have been carried out by the ‘Border Fox’ himself – Dessie O’Hare – as part of a three-man PIRA murder gang.
The Nationalist Andersonstown area of Belfast. (Mark ‘C’)
The killing caused a wave of revulsion throughout the world – except, no doubt in the Irish-American communities – and even the Catholic Primate of All Ireland was sickened by the murder. He said:
It is saddening and sickening that, in within a week of my ordination at Armagh, when representatives from all sections of the community were linked in brotherly affection around the altar, this harmony should be shattered by the brutal murder of this young woman. [John Potter’s A Testimony to Courage, Pen & Sword Books, 2001, pp.196-197].
Greenfinches did not carry weapons and it had always been an unwritten rule that they were protected by common decency. Perhaps the Provisional IRA was unaware of this rule [author’s own italics]. If the Irish-Americans could have seen the wrecked caravan, the shattered body of a brave young woman who was respected by all who knew her, if they could have seen her child’s distraught face, would they have so readily donated money to the terrorists? This author has been criticised for his anti-Irish-American stance, but cannot hide his contempt for those naïve people, 3,000 miles away, who fell for the Provisionals’ lies and financed their terror campaign.
On the 10th, having recently firebombed the ABC Cinema in Belfast, PIRA repeated the tactic, setting off incendiary devices at the Strand Cinema in Belfast and the Tudor in Comber, Co Down. They turned their attention to the Queens Cinema in Bangor and the Regal in Larne, Co Antrim; the former was slightly damaged, but the latter was badly damaged. A fifth device at the Regent in Newtownards left the cinema totally gutted. On the 12th, PIRA Int got their facts wrong as they set out to kill a part-time UDR soldier who worked in the daytime as a bus driver normally employed on the school run. However, on the day in question, he called in sick and an unemployed man – Frank Canavan (47), father of four – was given a day’s casual work and drove the school bus instead. He had just one passenger, a 15-year old girl and was driving towards a pick up point at a remote area at Timaskee, just a few miles from Ballygawley, Co Tyrone. Unknown to him, two PIRA gunmen were hiding at the bus stop and as he arrived and stopped the bus, they stepped out and opened fire. He was hit several times in the head and died shortly afterwards; the girl passenger also received a head wound but recovered after treatment. The dead man was a Catholic and had no connection with either the security services or any paramilitary organisation. He was a victim of a cowardly attack by the Provisionals, who no doubt considered his death as a mere stepping stone on the way to their dream of a united Ireland. The murderers hijacked another bus and then a car before escaping across the border. This author finds it sickening that the government of the Irish Republic not only allowed these thugs to cross the border into their country but allowed them safe haven and largely refused to extradite these criminals to the North. The East Tyrone IRA later issued a hollow, meaningless and insincere apology for the distress that their ‘error’ had caused.
On the 11th, Lenny Murphy was found guilty of possession of firearms and sentenced to 12 years in jail. His role as leader of the psychopathic gang, the Shankill Butchers, however, could not be proved and he was later released without ever being charged. Released on 17 July 1982 he ‘celebrated’ his freedom not in the normal manner in which most people would, a quiet or even a noisy drink, but by killing another human being. Norman Maxwell, a man suffering a mild form of mental illness, was set upon by Murphy and his thuggish cohorts who kicked Mr Maxwell to d
eath, later dumping his body in the Nationalist Ardoyne in order to shift the blame on Republicans. Murphy met his own death some four months later, on 16 November outside his girlfriend’s house at Forthriver Park on the Glencairn Estate. He had been for fish and chips and was unaware that he was being followed whilst driving his distinctive yellow Ford by a PIRA death squad. As Murphy stopped his car, the van which had been following him pulled up just in front, the rear doors flew open and two gunmen fired a total of 22 times at him. He was struck seven times in the head and died instantly. The leader of the Butchers was dead. A UDR contact told the author:
His very distinctive yellow Ford was brought into Hastings Street RUC station. The front seats were covered in Murphy’s blood and his half eaten fish supper was still there, also covered in his blood. UDR soldiers had to pass the car which was in a dimly lit garage to get to the sangar on Divis Street. Of course squaddies being squaddies they played many pranks on said soldiers; never seen so many roughy tuffy soldiers scream when one of their mates jumped out from behind Lenny’s car.
