182-400: [REDACTED] Provisional IRA [REDACTED] United Kingdom 1980s 1990s The Loughgall ambush took place on 8 May 1987 in the village of Loughgall , County Armagh , Northern Ireland . An eight-man unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in the village. An IRA member drove a digger with
364-691: A Diplock court consisting of a single judge and no jury. The IRA rejected the authority of the courts in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and its standing orders did not allow volunteers on trial in a criminal court to enter a plea or recognise the authority of the court, doing so could lead to expulsion from the IRA. These orders were relaxed in 1976 due to sentences in the Republic of Ireland for IRA membership being increased from two years to seven years imprisonment. IRA prisoners in
546-533: A bomb in its bucket through the perimeter fence, while the rest of the unit arrived in a van and fired on the building. The bomb exploded and destroyed almost half of the base. Soldiers from the British Army 's Special Air Service (SAS) then returned fire both from within the base and from hidden positions around it in a pre-planned ambush , killing all of the attackers. Two of them were subsequently found to have been unarmed when they were killed. A civilian
728-512: A campaign in Northern Ireland in the 1940s , and the Border campaign of 1956–1962 . Following the failure of the Border campaign, internal debate took place regarding the future of the IRA. Chief-of-staff Cathal Goulding wanted the IRA to adopt a socialist agenda and become involved in politics, while traditional republicans such as Seán Mac Stíofáin wanted to increase recruitment and rebuild
910-528: A company as part of a battalion , which could be part of a brigade , such as the Belfast Brigade , Derry Brigade , South Armagh Brigade , and East Tyrone Brigade . In late 1973 the Belfast Brigade restructured, introducing clandestine cells named active service units , consisting of between four and ten members. Similar changes were made elsewhere in the IRA by 1977, moving away from
1092-520: A front for the IRA and being involved in IRA gunrunning. The key IRA transatlantic gunrunning network was run by Irish immigrant and IRA veteran George Harrison , who estimated to have smuggled 2,000–2,500 weapons and approximately 1 million rounds of ammunition to Ireland. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Harrison for IRA arms smuggling in June 1981, thereby blocking
1274-593: A " private army ". The IRA saw the Irish War of Independence as a guerrilla war which accomplished some of its aims, with some remaining "unfinished business". An internal British Army document written by General Sir Mike Jackson and two other senior officers was released in 2007 under the Freedom of Information Act . It examined the British Army's 37 years of deployment in Northern Ireland, and described
1456-643: A " stalling tactic " by the British government. On 9 February 1996 a statement from the Army Council was delivered to the Irish national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann announcing the end of the ceasefire, and just over 90 minutes later the Docklands bombing killed two people and caused an estimated £100–150 million damage to some of London's more expensive commercial property . Three weeks later
1638-586: A 12-member Executive, which selected seven members, usually from within the Executive, to form the Army Council. Any vacancies on the Executive would then be filled by substitutes previously elected by the convention. For day-to-day purposes, authority was vested in the Army Council which, as well as directing policy and taking major tactical decisions, appointed a chief-of-staff from one of its number or, less often, from outside its ranks. The chief-of-staff would be assisted by an adjutant general as well as
1820-593: A British Army base in Germany. The IRA's first attack in Northern Ireland since the end of the ceasefire was not until October 1996, when the Thiepval barracks bombing killed a British soldier. In February 1997 an IRA sniper team killed Lance Bombadier Stephen Restorick, the last British soldier to be killed by the IRA. Following the May 1997 UK general election Major was replaced as prime minister by Tony Blair of
2002-405: A British delegation led by William Whitelaw . Mac Stíofáin made demands including British withdrawal, removal of the British Army from sensitive areas, and a release of republican prisoners and an amnesty for fugitives. The British refused and the talks broke up, and the IRA's ceasefire ended on 9 July. In late 1972 and early 1973 the IRA's leadership was being depleted by arrests on both sides of
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#17327879814282184-489: A General Headquarters (GHQ) staff, which consisted of a quartermaster general , and directors of finance, engineering, training, intelligence, publicity, operations, and security. GHQ's largest department, the quartermaster general's, accounted for approximately 20% of the IRA's personnel, and was responsible for acquiring weapons and smuggling them to Ireland where they would be hidden in arms dumps, and distributed them to IRA units as needed. The next most important department
2366-471: A bomb in its bucket; it was planned to use the same tactic in an attack on the lightly manned Loughgall base. The British security forces however had received intelligence weeks prior to the attack of the IRA's plan and at least 10 days before of the target. It has been alleged that the security forces had a double agent inside the IRA unit, and that he was killed by the SAS in the ambush. Other sources claim that
2548-516: A bombing campaign in Northern Ireland and England against military, political and economic targets, and British military targets in mainland Europe. They also targeted civilian contractors to the British security forces. The IRA's armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, killed over 1,700 people, including roughly 1,000 members of the British security forces and 500–644 civilians. The Provisional IRA declared
2730-619: A change to the IRA's constitution in 1986. Before 1969 conventions met regularly, but owing to the difficulty in organising such a large gathering of an illegal organisation in secret, while the IRA's armed campaign was ongoing they were only held in September 1970, October 1986, and October or November 1996. After the 1997 ceasefire they were held more frequently, and are known to have been held in October 1997, May 1998, December 1998 or early 1999, and June 2002. The convention elected
2912-556: A chunk of earth and tossed it at a Scottish rival. It fell into the Irish Sea , forming the Isle of Man , while the crater left behind filled with water to form Lough Neagh. In 839, a group of Vikings based a fleet on Lough Neagh, where they wintered during the winter of 840. Prior to the Tudor conquest of Ireland , the lough had been largely unclaimed by local Gaelic nobles , such as
3094-567: A final ceasefire in July 1997, after which its political wing Sinn Féin was admitted into multi-party peace talks on the future of Northern Ireland. These resulted in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement , and in 2005 the IRA formally ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons under the supervision of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning . Several splinter groups have been formed as
3276-404: A lasting peace without a public declaration by the British government of their intent to withdraw from Ireland. In August there was a gradual return to the armed campaign, and the truce effectively ended on 22 September when the IRA set off 22 bombs across Northern Ireland. The old guard leadership of Ó Brádaigh, Ó Conaill, and McKee were criticised by a younger generation of activists following
3458-704: A link from the city of Belfast , the Newry Canal linked to the port of Newry , and the Ulster Canal led to the Lough Erne navigations, providing a navigable inland route via the River Shannon to Limerick , Dublin and Waterford . The Lower Bann was also navigable to Coleraine and the Antrim coast, and the short Coalisland Canal provided a route for coal transportation. Of these waterways, only
3640-610: A lorry when they, driving behind the van, unwittingly drove into the ambush. Anthony was driving and Oliver, who was wearing blue coveralls similar to those worn by the IRA members, was sitting in the front passenger seat. Roughly 130 yards (120 m) from the police station, soldiers opened fire on their car from behind, killing Anthony and badly wounding Oliver. According to the soldiers, the Citroën reversed away slowly then zigzagged at high speed before stopping. Oliver denies that it reversed away at high speed. Oliver managed to get out of
3822-575: A major escalation of the campaign in the late 1980s were cancelled after a ship carrying 150 tonnes of weapons donated by Libya was seized off the coast of France. The plans, modelled on the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War , relied on the element of surprise which was lost when the ship's captain informed French authorities of four earlier shipments of weapons, which allowed the British Army to deploy appropriate countermeasures . In 1987
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#17327879814284004-788: A major industry in Lough Neagh for centuries. These European eels make their way from the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, some 4,000 miles (6,000 km) along the Gulf Stream to the mouth of the River Bann , and then make their way into the lough. They remain there for some 10 to 15 years, maturing, before returning to the Sargasso to spawn. Today Lough Neagh eel fisheries export their eels to restaurants all over
4186-497: A media briefing on the day of the Loughgall ambush at the scene and the following morning displayed the recovered IRA firearms to the media appearing on television and in newspapers. An Irish Tribunal of Inquiry by Judge Peter Smithwick into the deaths of the two senior RUC officers investigating Garda Síochána collusion with the IRA, concluded in 2013 that Breen was the target of the ambush to abduct and interrogate him on how
4368-587: A one-mile radius of Belfast city centre. Premature explosions were another cause of civilian deaths, such as the Remembrance Day bombing which killed eleven people including ten civilians, and the Shankill Road bombing which killed ten people including eight civilians. The IRA was responsible for more deaths than any other organisation during the Troubles. Two detailed studies of deaths in
4550-438: A part-time element of the British Army, in order to try to contain the conflict inside Northern Ireland and reduce the number of British soldiers recruited from outside of Northern Ireland being killed. Normalisation involved the ending of internment without trial and Special Category Status , the latter had been introduced in 1972 following a hunger strike led by McKee. Criminalisation was designed to alter public perception of
4732-494: A peaceful political path and is not engaged in criminal activity nor directing violence. He pointed out, however, that some of its members have engaged in criminal activity or violence for their own, individual ends. The statement was made in response to the killings of former Belfast IRA commanders Kevin McGuigan and Gerard Davison . McGuigan was shot dead in what was believed to be a revenge killing by former IRA members over
4914-587: A press conference was held at London's Downing Street by British prime minister John Major and the Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds . They delivered the Downing Street Declaration which conceded the right of Irish people to self-determination , but with separate referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In January 1994 The Army Council voted to reject the declaration, while Sinn Féin asked
5096-410: A professor at Queen's University Belfast , writes that while the IRA's adherence to socialist goals has varied according to time and place, radical ideas, specifically socialist ones, were a key part of IRA thinking. Former IRA volunteer Tommy McKearney states that while the IRA's goal was a socialist republic, there was no coherent analysis or understanding of socialism itself, other than an idea that
5278-767: A result of splits within the IRA, including the Continuity IRA , which is still active in the dissident Irish republican campaign , and the Real IRA . The original IRA was formed in 1913 as the Irish Volunteers , at a time when all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom . The Volunteers took part in the Easter Rising against British rule in 1916, and the War of Independence that followed
5460-567: A split within the previous incarnation of the IRA and the broader Irish republican movement . It was initially the minority faction in the split compared to the Official IRA but became the dominant faction by 1972. The Troubles had begun shortly before when a largely Catholic, nonviolent civil rights campaign was met with violence from both Ulster loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), culminating in
5642-524: A two-thirds majority vote of delegates required to change the policy. The delegates that walked out reconvened at another venue where Mac Stíofáin, Ó Brádaigh and Mulcahy from the "Provisional" Army Council were elected to the Caretaker Executive of "Provisional" Sinn Féin. Despite the declared support of that faction of Sinn Féin, the early Provisional IRA avoided political activity, instead relying on physical force republicanism . £100,000
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5824-541: A variety of handguns . As a result of black market arms deals and donations from sympathisers, the IRA obtained a large array of weapons such as surface-to-air missiles ; M60 machine guns ; ArmaLite AR-18 , FN FAL , AKM and M16 rifles ; DShK heavy machine guns; LPO-50 flamethrowers; and Barrett M90 sniper rifles. The IRA also used a variety of bombs during its armed campaign, such as car and truck bombs , time bombs , and booby traps , using explosives including ANFO and gelignite donated by IRA supporters in
6006-426: A variety of different firing mechanisms including delay timers, this combined with the disposable nature of the weapons allowed IRA volunteers to reduce the risk of being arrested at the scene. The IRA was mainly active in Northern Ireland, although it also attacked targets in England and mainland Europe, and limited activity also took place in the Republic of Ireland. The IRA's offensive campaign mainly targeted
6188-754: A week later the IRA struck again in London with an assassination attempt on Lieutenant General Steuart Pringle , the Commandant General Royal Marines . Attacks on military targets in England continued with the Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings in July 1982, which killed eleven soldiers and injured over fifty people including civilians. In October 1984 they carried out the Brighton hotel bombing , an assassination attempt on British prime minister Margaret Thatcher , whom they blamed for
6370-633: Is a freshwater lake in Northern Ireland and is the largest lake on the island of Ireland and in the British Isles . It has a surface area of 151 square miles (392 square kilometres) and is about 19 miles (31 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide. According to Northern Ireland Water , it supplies 40.7% of Northern Ireland's drinking water. Its main inflows are the Upper River Bann and Blackwater , and its main outflow
6552-616: Is a depression, built from many tectonic events dating back as far as 400 million years ago. These tectonic events are responsible for a NE-SW bedrock structure which has controlled many subsequent events. During the Paleozoic era, the Lough Neagh Basin was a depositional graben . Of the 1,760-square-mile (4,550 km ) catchment area, around 9% lies in the Republic of Ireland and 91% in Northern Ireland; altogether 43% of
6734-400: Is ranked 33rd in the list of largest lakes of Europe . Located 20 miles (32 km) west of Belfast , it is about 20 miles (32 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide. It is very shallow around the margins and the average depth in the main body of the lake is about 30 feet (9 m), although at its deepest the lough is about 80 feet (24 m) deep. Geologically the Lough Neagh Basin
6916-560: Is the Lower Bann. There are several small islands, including Ram's Island , Coney Island and Derrywarragh Island . The lake bed is owned by the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury and the lake is managed by Lough Neagh Partnership. Its name comes from Irish Loch nEachach [ˌl̪ˠɔx ˈn̠ʲahəx] , meaning " Eachaidh 's lake". With an area of 151 square miles (392 km ), it is the British Isles' largest lake by area and
7098-582: Is to help, enable and encourage ... Partition is an acknowledgement of reality, not an assertion of national self-interest. The IRA responded to Brooke's speech by declaring a three-day ceasefire over Christmas, the first in fifteen years. Afterwards the IRA intensified the bombing campaign in England, planting 36 bombs in 1991 and 57 in 1992, up from 15 in 1990. The Baltic Exchange bombing in April 1992 killed three people and caused an estimated £800 million worth of damage, £200 million more than
7280-629: The Advocate General for Northern Ireland announced that a new inquest would be held. In September 2019, at a preliminary hearing the presiding coroner was told that the inquest may run for three to six months. In April 2020, lawyers acting on behalf of the families lodged a submission with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe requesting an infringement proceeding in the ECHR for
7462-653: The August 1969 riots and deployment of British soldiers . The IRA initially focused on defence of Catholic areas, but it began an offensive campaign in 1970 that was aided by external sources, including Irish diaspora communities within the Anglosphere , and the Palestine Liberation Organization and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi . It used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas, and carried out
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7644-578: The Birmingham pub bombings . Following an IRA ceasefire over the Christmas period in 1974 and a further one in January 1975, on 8 February the IRA issued a statement suspending "offensive military action" from six o'clock the following day. A series of meetings took place between the IRA's leadership and British government representatives throughout the year, with the IRA being led to believe this
7826-724: The Declaration of Independence by the revolutionary parliament Dáil Éireann in 1919, during which they came to be known as the IRA. Ireland was partitioned into Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 , and following the implementation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922 Southern Ireland, renamed the Irish Free State , became a self-governing dominion while Northern Ireland chose to remain under home rule as part of
8008-596: The Flight of the Earls . He first laid claim to the lough's infrastructure, then to its boats, then the shores and finally the lough in its entirety, including all relevant fishing rights. It is possible he did this without approval from James VI and I . The lough was later inherited by Edward, 1st Viscount Chichester , Sir Arthur's younger brother; Edward's descendants later married into the Shaftesbury family. In 2012, it
8190-530: The Irish Republican Army ( IRA ; Irish : Óglaigh na hÉireann ) and informally known as the Provos , was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland , facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland . It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles . It argued that
8372-565: The Labour Party . The new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam , had announced prior to the election she would be willing to include Sinn Féin in multi-party talks without prior decommissioning of weapons within two months of an IRA ceasefire. After the IRA declared a new ceasefire in July 1997, Sinn Féin was admitted into multi-party talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. One aim of
8554-617: The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed by a diverse group of people, including IRA members and liberal unionists . Civil rights marches by NICRA and a similar organisation, People's Democracy , protesting against discrimination were met by counter-protests and violent clashes with loyalists , including the Ulster Protestant Volunteers , a paramilitary group led by Ian Paisley . Marches marking
8736-437: The Northern Ireland riots of August 1969 The riots resulted in 275 buildings being destroyed or requiring major repairs, 83.5% of them occupied by Catholics. A number of people were killed on both sides, some by the police, and the British Army were deployed to Northern Ireland . The IRA had been poorly armed and failed to properly defend Catholic areas from Protestant attacks, which had been considered one of its roles since
8918-571: The O'Neill and O'Donnell dynasties . During the reign of Elizabeth I , an Englishman, Sir Hugh Clotworthy , settled near Antrim as part of the Plantation of Ulster and was granted the office of "Captain of Lough Neagh" by the Dublin Castle administration , being paid a stipend in return for maintaining boats on the lough to enforce the Crown 's authority. Clotworthy was succeeded in
9100-576: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for smuggling weapons to the IRA after "raids in St. Catharines , Tavistock and Toronto and at the U.S. border at Windsor ". Philip Kent, one of those arrested, was discovered in his car for having "fifteen FN rifles and a .50 calibre machine gun ". Lough Neagh Lough Neagh ( / l ɒ x ˈ n eɪ / lokh NAY ; Irish : Loch nEathach [l̪ˠɔx ˈn̠ʲaha(x)] )
9282-514: The Ulster Volunteer Force , the Red Hand Commando , the Ulster Defence Association , the Provisional IRA, and Irish National Liberation Army ." But, it added, "the leaderships of the main paramilitary groups [including the IRA's] are committed to peaceful means to achieve their political objectives." In the early days of the Troubles the IRA was poorly armed: in Derry in early 1972 the IRA's weaponry consisted of six M1 carbines , two Thompson submachine guns , one or two M1 Garand rifles, and
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#17327879814289464-481: The 12th Earl of Shaftesbury has implications for planned changes to state-run domestic water services in Northern Ireland, as the lough is also used as a sewage outfall, and this arrangement is only permissible through Crown immunity . Traditional working boats on Lough Neagh include wide-beamed 4.9-to-6.4-metre (16 to 21 ft) clinker-built , sprit-rigged working boats and smaller flat-bottomed "cots" and "flats". Barges, here called "lighters", were used until
9646-573: The 1920s. Veteran republicans were critical of Goulding and the IRA's Dublin leadership which, for political reasons, had refused to prepare for aggressive action in advance of the violence. On 24 August a group including Joe Cahill , Seamus Twomey , Dáithí Ó Conaill , Billy McKee , and Jimmy Steele came together in Belfast and decided to remove the pro-Goulding Belfast leadership of Billy McMillen and Jim Sullivan and return to traditional militant republicanism. On 22 September Twomey, McKee, and Steele were among sixteen armed IRA men who confronted
9828-420: The 1940s to transport coal over the lough and adjacent canals. Until the 17th century, log boats ( coití ) were the main means of transport. Few traditional boats are left now, but a community-based group on the southern shore of the lough is rebuilding a series of working boats. In the 19th century, three canals were constructed, using the lough to link various ports and cities: the Lagan Navigation provided
10010-514: The 1981 Irish hunger strike, when seven IRA and three Irish National Liberation Army members starved themselves to death in pursuit of political status. The hunger strike leader Bobby Sands and Anti H-Block activist Owen Carron were successively elected to the British House of Commons , and two other protesting prisoners were elected to Dáil Éireann. The electoral successes led to the IRA's armed campaign being pursued in parallel with increased electoral participation by Sinn Féin. This strategy
10192-493: The 2001 judgement as the coroner had not fixed a hearing date for the inquest. "Loughgall Ambush" is the name of a republican ballad about the attack, recorded by Charlie and the Bhoys amongst others. The event was also mentioned in the song " Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six " by London Irish band The Pogues . [REDACTED] Category Provisional IRA Ulster loyalist paramilitaries The Provisional Irish Republican Army ( Provisional IRA ), officially known as
10374-404: The 32 county Irish republic, proclaimed at Easter 1916, established by the first Dáil Éireann in 1919, overthrown by force of arms in 1922 and suppressed to this day by the existing British-imposed six-county and twenty-six-county partition states ... We call on the Irish people at home and in exile for increased support towards defending our people in the North and the eventual achievement of
10556-444: The Army Council decided to adopt a three-stage strategy; defence of nationalist areas, followed by a combination of defence and retaliation, and finally launching a guerrilla campaign against the British Army. The Official IRA was opposed to such a campaign because they felt it would lead to sectarian conflict, which would defeat their strategy of uniting the workers from both sides of the sectarian divide. The Provisional IRA's strategy
10738-406: The Belfast leadership over the failure to adequately defend Catholic areas. A compromise was agreed where McMillen stayed in command, but he was not to have any communication with the IRA's Dublin based leadership. The IRA split into "Provisional" and "Official" factions in December 1969, after an IRA convention was held in Boyle, County Roscommon , Republic of Ireland. The two main issues at
10920-574: The British Army (including the UDR) and the RUC, with British soldiers being the IRA's preferred target. Other targets included British government officials, politicians, establishment and judicial figures, and senior British Army and police officers. The bombing campaign principally targeted political, economic and military targets, and was described by counter-terrorism expert Andy Oppenheimer as "the biggest terrorist bombing campaign in history". Economic targets included shops, restaurants, hotels, railway stations and other public buildings. The IRA
11102-413: The British Army killed fourteen unarmed civilians during an anti-internment march. Due to the deteriorating security situation in Northern Ireland the British government suspended the Northern Ireland parliament and imposed direct rule in March 1972. The suspension of the Northern Ireland parliament was a key objective of the IRA, in order to directly involve the British government in Northern Ireland, as
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#173278798142811284-424: The British and Irish governments issued a joint statement announcing multi-party talks would begin on 10 June, with Sinn Féin excluded unless the IRA called a new ceasefire. The IRA's campaign continued with the Manchester bombing on 15 June, which injured over 200 people and caused an estimated £400 million of damage to the city centre. Attacks were mostly in England apart from the Osnabrück mortar attack on
11466-416: The British government had ballistic tests which showed that the weapons recovered from the deceased IRA members had actually been used in as many as forty to fifty killings in total, including every fatality in IRA attacks in the counties Fermanagh and Tyrone in 1987 before the ambush at Loughgall. Shortly after the ambush the Provisional IRA released a statement saying: " volunteers who shot their way out of
11648-421: The British government to clarify certain aspects of the declaration. The British government replied saying the declaration spoke for itself, and refused to meet with Sinn Féin unless the IRA called a ceasefire. On 31 August 1994 the IRA announced a "complete cessation of military operations" on the understanding that Sinn Féin would be included in political talks for a settlement. A new strategy known as "TUAS"
11830-436: The British security services had advance warning of the Loughgall ambush. The IRA East Tyrone Brigade attacked the Loughgall RUC station again around 01:00 on 5 September 1990 with a 1000 lb van bomb outside the station. The unmanned station suffered extensive damage with no one injured as a warning was given. Earlier in the week, the date the Loughgall ambush inquest was to start, 24 September, had been announced. In April 1996,
12012-455: The IRA and British government began in October 1990, with Sinn Féin being given an advance copy of a planned speech by Brooke. The speech was given in London the following month, with Brooke stating that the British government would not give in to violence but offering significant political change if violence stopped, ending his statement by saying: The British government has no selfish, strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland: Our role
12194-404: The IRA as "a professional, dedicated, highly skilled and resilient force", while loyalist paramilitaries and other republican groups were described as "little more than a collection of gangsters". It is unclear how many people joined the IRA during the Troubles, as it did not keep detailed records of personnel. Journalists Eamonn Mallie and Patrick Bishop state roughly 8,000 people passed through
12376-417: The IRA before, but had been radicalised by the violence that broke out in 1969. These people became known as "sixty niners", having joined after 1969. The IRA adopted the phoenix as the symbol of the Irish republican rebirth in 1969, one of its slogans was "out of the ashes rose the Provisionals", representing the IRA's resurrection from the ashes of burnt-out Catholic areas of Belfast. In January 1970,
12558-495: The IRA began attacking British military targets in mainland Europe, beginning with the Rheindahlen bombing , which was followed by approximately twenty other gun and bomb attacks aimed at British Armed Forces personnel and bases between 1988 and 1990. By the late 1980s the Troubles were at a military and political stalemate, with the IRA able to prevent the British government imposing a settlement but unable to force their objective of Irish reunification. Sinn Féin president Adams
12740-465: The IRA hunger strikers of 1981. Gerry Adams , in his graveside oration, gave a speech stating the British Government understood that it could buy off the government of the Republic of Ireland , which he described as the " shoneen clan" (that is, Anglophile), but added "it does not understand the Jim Lynaghs, the Pádraig McKearneys or the Séamus McElwaines . It thinks it can defeat them. It never will." The East Tyrone Brigade continued to be active until
12922-410: The IRA members and the family of Anthony Hughes commenced civil proceedings against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In April 1991, the widow of Anthony Hughes settled out of court. In May 1995, an inquest commenced that was held over four days which concluded that all nine men had died from serious and multiple gunshot wounds. Lawyers representing six families of IRA members withdrew from the inquest on
13104-605: The IRA members suing the MoD could widen their claim to include the RUC Chief Constable. The police later disclosed documents for the court case revealing that IRA members had been under military surveillance for weeks prior to the ambush. In March 2014, the Hughes family received an apology from the MoD for the death of Anthony and for injuring Oliver that both men were "wholly innocent of any wrongdoing". In September 2015,
13286-521: The IRA to become involved in sectarian killings, as well a feud with the Official IRA in October and November 1975 that left eleven people dead. Following the end of the ceasefire, the British government introduced a new three-part strategy to deal with the Troubles; the parts became known as Ulsterisation , normalisation, and criminalisation. Ulsterisation involved increasing the role of the locally recruited RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR),
13468-619: The IRA via intermediaries continued, with the British government arguing the IRA would be more likely to achieve its objective through politics than continued violence. The talks progressed slowly due to continued IRA violence, including the Warrington bombing in March 1993 which killed two children and the Bishopsgate bombing a month later which killed one person and caused an estimated £1 billion worth of damage. In December 1993
13650-469: The IRA wanted the conflict to be seen as one between Ireland and Britain. In May 1972 the Official IRA called a ceasefire, leaving the Provisional IRA as the sole active republican paramilitary organisation. New recruits saw the Official IRA as existing for the purpose of defence in contrast to the Provisional IRA as existing for the purpose of attack, increased recruitment and defections from
13832-413: The IRA was responsible for 1,781 deaths, about 47% of the total conflict deaths. Of these, 944 (about 53%) were members of the British security forces, while 644 (about 36%) were civilians (including 61 former members of the security forces). The civilian figure also includes civilians employed by British security forces, politicians, members of the judiciary, and alleged criminals and informers . Most of
14014-633: The IRA's arms supply from America. This forced the IRA to focus on importing weaponry from its already-established networks in Europe and the Middle East. In addition, Irish American support for the Republican cause began to weaken in the mid-1970s and gradually diminished in the 1980s due to bad publicity surrounding IRA atrocities and NORAID. By 1998, only $ 3.6 million were raised in America for
14196-503: The IRA, as they provided the British with propaganda coups and affected recruitment and funding. Despite this IRA bombs continued to kill civilians, generally due to IRA mistakes and incompetence or errors in communication. These included the Donegall Street bombing which killed seven people including four civilians, and Bloody Friday , when nine people, five of them civilians, were killed when twenty-two bombs were planted in
14378-548: The IRA. Irish Americans (both Irish immigrants and natives of Irish descent) also donated weapons and money. The financial backbone of IRA support in the United States was the Irish Northern Aid Committee ( NORAID ), founded by Irish immigrant and IRA veteran Michael Flannery . NORAID officially raised money for the families of IRA prisoners but was strongly accused by opponents of being
14560-457: The IRA. As a result of escalating violence, internment without trial was introduced by the Northern Ireland government on 9 August 1971, with 342 suspects arrested in the first twenty-four hours. Despite loyalist violence also increasing, all of those arrested were republicans, including political activists not associated with the IRA and student civil rights leaders. The one-sided nature of internment united all Catholics in opposition to
14742-530: The IRA. Following partition, Northern Ireland became a de facto one-party state governed by the Ulster Unionist Party in the Parliament of Northern Ireland , in which Catholics were viewed as second-class citizens . Protestants were given preference in jobs and housing, and local government constituencies were gerrymandered in places such as Derry . Policing was carried out by
14924-684: The Irish Republican cause, in which many historians and scholars agreed such an amount was too small to make an actual difference in the conflict. Irish Canadians , Irish Australians , and Irish New Zealanders were also active in supporting the Republican cause. More than A$ 20,000 were sent per year to the Provisionals from supporters in Australia by the 1990s. Canadian supporters did not just fundraise and import weapons, but also smuggled IRA and Sinn Féin members into
15106-418: The Irish border, with Mac Stíofáin, Ó Brádaigh and McGuinness all imprisoned for IRA membership. Due to the crisis the IRA bombed London in March 1973, as the Army Council believed bombs in England would have a greater impact on British public opinion. This was followed by an intense period of IRA activity in England that left forty-five people dead by the end of 1974, including twenty-one civilians killed in
15288-534: The Lough. Although the Lough is used for a variety of recreational and commercial activities, it is exposed and tends to get extremely rough very quickly in windy conditions. According to Northern Ireland Water , Lough Neagh supplies 40.7% of Northern Ireland's drinking water. There have long been plans to increase the amount of water drawn from the lough, through a new water treatment works at Hog Park Point, but these are yet to materialise. The lough's ownership by
15470-1580: The Lough. Its members are highly trained and are a declared facility for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency which co-ordinates rescues on Lough Neagh. Lough Neagh attracts birdwatchers from many nations due to the number and variety of birds which winter and summer in the boglands and shores around the lough. The flora of the north-east of Northern Ireland includes the algae: Chara aspera , Chara globularis var. globularis , Chara globularis var. virgate , Chara vulgaris var. vulgaris , Chara vulgaris var. papillata , Tolypella nidifica var. glomerata . Records of Angiospermae include: Ranunculus flammula var. pseudoreptans , Ranunculus auricomus , Ranunculatus sceleratus , Ranunculatus circinatus , Ranunculatus peltatus , Thalictrum flavum , Thalictrum minus subsp. minus , Nymphaea alba , Ceratophyllum demersum , Subularia aquatic , Erophila verna sub. verna , Cardamine pratensis , Cardamine impatiens , Cardamine flexuosa , Rorippa palustris , Rorippa amphibia , Reseda luteola , Viola odorata , Viola reichenbachiana , Viola tricolor ssp. Violoa tricolor ssp. curtissi , Hypericum androsaemum , Hypericum maculatum , Elatine hydropiper , Silene vulgaris , Silene dioica , Saponaria officinalis , Cerastium arvense , Cerastium semidecandrum , Cerastium diffusum , Sagina nodosa , Spergularia rubra , Spergulaia rupicola , Chenopodium bonus-henricus , Chenopodium polyspermum . Eel fishing has been
15652-460: The Lower Bann remains open today, although a restoration plan for the Ulster Canal is currently in progress. Lough Neagh Rescue provides a search and rescue service 24 hours a day and has 3 stations, situated around the lough. These are at Antrim, Ardboe and Kinnego Marinas, Kinnego being its headquarters and founding station. It is a voluntary service funded by the district councils bordering
15834-549: The Mid-Ulster region. The Ruger had been stolen from Reserve RUC officer William Clement, killed two years earlier in the IRA attack on Ballygawley RUC base. It was found that another of the guns had been used in the murder of Harold Henry, a builder employed by the British Army and RUC in facilities construction in Northern Ireland. In 2017 declassified documents from the National Archives of Ireland revealed that
16016-520: The Official IRA to the Provisional IRA led to the latter becoming the dominant organisation. On 22 June the IRA announced that a ceasefire would begin at midnight on 26 June, in anticipation of talks with the British government. Two days later Ó Brádaigh and Ó Conaill held a press conference in Dublin to announce the Éire Nua (New Ireland) policy, which advocated an all-Ireland federal republic, with devolved governments and parliaments for each of
16198-567: The RUC confirmed that the Loughgall police station was to be re-built later that year. The station was in use until its administrative closure in August 2009. In April 2011, it was sold for private development. In September 1988, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland concluded "that the evidence did not warrant the prosecution of any person involved in the shootings". Six families of
16380-573: The Republic of Ireland and the plastic explosive Semtex donated by the Libyan government. The IRA's engineering department also manufactured a series of improvised mortars in the Republic of Ireland, which by the 1990s were built to a standard comparable to military models. The IRA's development of mortar tactics was a response to the heavy fortifications on RUC and British Army bases; as IRA mortars generally fired indirectly they were able to bypass some perimeter security measures. The mortars used
16562-501: The Republic of Ireland's police service, the Gardaí , have no evidence that the IRA's military structure remains operational or that the IRA is engaged in criminal activity. In August 2015, George Hamilton , the PSNI chief constable , stated that the IRA no longer exists as a paramilitary organisation. He added that some of its structure remains, but that the group is committed to following
16744-425: The SAS opened fire on the IRA attackers from the station and from hidden positions outside with M16 and H&K G3 rifles and two L7A2 general-purpose machine guns . There were 600 spent British cartridge cases recovered from the scene, with approximately 125 bullet holes in the bodywork of the van, while 78 spent cartridge cases were recovered that were fired from IRA weapons. All eight IRA members were killed in
16926-486: The South Armagh Brigade, which retained its traditional hierarchy and battalion structure. Only a handful of volunteers from the South Armagh Brigade were convicted of serious offences, and it had fewer arrests than any other area, meaning that the security forces struggled to recruit informers. Inactive Defunct The IRA's goal was an all-Ireland democratic socialist republic. Richard English ,
17108-601: The Tet Offensive could possibly be the key to victory against the British, pending on the arrival of weapons secured from Libya. However, this never came to pass, and the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 brought a dogmatic commitment to socialism back into question, as possible socialist allies in Eastern Europe wilted away. In the years that followed, IRA prisoners began to look towards South African politics and
17290-514: The Troubles, with the IRA's biggest loss of life in a single incident being the Loughgall ambush in 1987, when eight volunteers attempting to bomb a police station were killed by the British Army's Special Air Service . All levels of the organisation were entitled to send delegates to General Army Conventions. The convention was the IRA's supreme decision-making authority, and was supposed to meet every two years, or every four years following
17472-511: The Troubles, from an insurgency requiring a military solution to a criminal problem requiring a law enforcement solution. As result of the withdrawal of Special Category Status, in September 1976 IRA prisoner Kieran Nugent began the blanket protest in the Maze Prison , when hundreds of prisoners refused to wear prison uniforms. In 1977 the IRA evolved a new strategy which they called the "Long War", which would remain their strategy for
17654-561: The Troubles, the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), and the book Lost Lives , differ slightly on the numbers killed by the IRA and the total number of conflict deaths. According to CAIN, the IRA was responsible for 1,705 deaths, about 48% of the total conflict deaths. Of these, 1,009 (about 59%) were members or former members of the British security forces, while 508 (about 29%) were civilians. According to Lost Lives ,
17836-606: The UK and the Republic of Ireland were granted conditional early release as part of the Good Friday Agreement. IRA members were often refused travel visas to enter the United States, due to previous criminal convictions or because the Immigration and Nationality Act bars the entry of people who are members of an organisation which advocates the overthrow of a government by force. American TV news broadcasts used
18018-1080: The Ulster Protestant celebration The Twelfth in July 1969 led to riots and violent clashes in Belfast , Derry and elsewhere. The following month a three-day riot began in the Catholic Bogside area of Derry, following a march by the Protestant Apprentice Boys of Derry . The Battle of the Bogside caused Catholics in Belfast to riot in solidarity with the Bogsiders and to try to prevent RUC reinforcements being sent to Derry, sparking retaliation by Protestant mobs. The subsequent arson attacks , damage to property and intimidation forced 1,505 Catholic families and 315 Protestant families to leave their homes in Belfast in
18200-683: The United Kingdom. The Treaty caused a split in the IRA, the pro-Treaty IRA were absorbed into the National Army , which defeated the anti-Treaty IRA in the Civil War . Subsequently, while denying the legitimacy of the Free State, the surviving elements of the anti-Treaty IRA focused on overthrowing the Northern Ireland state and the achievement of a united Ireland , carrying out a bombing campaign in England in 1939 and 1940 ,
18382-707: The United States, which, unlike Canada, enacted a visa ban on such members on the basis of advocating violence since the early 1970s. Gearóid Ó Faoleán wrote that "[i]n 1972, inclement weather forced a light aeroplane to reroute to Shannon Airport from Farranfore in County Kerry , where IRA volunteers had been awaiting its arrival. The plane, piloted by a Canadian [IRA supporter], had flown from Libya with at least one cargo of arms that included RPG-7 rocket launchers" where IRA smuggled these weapons into safe houses for its armed campaign. In 1974, seven Canadian residents (six who were originally from Belfast) were arrested by
18564-529: The aftermath of the December 2004 Northern Bank robbery , the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell stated there could be no place in government in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland for a party that supported or threatened the use of violence, possessed explosives or firearms, and was involved in criminality. At the beginning of February 2005, the IRA declared that it
18746-612: The age-old Irish republican struggle". The IRA is a proscribed organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 , and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland under the Offences Against the State Acts, where IRA volunteers are tried in the non-jury Special Criminal Court . A similar system was introduced in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973 , with
18928-496: The agreement was that all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland fully disarm by May 2000. The IRA began decommissioning in a process that was monitored by Canadian General John de Chastelain 's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), with some weapons being decommissioned on 23 October 2001 and 8 April 2002. The October 2001 decommissioning was the first time an Irish republican paramilitary organisation had voluntarily disposed of its arms. In October 2002
19110-455: The all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence . It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland , both of whose authority it rejected. The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969, due to
19292-422: The ambush and escaped saw other volunteers being shot on the ground after being captured". The IRA members killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among IRA supporters. The men's relatives considered their deaths to be part of a deliberate shoot-to-kill policy by the security forces. Thousands of people attended their funerals, the biggest republican funerals in Northern Ireland since those of
19474-428: The ambush had been sprung. The two HMSU officers were injured in the explosion with one suffering severe head injuries and the other a broken nose and were helped outside by the uniformed officer with no officer returning fire. An SAS soldier received a facial injury from glass after a window was broken by gunfire. Two civilians, brothers Anthony and Oliver Hughes, were driving home in a white Citroën GS after repairing
19656-802: The armed Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the B-Specials , both of which were almost exclusively Protestant. In the mid-1960s tension between the Catholic and Protestant communities was increasing. In 1966 Ireland celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, prompting fears of a renewed IRA campaign. Feeling under threat, Protestants formed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a paramilitary group which killed three people in May 1966, two of them Catholic men. In January 1967
19838-503: The bombing campaign would tie down British soldiers in static positions guarding potential targets, preventing their deployment in counter-insurgency operations. Loyalist paramilitaries, including the UVF, carried out campaigns aimed at thwarting the IRA's aspirations and maintaining the political union with Britain. Loyalist paramilitaries tended to target Catholics with no connection to the republican movement, seeking to undermine support for
20020-414: The car despite being warned not to move and was shot resulting in him falling to the ground. Two soldiers later gave him first aid. He had been shot 14 times. The Citroën had approximately 34 bullet holes. The villagers had not been informed of the operation and no attempt had been made to evacuate anyone or to seal off the ambush zone, as this might have alerted the IRA. A mother and her child took shelter in
20202-477: The ceasefire being declared. In March 1995 Mayhew set out three conditions for Sinn Féin being admitted to multi-party talks. Firstly the IRA had to be willing to agree to "disarm progressively", secondly a scheme for decommissioning had to be agreed, and finally some weapons had to be decommissioned prior to the talks beginning as a confidence building measure . The IRA responded with public statements in September calling decommissioning an "unreasonable demand" and
20384-407: The ceasefire if negotiations failed. The British government refused to admit Sinn Féin to multi-party talks before the IRA decommissioned its weapons , and a standoff began as the IRA refused to disarm before a final peace settlement had been agreed. The IRA regarded themselves as being undefeated and decommissioning as an act of surrender, and stated decommissioning had never been mentioned prior to
20566-404: The ceasefire, and their influence in the IRA slowly declined. The younger generation viewed the ceasefire as being disastrous for the IRA, causing the organisation irreparable damage and taking it close to being defeated. The Army Council was accused of falling into a trap that allowed the British breathing space and time to build up intelligence on the IRA, and McKee was criticised for allowing
20748-406: The church hall after their Ford Sierra 's rear window was hit by a stray bullet 250 yards (230 m) from the station. The security forces recovered eight IRA firearms from the scene: three H&K G3 rifles, one FN FAL rifle, two FN FNC rifles, a Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun and a Ruger Security-Six revolver . The RUC linked the weapons to seven known murders and twelve attempted murders in
20930-469: The convention were a resolution to enter into a "National Liberation Front" with radical left-wing groups, and a resolution to end abstentionism , which would allow participation in the British , Irish , and Northern Ireland parliaments. Traditional republicans refused to vote on the "National Liberation Front", and it was passed by twenty-nine votes to seven. The traditionalists argued strongly against
21112-585: The deaths of the ten hunger strikers. The bombing killed five members of the Conservative Party attending a party conference including MP Anthony Berry , with Thatcher narrowly escaping death. A planned escalation of the England bombing campaign in 1985 was prevented when six IRA volunteers, including Martina Anderson and the Brighton bomber Patrick Magee , were arrested in Glasgow. Plans for
21294-755: The details would be worked out following an IRA victory. This was in contrast to the Official IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, both of which adopted clearly defined Marxist positions. Similarly, the Northern Ireland left-wing politician Eamonn McCann has remarked that the Provisional IRA was considered a non-socialist IRA compared to the Official IRA. During the 1980s, the IRA's commitment to socialism became more solidified as IRA prisoners began to engage with works of political and Marxist theory by authors such as Frantz Fanon , Che Guevara , Antonio Gramsci , Ho-Chi Minh , and General Giap . Members felt that an Irish version of
21476-594: The devolved Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended by the British government and direct rule returned, in order to prevent a unionist walkout. This was partly triggered by Stormontgate —allegations that republican spies were operating within the Parliament Buildings and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) —and the IRA temporarily broke off contact with de Chastelain. However, further decommissioning took place on 21 October 2003. In
21658-425: The digger detonated several seconds after the SAS had opened fire. An ex-RUC Special Branch officer, John Shackles, described how the SAS had strung detonating cord along a line of fir trees opposite the police station, beyond a playing field. The detonating cord was exploded immediately prior to the SAS initiating the ambush, distracting the IRA team as the SAS members inside the station began firing. Within seconds
21840-458: The digger, according to journalist Peter Taylor , "literally riding shotgun ", with weapons in one hand and a lighter in the other. At about 19:15 Arthurs drove the digger towards the station. In the front bucket was 300–400 lb (140–180 kg) of explosive inside an oil drum, partially hidden by rubble and wired to two 40-second fuses. The other five members of the unit followed in the van with Eugene Kelly driving, unit leader Patrick Kelly in
22022-446: The end of the year there had been 153 explosions. The following year it was responsible for the vast majority of the 1,000 explosions that occurred in Northern Ireland. The strategic aim behind the bombings was to target businesses and commercial premises to deter investment and force the British government to pay compensation, increasing the financial cost of keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. The IRA also believed that
22204-541: The ending of abstentionism, and the official minutes report the resolution passed by twenty-seven votes to twelve. Following the convention the traditionalists canvassed support throughout Ireland, with IRA director of intelligence Mac Stíofáin meeting the disaffected members of the IRA in Belfast. Shortly after, the traditionalists held a convention which elected a "Provisional" Army Council , composed of Mac Stíofáin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh , Paddy Mulcahy, Sean Tracey, Leo Martin , Ó Conaill, and Cahill. The term provisional
22386-705: The example being set by the African National Congress . Many of the imprisoned IRA members saw parallels between their own struggle and that of Nelson Mandela and were encouraged by Mandela's use of compromise following his ascent to power in South Africa to consider compromise themselves. The Provisionals considered their campaign to be a continuation of events such as the Irish revolutionary period of 1916-1923, with IRA leader Ruairí Ó Brádaigh describing their campaign as "the current phase of
22568-494: The four historic provinces of Ireland . This was designed to deal with the fears of unionists over a united Ireland, an Ulster parliament with a narrow Protestant majority would provide them with protection for their interests. The British government held secret talks with the republican leadership on 7 July, with Mac Stíofáin, Ó Conaill, Ivor Bell , Twomey, Gerry Adams , and Martin McGuinness flying to England to meet
22750-400: The full political, social, economic and cultural freedom of Ireland. The Irish republican political party Sinn Féin split along the same lines on 11 January 1970 in Dublin, when a third of the delegates walked out of the party's highest deliberative body, the ard fheis , in protest at the party leadership's attempt to force through the ending of abstentionism, despite its failure to achieve
22932-469: The government, and riots broke out in protest across Northern Ireland. Twenty-two people were killed in the next three days, including six civilians killed by the British Army as part of the Ballymurphy massacre on 9 August, and in Belfast 7,000 Catholics and 2,000 Protestants were forced from their homes by the rioting. The introduction of internment dramatically increased the level of violence. In
23114-462: The hail of gunfire; all had multiple wounds to their bodies, including their heads. Declan Arthurs was shot in a lane-way opposite Loughgall F.C. premises; he was unarmed and holding a cigarette lighter in his right hand. Three of the IRA members were shot at close range as they lay either dead or wounded on the ground. Three other IRA members in the scout cars escaped from the scene, managing to pass through British Army and RUC check-points set up after
23296-409: The horses are killed by Midir (Midhir), which may be another name for Ébliu's husband Mairid. Óengus (Aonghus) then appears and gives them an enormous horse that can carry all their belongings. Óengus warns that they must not let the horse rest or it will be their doom. However, after reaching Ulster the horse stops and urinates, and a spring rises from the spot. Echaid builds a house there and covers
23478-506: The idea of a supernatural being creating the landscape with its own body is an ancient one common to many pre-Christian cultures. A Gaelic sept called the Uí Echach ("descendants of Echaid") dwelt in the area and it is likely their name comes from the cult of the god. They gave their name to the territory of Iveagh . Another tale tells how the lake was formed when Ireland's legendary giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) scooped up
23660-431: The lake is split between four local government districts of Northern Ireland, which are listed clockwise: Lough Neagh is managed by Lough Neagh Partnership Ltd, a stakeholder group made up of elected representatives, land-owners, fishermen, sand traders and local community representatives. Lough Neagh Partnership is responsible for the lough's conservation, promotion and sustainable development together with navigation of
23842-409: The lake. Towns and villages near the Lough include Craigavon , Antrim , Crumlin , Randalstown , Toomebridge , Ballyronan , Ballinderry , Moortown , Ardboe , Brockagh , Maghery , Lurgan and Magherafelt . Five of the six counties of Northern Ireland have shores on the Lough (only Fermanagh does not), and its area is split among them. The counties are listed clockwise: The area of
24024-724: The land area of Northern Ireland is drained into the lough, which itself flows out northwards to the sea via the River Bann . As one of its sources is the Upper Bann, the Lough can itself be considered as part of the Bann. Lough Neagh is fed by many tributaries including the rivers Main (34 mi, 55 km), Six Mile Water (21 mi, 34 km), Upper Bann (40 mi, 64 km), Blackwater (57 mi, 92 km), Ballinderry (29 mi, 47 km) and Moyola (31 mi, 50 km) In 2023 and 2024, toxic algal blooms , mostly caused by agricultural run-off , spread across
24206-400: The larger conventional military organisational principle owing to its security vulnerability. The old structures were used for support activities such as policing nationalist areas, intelligence-gathering , and hiding weapons, while the bulk of attacks were carried out by active service units, using weapons controlled by the brigade's quartermaster . The exception to this reorganisation was
24388-446: The last Provisional IRA ceasefire ten years later. SAS operations against the IRA also continued. The IRA set out to find the informer it believed to be among them, although it has been suggested that the informer, if there ever was one, had been killed in the ambush. On 20 March 1989, RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen was shot dead in an IRA ambush near the Irish border together with RUC Superintendent Bob Buchanan. Breen had given
24570-429: The late 1980s the IRA had roughly 300 active volunteers and 450 more in support roles, while historian Richard English states in 1988 the IRA was believed to have no more than thirty experienced gunmen and bombers, with a further twenty volunteers with less experience and 500 more in support roles. Moloney estimates in October 1996 the IRA had between 600 and 700 active volunteers. Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
24752-685: The local level, command of the "war-zone" was given to the Northern Command, which facilitated coordinated attacks across Northern Ireland and rapid alterations in tactics. Southern Command consisted of the Dublin Brigade and a number of smaller units in rural areas. Its main responsibilities were support activities for Northern Command, such as importation and storage of arms, providing safe houses , raising funds through robberies, and organising training camps . Another department attached to GHQ but separate from all other IRA structures
24934-512: The media that the IRA had not decommissioned all of its weaponry. In response to such claims, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) stated in its 10th report that the IRA had decommissioned all weaponry under its control. The report stated that if any weapons had been kept they would have been kept by individuals and against IRA orders. In February 2015, Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan stated that
25116-463: The mid-1980s it had become one of the IRA's most aggressive formations. Members of the unit, such as Jim Lynagh and Pádraig McKearney , advocated a strategy of destroying bases and preventing them being rebuilt or repaired in an attempt to "deny ground" to British forces. In 1985, Patrick Joseph Kelly became its commander and began implementing the strategy. In 1985 and 1986, it carried out two major attacks on Royal Ulster Constabulary bases. The first
25298-466: The office by the 1st Viscount Massereene and, subsequently, the 2nd Viscount Massereene . In 1660, Charles II of England gave the 1st Viscount Massereene the rights to the fish and bed of the lough. During the early seventeenth century, Sir Arthur Chichester (later created the 1st Baron Chichester ) gradually laid claim to Lough Neagh during the Stuart conquest of Ulster , taking advantage of
25480-401: The passenger seat and, followed by others, immediately opened fire on the building, either to encourage the rest to resolve the dispute about going ahead with the attack, or possibly because this was the way previous attacks had begun. At the same time, the bomb detonated, the blast destroying the digger and badly damaging the building. According to author Jonathan Trigg, the bomb in the bucket of
25662-460: The passenger seat, whilst in the rear were Lynagh, Pádraig McKearney, and Seamus Donnelly. The digger crashed through the light security fence and the fuses were lit. The van stopped a short distance ahead and, according to the British security forces, three of the team jumped out and fired on the building with automatic weapons. Author Raymond Murray disputes this. According to Taylor, and co-corroborated by an ECHR judgement, Patrick Kelly jumped from
25844-464: The police station, turned around and drove back again with the Toyota van carrying the main IRA assault party doing the same. Not seeing any activity in the station in their two slow passes of it, members of the IRA unit felt that something was amiss, and debated whether to continue, but decided to go ahead with the attack. Tony Gormley and Gerard O'Callaghan got out of the van and joined Declan Arthurs on
26026-528: The pre-1969 IRA, considering both British rule in Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Ireland to be illegitimate, and the Army Council to be the provisional government of the all-island Irish Republic . This belief was based on a series of perceived political inheritances which constructed a legal continuity from the Second Dáil of 1921–1922. The IRA recruited many young nationalists from Northern Ireland who had not been involved in
26208-495: The process of disarmament as quickly as possible. The IRA invited two independent witnesses to view the secret disarmament work, Catholic priest Father Alec Reid and Protestant minister Reverend Harold Good . On 26 September 2005, the IICD announced that "the totality of the IRA's arsenal" had been decommissioned. Jane's Information Group estimated that the IRA weaponry decommissioned in September 2005 included: Having compared
26390-528: The propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement". The 1977 edition of the Green Book , an induction and training manual used by the IRA, describes the strategy of the "Long War" in these terms: The "Long War" saw the IRA's tactics move away from the large bombing campaigns of the early 1970s, in favour of more attacks on members of the security forces. The IRA's new multi-faceted strategy saw them begin to use armed propaganda , using
26572-474: The publicity gained from attacks such as the assassination of Lord Mountbatten and the Warrenpoint ambush to focus attention on the nationalist community's rejection of British rule. The IRA aimed to keep Northern Ireland unstable, which would frustrate the British objective of installing a power sharing government as a solution to the Troubles. The prison protest against criminalisation culminated in
26754-457: The ranks of the IRA in the first 20 years of its existence, many of them leaving after arrest, retirement or disillusionment. McGuinness, who held a variety of leadership positions, estimated a total membership of 10,000 over the course of the Troubles. The British Army estimates the IRA had 500 volunteers in July 1971, 130 in Derry and 340 in Belfast, journalist Ed Moloney states by the end of
26936-546: The remainder were loyalist or republican paramilitary members, including over 100 IRA members accidentally killed by their own bombs or shot for being security force agents or informers. Overall, the IRA was responsible for 87–90% of the total British security force deaths, and 27–30% of the total civilian deaths. During the IRA's campaign in England it was responsible for at least 488 incidents causing 2,134 injuries and 115 deaths, including 56 civilians and 42 British soldiers. Between 275 and 300 IRA members were killed during
27118-420: The rest of the Troubles. This strategy accepted that their campaign would last many years before being successful, and included increased emphasis on political activity through Sinn Féin. A republican document of the early 1980s states "Both Sinn Féin and the IRA play different but converging roles in the war of national liberation. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign ... Sinn Féin maintains
27300-622: The second day of hearings as the Coroner would not provide copies of witness statements to enable them to prepare. SAS soldiers did not give evidence, with their statements read out. In 2001, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the eight IRA men and one civilian killed at Loughgall had their human rights violated by the failure of the British Government to conduct a proper investigation into their deaths, that
27482-434: The security forces had instead learned of the planned attack through other surveillance methods, such as a telephone tap . According to historian and former Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast Richard English , information of the attack had not come from within the unit, though one member, Tony Gormley, was known to security forces as a well-paid Special Branch informant. Three local RUC officers worked at
27664-510: The seven months prior to internment 34 people had been killed, 140 people were killed between the introduction of internment and the end of the year, including thirty soldiers and eleven RUC officers. Internment boosted IRA recruitment, and in Dublin the Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , abandoned a planned idea to introduce internment in the Republic of Ireland. IRA recruitment further increased after Bloody Sunday in Derry on 30 January 1972, when
27846-495: The shooting death three months earlier of Davison. The Chief Constable stated there was no evidence that the killing of McGuigan was sanctioned by the IRA leadership. Also in response, the British government commissioned the Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland . The assessment, concluded in October 2015, was that "all the main paramilitary groups operating during the Troubles are still in existence, including
28028-513: The spring with a capstone to stop its overflowing. One night, the capstone is not replaced and the spring overflows, drowning Echaid and most of his family, and creating Loch n-Echach ( Loch nEachach , the lake of Eachaidh). The character Echaid refers to the Dagda , a god of the ancient Irish who was also known as Echaid Ollathair (meaning "horseman, father of all"). Ébliu, Midir and Óengus were also names of deities. Dáithí Ó hÓgáin writes that
28210-589: The start of the Plantation of Ulster , the English attempted to rename the lake 'Lough Sydney ' and 'Lough Chichester ', in honour of the Lord Deputies , but these did not supplant the older name. In the Irish mythical tale Cath Maige Tuired ("the Battle of Moytura"), Lough Neagh is called one of the twelve chief loughs of Ireland. The origin of the lake and its name is explained in an Irish tale that
28392-522: The station, which was only open part-time, from 09:00 to 11:00, and from 17:00 to 19:00 daily. On the day of the attack, two RUC Headquarters Mobile Support Unit (HMSU) officers were placed in the station to accompany the local RUC officer who was to carry on the normal running of the station. The HMSU was the RUC's police tactical unit . Six SAS soldiers in plain clothes, including the commander, were positioned inside. Another eighteen SAS soldiers in uniform were hidden in five locations in wooded areas around
28574-402: The station. The IRA's attack involved two teams. One team was to drive a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the base's perimeter fence and light the fuse. At the same time, another team would arrive in a van and open fire on the base, with the aim of killing the three RUC officers as they came off duty. Both teams would then leave the area in the van. To avoid security checkpoints, the bomb
28756-505: The terms "activists", "guerrillas", and "terrorists" to describe IRA members, while British TV news broadcasts commonly used the term "terrorists", particularly the BBC as part of its editorial guidelines published in 1989. Republicans reject the label of terrorism, instead describing the IRA's activity as war, military activity, armed struggle or armed resistance. The IRA prefer the terms freedom fighter , soldier, activist , or volunteer for its members. The IRA has also been described as
28938-413: The total damage caused by the Troubles in Northern Ireland up to that point. In December 1992 Patrick Mayhew , who had succeeded Brooke as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, gave a speech directed at the IRA in Coleraine , stating that while Irish reunification could be achieved by negotiation, the British government would not give in to violence. The secret talks between the British government and
