Regular sniper operations and attacks on security bases including at Crossmaglen also occurred by the 1990s. [77], By the second IRA ceasefire, another team was still operational, and two Barrett rifles remained unaccounted for. An RUC constable almost lost one of his legs in the last sniper attack during the Troubles. Thorneloe worked as an intelligence liaison officer between the 3rd Infantry Brigade and the RUC Special Branch. [34][35] In August 1992, one team mortally wounded a Light Infantry soldier. Find professional Ira South Armagh videos and stock footage available for license in film, television, advertising and corporate uses. But the IRA adapted across its various geographical units to ensure that the intelligence war did not reduce its campaign to a mere nuisance level. Once the ceasefire came, his criminality, his "homers" -raking off money for himself- drinking and womanising meant that he lost a lot of respect from people.' [24], Three of the security forces members killed in this campaign were instead the victims of 7.62×51mm rounds. "Some terrorists drifted away from the IRA while even the most experienced became rusty. The Sunday Independent yesterday reported that a British informant had been ‘outed’ in South Armagh. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that his name was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the Official IRA from the republican Ardoyne area in north Belfast. [35] The IRA Belfast Brigade claim that the latter incident actually involved two shooters, who fired 28 rounds from assault rifles on a British Army vehicle. The British sought an "acceptable level of violence", where the IRA would either give up or join a peace settlement over which they had little influence. He implicated more than twenty members of the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade in his evidence and was sentenced to a total of 490 years in 1999 for 34 separate offences, however, this was a smoke screen a she would be released under the terms of the 1998 GFA. Defending our culture our heritage and our British birthright. All you needed to do was shoot one every six months..." (Harnden 2000, p. 410, quoting a terrorist). [37] At least in one incident, after the killing of a soldier in Forkhill on 17 March 1993, the British Army fired back at the sniper's vehicle without effect. Instead of tackling the IRA infrastructure and larger units, the manpower and flight hours were used in an effort to track down the ambush menace behind the telescopic sights" (Stubblefield 1994, p. 232). [6] The majority of soldiers shot dead in 1972 (the bloodiest year of the conflict in Northern Ireland) fell victim to IRA snipers. Regarded as very active in the past. South Armagh/North Louth Two large ASUs, with up to 20 members. IRA bombings targeted Belfast city centre once again between 1991 to 1993, with attacks damaging the Europa Hotel, Crown Bar and Grand Opera House. The IRA ceasefire between 1994 and 1996 made surveillance easier for the RUC and the British Army,[75] leading to the success against the Caraher team. For various reasons, including some difficulties with infiltration in Belfast, the IRA altered its units in Belfast and Derry city into smaller cells by the mid-1970s. In May 1987, for instance, the SAS shot eight East Tyrone IRA volunteers whilst they attacked Loughgall police barracks. He was defended by solicitor Rosemary Nelson, later killed by the loyalist organisation Red Hand Defenders. Military officials claim that the Dromintee-based squad deployed up to 20 volunteers in some of the sniping missions. [73] A British major said that: That meant that to some extent the IRA had succeeded in forcing troops off the ground and it made helicopters more vulnerable so we had to guard against using them too much. [45] On 30 December 1993 Guardsman Daniel Blinco became the last soldier killed by snipers in South Armagh before the first IRA ceasefire in 1994. In Derry city, self-confessed agent Raymond Gilmour set up weapons seizures and failed operations. [6], The IRA strategy also diverted a large amount of British security resources from routine operations to tackle the threat. "During the previous 21 months (before June 1996), there had been seven Post Office robberies in South Armagh and the security forces believed they had identified the IRA team responsible" (Harnden 2000, p. 412). He was last soldier to be killed in the Troubles. See more » Peter Cleary. The focus on South Armagh is key, as Harnden emphasizes the region's rebellious history, splintered ideology and recalcitrant personalities that helped escalate the violence, shift IRA attacks to the British homeland and threaten lasting peace -- in spite of overarching British/Sinn Fein political agreements. [11], During the 1980s, the IRA relied mostly on weaponry smuggled from Libya. "In 1971, the Provisional IRA shot dead forty-two British soldiers. He also gave evidence against over 30 people arrested by the mid-1980s during a supergrass trial, evidence which was later found by the judge to be unreliable. The South Armagh IRA Sniper Team. In August 1986, another M82 had been sent in pieces from Chicago to Dublin, where