From the 14th to the 19th, PIRA initiated a number of both blast and incendiary bombs throughout Belfast and targeted businesses, shops and restaurants as they sought to destroy the commercial heart of the Province. A bomb in Portadown, thought to have been planted by Loyalists, destroyed a classroom and 300 pupils were given an unexpected day off.
During this blitz, they targeted and killed a former RUCR officer. Herbert Anderson (61) had left the RUC in 1975 and had started a taxi business. He had just reached Grivan’s bridge near Armagh, when he was ambushed by INLA gunmen who poured automatic fire into the vehicle. It overturned and crashed some 15 feet down an embankment and the ruthless killers then poured even more bullets into the helpless man’s body; he died at the scene. It is alleged that Dessie O’Hare – known as the ‘Border Fox’ – an INLA and former PIRA gunman was involved. As O’Hare is still alive, this author is not permitted for legal reasons to go beyond the use of ‘alleged.’
The Provisional IRA has long deprecated the use of sectarian murder and have condemned the overtly sectarian Loyalist paramilitary organisations for their use of such a tactic. There can, however, be no other explanation for their murder of George Wilson (64), a Protestant whom they shot dead the day after the INLA had killed Mr Anderson. He was tending his garden in Ainsworth Pass in the Loyalist Woodvale area when two masked gunmen fired eight rounds at him, hitting him in the head and chest, killing him instantly. He had no Loyalist connections and it would appear to be a random sectarian attack by the Provisionals. What adds credibility to this statement is that the van used by his killers was found abandoned in the Ballymurphy Estate and one of the guns used was found to have been used in other IRA attacks.
On the same day as this murder, PIRA again turned its attentions to POs and planted two bombs on window ledges outside officers’ homes. Both devices exploded without injuring anyone; the first at Lisburn Avenue, a row of neat terraced house in South Belfast and the second at Jellicoe Park, modern semis between Shore Road and the Antrim Road in North Belfast. Both properties and surrounding houses were badly damaged but there were no casualties.
On the 22nd, the Provisionals attempted to paralyse the Northern Ireland rail network, and planted a total of 15 bombs at stations and on trains at Lisburn and Portadown, and at York Road in Belfast. Incendiary and blast bombs exploded on carriages and on platforms and caused widespread disruption. Gunmen attempted to kill a policeman as he drove away from his home in Eglinton just outside Londonderry. Several of the rounds missed although one wounded him in the thigh. Two days later a mass riot broke out on the Ballymurphy Estate and mobs stoned and petrol-bombed a patrol from the Gordon Highlanders and two other units were called out to help deal with the unrest. Both the Light Infantry, who had already lost three men killed on this tour, and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, were called out to quell the trouble. On the same day, Forkhill RUC station in Co Down came under rifle fire from PIRA gunmen but there were no casualties.
On Tuesday 25th, several youths stormed on board a bus at the junction of Cliftonville Road and Oldpark Avenue in a Nationalist area of North Belfast. The passengers were forced off and the bus was set on fire. Troops arrived very quickly and called out a warning after a firearm was produced by the vandals. The warning was ignored and three shots were fired by the soldiers – Dennis Neill (16) was hit and mortally wounded. He slumped into a nearby gateway and died shortly afterwards. A weapon, which turned out to be an intimation gun, was recovered from the immediate vicinity of the bus, but the soldier who fired did not have the luxury of hindsight and under ROE and all natural laws of self-preservation, he had no choice. There was a protest from the boy’s family and Sinn Féin made massive political capital out of the tragedy. Lost Lives unsurprisingly refers to the death being under ‘disputed circumstances’.
On the next day, PIRA’s firebomb campaign continued, and a device completely destroyed the Greenan Lodge Hotel in Dunmurry, South Belfast; there were no injuries. Mark ‘C’, a former UDR soldier, told the author: ‘I went to school opposite this hotel and it was bombed many times previously.’ Twenty four hours later, a UDR officer was seriously injured in a PIRA UVBT explosion and his wife and two toddler children were literally seconds away from being caught in the blast also. Lieutenant Walter Kerr (34), who was a member of 5 UDR, worked as a full-time bank manager. He was about to embark on a school run outing from his home in Coolshinney Park, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry and had just got into the family car. His family were in the process of following him outside when the blast destroyed the car. He received dreadful leg injuries and part of a gable wall was completely demolished. He was rushed to hospital where it was found necessary to amputate the shattered limbs. Sadly his injuries were so severe that he died in hospital on 2 November.