29120-413: The weapons decommissioned with the British and Irish security forces' estimates of the IRA's arsenal, and because of the IRA's full involvement in the process of decommissioning the weapons, the IICD concluded that all IRA weaponry had been decommissioned. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain , said he accepted the conclusion of the IICD. Since then, there have been occasional claims in
29302-606: The world, and the Lough Neagh Eel has been granted Protected Geographical Status under European Union law . Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney produced a collection of poems A Lough Neagh Sequence celebrating the eel-fishermen's traditional techniques and the natural history of their catch. Other fish species in the lake include dollaghan —a variety of brown trout native to the lake, salmon, trout, perch and pollan ; bream, gudgeon , pike and rudd are also found, but are less common. The lough's English name derives from Irish Loch nEachach , meaning ' Eachaidh 's lake'. At
29484-444: The year the IRA in Belfast had over 1,200 volunteers. After the late 1970s restructure, the British Army estimated the IRA had 500 full-time volunteers. A 1978 British Army report by Brigadier James Glover stated that the restructured IRA did not require the same number of volunteers as the early 1970s, and that a small number of volunteers could "maintain a disproportionate level of violence". Journalist Brendan O'Brien states by
29666-494: Was a supplier of arms to the IRA, donating two shipments of arms in the early 1970s, and another five in the mid-1980s. The final shipment in 1987 was intercepted by French authorities, but the prior four shipments included 1,200 AKM assault rifles , 26 DShK heavy machine guns , 40 general-purpose machine guns , 33 RPG-7 rocket launchers, 10 SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles, 10 LPO-50 flamethrowers, and over two tonnes of plastic explosive Semtex. He also gave $ 12 million in cash to
29848-409: Was also killed and another wounded by the SAS after unwittingly driving into the ambush zone and being mistaken for IRA attackers. The joint British Army/RUC operation was codenamed Operation Judy . It was the IRA's biggest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles . The IRA's East Tyrone Brigade was active mainly in eastern County Tyrone and neighbouring parts of County Armagh . By
30030-400: Was an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley on 7 December 1985, in which two police officers were shot dead. The second was an attack on an RUC base at The Birches on 11 August 1986. In both attacks, the bases were raked with machine-gun fire and then severely damaged with homemade bombs. In the attack at The Birches, they had breached the base's perimeter fence with a digger that had
30212-403: Was being moved, the SAS took up its positions. Undercover Army 14 Intelligence Company soldiers drove around the backroads into Loughgall surveilling the unit. The IRA unit arrived in Loughgall from the north-east shortly after 19:00, when the station was scheduled to close for the night. They were armed and wearing bulletproof vests , boilersuits , gloves and balaclavas. The digger drove past
30394-409: Was blamed for the Abercorn Restaurant bombing in March 1972, when a bomb exploded without warning killing two women and injuring many people. Due to negative publicity after the Abercorn bombing, the IRA introduced a system of telephoned coded warnings to try to avoid civilian casualties while still causing the intended damage to properties and the economy. Civilian deaths were counter-productive to
30576-434: Was chosen to mirror the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic , and also to designate it as temporary pending ratification by a further IRA convention. Nine out of thirteen IRA units in Belfast sided with the "Provisional" Army Council in December 1969, roughly 120 activists and 500 supporters. The Provisional IRA issued their first public statement on 28 December 1969, stating: We declare our allegiance to
30758-408: Was donated by the Fianna Fáil -led Irish government in 1969 to the Central Citizens Defence Committee in Catholic areas, some of which ended up in the hands of the IRA. This resulted in the 1970 Arms Crisis where criminal charges were pursued against two former government ministers and others including John Kelly , an IRA volunteer from Belfast. The Provisional IRA maintained the principles of
30940-433: Was engineering, which manufactured improvised explosive devices and improvised mortars. Below GHQ, the IRA was divided into a Northern Command and a Southern Command. Northern Command operated in Northern Ireland as well as the border counties of Donegal , Leitrim , Cavan , Monaghan , and Louth , while Southern Command operated in the remainder of Ireland. In 1977, parallel to the introduction of cell structures at
31122-410: Was ferried by boat across Lough Neagh , from Ardboe to Maghery . The van and digger that would be used were hijacked in the hours leading up to the attack. The van, a blue Toyota HiAce , was stolen by masked men from a business in Dungannon . At about the same time, the unit's commander Jim Lynagh was spotted in the town, suggesting the van might be used in the attack. The digger (a backhoe loader )
31304-455: Was in contact with Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and a delegation representing the Irish government, in order to find political alternatives to the IRA's campaign. As a result of the republican leadership appearing interested in peace, British policy shifted when Peter Brooke , the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland , began to engage with them hoping for a political settlement. Backchannel diplomacy between
31486-414: Was independent and transparent. The applicants, the next-of-kin, claimed that the deaths were an unlawful killing . In December 2011, Northern Ireland's Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA team fire first but that they could not have been safely arrested. They concluded that the British Army was justified in opening fire. In January 2014, the High Court ordered that the families of
31668-522: Was known as the "Armalite and ballot box strategy", named after Danny Morrison 's speech at the 1981 Sinn Féin ard fheis: Who here really believes that we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if with a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite in this hand we take power in Ireland? Attacks on high-profile political and military targets remained a priority for the IRA. The Chelsea Barracks bombing in London in October 1981 killed two civilians and injured twenty-three soldiers;
31850-652: Was reported that the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury was considering transferring ownership of the lough to the Northern Ireland Assembly . In October 2023, Lord Shaftesbury stated in an interview with BBC Northern Ireland that while he was open to selling Lough Neagh to the Northern Irish public, he would not give it away for free. He stated in the interview that "the sale is one that's borne out of an understanding that my ownership has always been very divisive and quite political and I always get blamed for things that are completely outside of my control. I feel it's often used as an excuse for political inaction and I always want to do
32032-471: Was revealed to the IRA's rank-and-file following the ceasefire, described as either "Tactical Use of Armed Struggle" to the Irish republican movement or "Totally Unarmed Strategy" to the broader Irish nationalist movement. The strategy involved a coalition including Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Irish government acting in concert to apply leverage to the British government, with the IRA's armed campaign starting and stopping as necessary, and an option to call off
32214-408: Was taken from a farm at Lislasly Road, about two miles west of Loughgall. Two IRA members stayed at the farm to stop the owners from raising the alarm. Declan Arthurs drove the digger, while two others drove ahead of him in a scout car. The rest of the unit travelled in the van from another location, presumably also with a scout car. When a covert observation post monitoring the digger reported that it
32396-414: Was the England department, responsible for the bombing campaign in England. The IRA referred to its ordinary members as volunteers (or óglaigh in Irish), to reflect the IRA being an irregular army which people were not forced to join and could leave at any time. Until the late 1970s, IRA volunteers were organised in units based on conventional military structures. Volunteers living in one area formed
32578-416: Was the start of a process of British withdrawal. Occasional IRA violence occurred during the ceasefire, with bombs in Belfast, Derry, and South Armagh. The IRA was also involved in tit for tat sectarian killings of Protestant civilians, in retaliation for sectarian killings by loyalist paramilitaries. By July the Army Council was concerned at the progress of the talks, concluding there was no prospect of
32760-443: Was to use force to cause the collapse of the Northern Ireland government and to inflict such heavy casualties on the British Army that the British government would be forced by public opinion to withdraw from Ireland. Mac Stíofáin decided they would "escalate, escalate and escalate", in what the British Army would later describe as a "classic insurgency ". In October 1970 the IRA began a bombing campaign against economic targets; by
32942-496: Was withdrawing a decommissioning offer from late 2004. This followed a demand from the Democratic Unionist Party , under Paisley, insisting on photographic evidence of decommissioning. On 28 July 2005, the IRA, with a statement read to the media by Séanna Walsh , declared an end to the armed campaign, affirming that it would work to achieve its aims solely through peaceful political means and ordering volunteers to end all paramilitary activity. The IRA also stated it would complete
33124-411: Was written down in the Middle Ages , but is likely pre-Christian. According to the tale, the lake is named after Echaid (modern spelling: Eochaidh or Eachaidh), who was the son of Mairid (Mairidh), a king of Munster . Echaid falls in love with his stepmother, a young woman named Ébliu (Ébhlinne). They try to elope, accompanied by many of their retainers, but someone kills their horses. In some versions,
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