the rifle was re-assembled. The loyal people of ulster will maintain the union at any cost [8] The AR-18 Armalite rifle became the weapon of choice for IRA members at this time. There are three main reasons. [22] It was part of a batch of two sold to Michael Suárez, a Cuban resident of Cleveland, on 27 January 1995 by a firearms dealer; Suárez later passed the weapons to an Irishman, who finally shipped the rifles, their ammunition and two telescopic sights to the Republic of Ireland. The IRA sniping activities further restricted the freedom of movement of the British Army in South Armagh by hindering their patrols. Restorick's killing resulted in a public outcry; Gerry Adams called his death "tragic" and wrote a letter of condolence to his mother. Some rural IRA units suffered intelligence setbacks. Political factors best explain why Irish republicans opted for peace. Persistent high-profile IRA operations in England by the 1990s, alongside the landing of most Libyan weapons shipments in the late 1980s, suggests the IRA leadership was not infiltrated to any significant extent. [22] A Barrett M90 rifle was seized,[58] which forensic and intelligence reports linked only to the 1997 shootings. The South … A former SAS. The other shipments provided the IRA with the equipment needed to keep its low-level campaign going indefinitely by the 1990s. "Another Light Fifty had been pieced together in Dublin's Central Sorting Office in August 1986 after its component parts had been sent in parcels from Chicago to addresses in the Irish capital" (Harnden 2000, p. 372). This report in the Sunday Independent appears to jigsaw identify Sean ‘The Surgeon’ Hughes as the alleged informer. While the final Libyan weapons shipment was stopped in 1987 for reasons that remain disputed, other weapon shipments were not. IRA Checkpoint Belfast 1970s. The British troops were under strict orders to avoid IRA casualties. [64] The Dromintee sniper party was never apprehended. On 16 March 1990, the Barrett M82 was used for the first time by the IRA. Danny Morrison, former Sinn Féin Director of Publicity and republican prisoner, explained one advantage of the cell-structure: "the more information the informer gave, it became easier for the IRA to work out who was the common denominator". [63] Despite the sense of relief among British forces after the arrests,[64] there was concern over the other two Barrett rifles still in possession of the South Armagh Brigade. Another six rounds achieved nothing, albeit two of them near-missed the patrol boat HMS Cygnet, in Carlingford Lough[26] and another holed Borucki sangar, a British Army outpost in Crossmaglen square. While the accused rejected the allegations, various republicans and British security sources say the accusations are true. [69] The other three men of the sniper team were convicted in 1999 for six killings, two of them unrelated to the sniping operations (the deaths of two men when one of the team's members, James McArdle, planted the bomb at Canary Wharf in 1996).[64]. Collins had at one time been the chief Provisional IRA 'intelligence officer' in the nearby city of Newry, but had agreed to turn Queen's Evidence, aka Supergrass, against his former comrades. Stakeknife and other intelligence sources did not have unlimited access to all Belfast IRA plans. "After the Docklands bomb brought the ceasefire to an end, there were remarkably few IRA attacks in South Armagh" (Harnden 2000, p. 411). The campaign is notable for the snipers' use of .50 BMG calibre Barrett M82 and M90 long-range rifles in some of the shootings. [21] Getty Images offers exclusive rights-ready and premium royalty-free analog, HD, and 4K video of the highest quality. A former Provisional IRA member from Drumintee, south Armagh, a man in his late 30s with a suspected long history of bomb-making and attacks on … [36] The marksman usually fired from a distance of less than 300 metres, despite the 1 km effective range of the rifles. Finally, the IRA leadership remained isolated from the rest of the movement, limiting infiltration opportunities. Johann Ova. Nevertheless, the Belfast IRA persisted with its armed campaign into the 1990s, disrupting normal socio-economic and political life. [46] His killing, along with the reaction of the MP of his constituency, was covered by the BBC´s Inside Ulster,[47] which also showed Blinco's abandoned helmet and the hole made by the sniper's bullet on the wall of a pub. South Armagh Golf 20 Tower Removal. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences, From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, RTÉ Northern Editor Tommie Gorman on the 2018 arrest of Freddie Scappaticci and the ongoing police investigation into Stakeknife. CROSSMAGLEN, Northern Ireland--Welcome to South Armagh, front line of the Troubles and the Provisional IRA’s home field. [66] The Marines involved were acquitted by Lord Chief Justice Hutton. RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Media. Attacks included the Brighton bombing of the Conservative Party conference in 1984, the mortar attack on Downing Street in 1991 and the Docklands bomb in 1996. Security forces were helicoptered in and out of bases there following IRA landmine attacks in the 1970s. Between 1990 and 1997, 24 shots were fired at British forces. [26] Security source suspected a Heckler & Koch PSG1 sniper rifle might have been used in some attacks. He is an absolute rascal who has been stealing and smoking cigarettes since he was eight years old. Rural units were semi-autonomous and somewhat immune from outside interference. The IRA leadership helped select volunteers for English operations and weapons shipments, though some informers did slip through the process. [53][54] When the IRA ended the ceasefire with the bombing of the London Docklands in February 1996, some republicans had already abandoned the organisation, while others had turned to criminal activities. [27], Contrary to the first British Army assessment and the speculation of the press,[29] there was not just a single sniper involved. The … The South Armagh Sniper is the generic name given to the members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) South Armagh Brigade who conducted a sniping campaign against British security forces from 1990 to 1997. [60], McGinn provided the RUC with a lot of information about IRA activities, and even betrayed Frank McCabe, the IRA commander behind the sniper campaign,[2][61] but he eventually withdrew his statement. To judge whether the IRA lost the intelligence conflict, it is important to be clear on what the British government and IRA were trying to achieve by the 1990s. For seven years between 1990-97, the brigade carried out a sniper campaign against British security forces often using a.50 BMG Barrett M-82 rifle. [70][71] The men were set free 18 months later under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. As argued by Niall Ó Dochartaigh, the persistence of the IRA’s campaign alongside Sinn Féin’s sizeable minority of the Northern nationalist electoral mandate meant that the British and Irish governments, unionists and the SDLP had to involve republicans in the peace process if they wanted political stability. [55][56] The period after the ceasefire saw little IRA activity in South Armagh. An informer within IRA ranks has come forward with crucial new information about the murder of South Armagh man, Paul Quinn. [9], The British Army assessment of the conflict asserted that the IRA sniping skills often did not match those expected from a well-trained sniper. The British army has … The capture of the sniper unit was the greatest success for the security forces in South Armagh in more than a decade. The target was a checkpoint manned by soldiers of the Light Infantry regiment on Castleblaney Road. [62] One of the key players in the British campaign against the South Armagh sniper was Welsh Guards' Captain Rupert Thorneloe, according to journalist Toby Harnden. This page has been created by Independent Irish Republicans . This account of the IRA activities in South Armagh in Northern Ireland was recommended to me by a former colleague and dear friend. [32] The teams made good use of dead ground to conceal themselves from British observation posts.[33]. The tabloid press of that time started calling the sniper 'Goldfinger' or 'Terminator', the nicknames current in Crossmaglen's bars. From the mid-1970s, the British state wanted to contain IRA activity and Sinn Féin support to such an extent that republicans would be unable to significantly impact normal political and socio-economic life. They also mixed IRA personnel from different parts of their respective cities to improve security. Nonetheless, lessons were learnt following failed operations, including by rotating volunteers. "Over the 15-month period from August 1992 to December 1993, six soldiers and three RUC constables were killed by single shot attacks in South Armagh (often described by the media as 'Bandit Country') and Fermanagh" (. The IRA’s fuel business turned south Armagh into a petrochemical complex, with dozens of small farms transformed into so-called diesel washing plants. Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh [Download] Online. Agents and informers such as Stakeknife did disrupt day-to-day IRA operations in certain areas at certain times. In the 1970's when the IRA was so heavily infiltrated that the Adams leadership re-organised it into cells and scrapped the neighbourhood-based company structure, the IRA in South Armagh refused to change, regarding the implication that they should also re-organise as an insult. The evidence suggests political factors played a greater role in producing peace than the intelligence conflict. "The ceasefires have been humiliating (...) Here in Crossmaglen we had the Army and the police on the run. Sixteen operations were carried out from the rear of a vehicle, with the sniper protected by an armour plate in case the patrols returned fire. Various factors made many rural IRA units difficult to infiltrate. [35] On 31 July 1993 at 10:00 pm a British Army patrol which had set up a mobile checkpoint on Newry Road, near Newtownhamilton, was fired at by an IRA sniper team. © RTÉ 2021. There were some British intelligence successes against the Belfast and Derry IRA. 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