The Provisionals continued their commercial campaign and more incendiaries were detonated in Belfast City Centre and blazes everywhere left firemen scratching their heads as to where the next fire would break out.
October had ended with just seven deaths. One uses the term ‘just’ advisedly because although it was unacceptably high, it was nonetheless a dramatic improvement on the bloodiest months of ’71-76 and was demonstrating an encouraging downward trend. One soldier was killed, as were four civilians; two Catholics and two Protestants. A prison officer was killed and an INLA member was shot dead in a feud. There was only one overtly sectarian murder. Republicans were responsible for six of the seven deaths in October.
35
November
Deaths continued in single figures for another month and seven, the same as the previous month, died in November. Five of the deaths were soldiers, including the sickening tactic of shooting an unarmed, off-duty soldier as he visited his sick mother. For an organisation such as the provisional IRA, there appeared to be no depths of depravity to which they wouldn’t stoop.
The month began with PIRA gunmen attempting to kill two RUC officers as their police vehicle exited the M1 motorway at the Kennedy Lane roundabout in Andersonstown. Several high velocity shots hit the car but the two men on board were uninjured; the gunmen fled in the direction of the Stockman Lane section of Andersonstown. Bombings continued in Belfast City Centre and a collection of both hoax and real devices left the emergency services with much to do to ensure the safety of both civilians and commercial property. On that day, Timothy Creasey, then a Lieutenant-General, took over from David House and the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the British Army in Northern Ireland.
On the 2nd, Lieutenant Walter Kerr (34), who was dreadfully injured in an IRA UVBT blast at his home in Magherafelt (see previous chapter), died of his injuries in the Mid-Ulster Hospital. He had lost both legs and was severely injured in the abdominal area. As surgeons fought to save the brave part-time soldier’s life, soldiers from the Royal Tank Regiment, stationed nearby, donated over 50 pints of blood to aid the fight.
On the same day, PIRA bombs in Nor
thern Ireland’s two major cities wrecked furniture stores. Homemaker Discount in Strand Road in Londonderry and a U Plan store in Lower Donegal Street, Belfast, were both gutted in attacks some 70 miles apart. Shortly afterwards a large furniture shop in the Duncairn area of Belfast was also badly damaged by an incendiary. In this later incident, armed men forced the management and staff out of the building before it was bombed. The following day in a similar attack on Dublin Road, Belfast, the IRA destroyed the Northern Furniture Store. One wonders which genius on the Provisionals’ Army Council ordered that furniture stores should be targeted in such a concerted fashion.
On Friday, the 4th, there was an escape for a policeman, so incredible that all manner of clichés can be applied; miraculous, incredible and God-sent are but three which are apt. Lucky might seem more appropriate as an officer drove from his home to Castlereagh RUC Centre, some 12 miles away with an IRA UVBT attached to his car. A gang had attached the device during the night and the officer had either not searched or not noticed it and drove off. It was only discovered when a routine search was made at the security gates at Castlereagh. The interrogation centre, Deputy Chief Constable’s office and the RUC driving school were all evacuated as the Army made the device safe. It had been wired to the car’s ignition switch and should have exploded the second that the officer started the engine.
There was, however no lucky escape for Guardsman Samuel Murphy (21) who was home on leave from England and visiting the staunchly Nationalist Andersonstown area. He was on his last day before returning and had called in to see his sick mother who lived in Bearnagh Drive. The house itself was only several hundred yards from where, three days previously, PIRA gunmen had opened fire on an RUC vehicle and was an extremely dangerous place for a British soldier to be. As he left the house, he was confronted by several armed men and as he turned to run, they shot him four times in the chest; he slumped to the ground, mortally wounded. He was rushed to hospital, but died ten days later on 14 November. Two men were later jailed for life for the cowardly, cold-blooded murder of the young Guardsman. The Judge told one of the terrorists:
