by Ken Wharton
Just as quickly as it had started, the incoming rounds stopped, and I was able to shout out and ask if everyone was ok. I then got on the radio: ‘Hello 2; this is Juliet 23; contact Albert Bridge from Short Strand; wait out.’ One of the lads, called Les, shouted that he had seen the one in the alleyway drop and wanted to get him, but I was a bit reluctant for two reasons. One, the other lot might be waiting for just that and two, the dividing line of the TAOR was the Short Strand Road and I didn’t want to risk a ‘blue on blue’ by entering another unit’s area. Instead, I moved us back up the bridge a bit into some thinning fog. I deployed in a single file on the left side and told the lad at the rear who had a SUIT sight to keep his eye on the alleyway while I got on the radio. I was surprisingly quiet and I began calling in again, wondering if they had heard me.
Finally this posh voice squeaked at me: ‘Stay off the air, there has been a contact!’ ‘Yes I know,’ I shouted, ‘it was me!’ ‘Go red,’ says this Sandhurst berk, and I’m thinking: ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ Then it dawned on me that on the Pye radio, there was a three colour coded positions switch so I switched to red and the radio come alive with chatter. This time I got through no problem. I gave my report and informed them that shots had been fired and that we were claiming a hit on one of the gunmen and asked for permission to cross into another unit’s area. Another voice came up asking for an estimate of the number of rounds fired at us and requesting a rough location of fire positions. I told them between 30 and 40 rounds fired at us and about a dozen returned and that one fire position was roughly 50 metres to the left of the bridge. I further told them that I had no idea where the second one was but had a positive ID on the third one as there was a body lying in it.
One of the lads shouted that there was bunch of people milling around at the mouth of the alley, which was about 70 metres away. We all started shouting at them to piss off but they ignored us. I got back on the radio to report this and again asked permission to ‘cross’ before they carted off the evidence. [Very often the gunman might fire from the prone position whilst lying on a blanket. It was a common practice at the time for ‘dickers’ and other sympathisers in situations where the gunman had been killed or wounded, to pull the blanket, man and all, out of sight of the Army. Thus a wounded terrorist could be whisked away for treatment or the body taken to a safe house, for later burial in the Republic. It had the added bonus of also being able to take the weapon and empty shell casings.] Again I was told to: ‘Wait; out.’ I was tempted to fire a couple of rounds over their heads, but sanity prevailed.
I tried once more for permission, but this time but was unable to get clearance and, by this time, the crowd had gone and I was feeling pretty angry. Just then, we heard the sound of a fast moving vehicle coming over the bridge from the city. I brought up my rifle and it screeched to a halt about 10 metres away. A voice shouted out that they were Military Police (RMP) so I waved them forward. They pulled up and I saw that the car, an Austin 1800, had four of them in there all dressed in No2 dress but carrying SLRs with IWS sights. It looked so strange I burst out laughing. They had been on their way back to their base when they heard what had happened on their radio and as Short Strand was their TAOR, they would do the follow up. I told them about the one in the alley and the other possible fire positions left and right of the junction, so off they roared, but instead of stopping by the alley, they turned left and I lost sight of them. Just then a double Land Rover mobile turned up with lots of Gunners hanging out of them. Again I explained where we thought the fire positions were, but a young Rupert told me to stay put as the Battery Commander was on the way and he too went the way of the RMP car.
I’d had enough of hanging about, so we started to make our way back to the road junction. Before we got there another rover pulled up. This one contained the Battery Commander. I said to him that I wanted to go up the alley but he said that there was a dog unit on the way and we might spoil the trail. He said that the RMPs had something to show us and to hop on board. We turned left into the Short Strand and stopped about 70-80 metres up on the right outside what was a pub. It looked more like an army base. There were 50 gallon oil drums full of concrete around it and a wire fence. On the side facing the bridge, there was a breeze block sangar like thing with an observation slit. Most pubs had something similar. I was led inside the pub. There were quite a few customers there and an RMP was trying to take statements from them. The RMP pointed to the floor, which was littered with empty cartridge cases and told me there were 16 of them from an Armalite. I looked through the observation slit and had a perfect view of the junction of the bridge and the Short Strand. No wonder I was pinned down, but how the hell he missed I don’t know. I have to admit, the sight made my skin crawl.
The story was that three hooded armed men had held up the doorman and forced their way into the pub. One kept the customers covered whilst the other two armed with a rifle with a telescopic sight took up position in the sangar. They had been there nearly half an hour before the shooting started. When shots started coming back at them, they escaped through a back door which led to another alley. As to their identity, it was all three wise monkeys in the bar; ‘forced their way in’ – my arse!
On the 25th and 27th respectively, two British soldiers died from incidents other than terrorist activity. Staff Sergeant Herbert Shingleston, MM (29) of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers became the second member of KOSB to die in the last eight weeks, this time as a result of an ND. His funeral was held at Glebe Cemetery, Stranraer, Scotland. His death was followed by the loss of Corporal William Dunn (29) of the UDR in an RTA.
Having made seven children fatherless, with their murder of John Toland, the Loyalist paramilitaries ensured that another eight children would grow up without their father, when James Loughrey died of the wounds he had received on the 14th. During the evening of Mr Loughrey’s death, a vicious sectarian attack in the Waterside area of Londonderry resulted in the death of John McLoughlin (25). He was a Catholic and was assaulted by Protestant thugs outside a pub; the lone man was literally kicked to death by cowardly thugs who had demanded to know if he was ‘… a Taig …’
On the 28th the Provisional IRA killed two Catholic civilians in separate booby-trap bomb attacks in Lurgan, Co Armagh and in the Bogside, in Londonderry. The bombs had been intended to kill soldiers and it was a testimony to the sheer incompetence and irresponsibility of the IRA bombers that innocent Catholics were killed. The Loyalist murder gangs were demonstrating that the IRA was unable to protect Catholics at the same time that the IRA were also endangering their lives as well. Philomena Green (16) was killed as she passed a derelict house in Mary Street, Lurgan. She entered the house, and as she switched on a light, a booby-trapped device which had been left for an Army patrol exploded and she was killed instantly. The Lurgan IRA admitted responsibility and a hollow apology was issued to Miss Green’s family. Shortly afterwards, Frank McConnellogue (46) a well-known community activist from the Lecky Road area noticed a suspicious device in an alleyway close to the Bluebell Bar in Lecky Road. He rushed to warn two men who were standing close by when the device exploded; both of the men were blown off their feet and injured, but Mr McConnellogue, a father of 10, was killed instantly.
In the last few days, a staggering 25 children had been left fatherless in just three incidents at the hands of both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries. The Provisionals tried to shift the blame from themselves and claimed that they had warned the Army and that it was in effect, the Army’s collective fault. They stated somewhat piously, that the alleyway was a regular route for the ‘occupation forces’ and was intended for them.
On the last day of the month, Elizabeth Luney (36) was shot dead at her home in Ballysillan, North Belfast. She was a Protestant, living close to the top end of Crumlin Road, close to Ligoniel. She answered a knock at her front door and masked gunmen fired several shots through the frosted glass and she died at the scene. The family was no stranger to tragedy, and
Lost Lives reports that her brother was killed by the UVF in 1973, for being an alleged informer. Mrs Luney had two older sons who were both serving British soldiers at the time of her murder.
On that same day, the Provisionals attempted to bomb a grocery shop near Loughall. Three masked men left a device in the store and then escaped in a stolen car. The Army EOD were called for and they carried out a controlled explosion inside McArtarsey’s Store and the resultant fire caused major damage to the premises. In Newry, an Army foot patrol in High Street came under sustained attack from PIRA gunmen hidden in the grounds of St Clare’s School; no soldiers were injured. The final action for November took place in Derry Lane, Dungiven when a fire was started deliberately by the IRA as a ‘come on.’ RUC and the Fire Brigade attended and as the police controlled the events, gunmen secreted in nearby fields opened fire. One officer was hit in the neck and was badly wounded.
November was over and a total of 28 people had been killed as a consequence of the Troubles. The Army had lost 12 – its worst month of the year – to both PIRA and INLA; the RUC had lost another officer. Civilian losses were 14, with 10 Catholics and four Protestants killed; of the killings, 11 were overtly sectarian. The Republicans lost one member to ‘internal discipline.’ During the month, the Republicans had been responsible for 15 deaths and the Loyalists for eight.
24
December
In the build-up to what would be the eighth Christmas of the Troubles, three more policemen would be killed, bringing the toll to 25 for 1976 as a whole. Only one soldier would die, but it would still be amongst the worst years of the conflict, and overall, the death toll, including sectarian slayings, would be down in this season of ‘goodwill.’
On the first day of the month, the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act came into effect. The Act was introduced to give effect to the anti-discrimination provisions contained in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Fair Employment Act established the Fair Employment Agency (FEA) which had two main functions: (i) the elimination of unlawful discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion, and (ii) the promotion of equality through ‘affirmative action’. The Act proved not to be strong enough and further legislation was introduced. A Command Paper was published in May 1988 entitled Fair Employment in Northern Ireland, and this was followed by the Fair Employment Act in 1989.
On the 3rd, the Irish Republic elected a new President: Patrick John ‘Paddy’ Hillery (Pádraig J.Ó hIrghile) 1923–2008); he was the sixth President of the Republic of Ireland and was in office from 1976 until 1990. He famously once travelled to the UN in New York to demand UN involvement in peacekeeping on the streets of Northern Ireland, shortly after ‘Bloody Sunday’ in 1972. Republican thugs started a wave of petrol bomb attacks on Protestant homes in the Woodside and Ballyoran districts of Portadown, mimicking earlier attacks by Loyalist on Catholic homes. The RUC were forced to run additional security patrols in order to counter this. This in turn led to accusations of favouritism by Catholics who felt that that hard-pressed RUC had not offered them the same level of support.
On the same day, Loyalist paramilitaries, in all likelihood the UVF, carried out a mass murder attempt on Catholics in the Ardoyne. A murder gang, armed with automatic weapons, drove along the Crumlin Road to the Holy Cross Church, got out of their car and opened fire on a large group of Catholics – men and women – as they waited for a bus for a church outing. They hit four people before walking to a parked car and shooting several more. They escaped into a nearby Loyalist area, leaving many wounded people who were ferried by car to the nearby Mater Hospital. A score or more elderly women came out of Mass at exactly the same time of the shootings, but fortunately were unharmed.
The first fatality of the month was a policeman, killed in the centre of Dungannon as he guided schoolchildren over a school crossing. RUCR officer Joseph Scott (50), father of five was on his regular crossing duty near St Patrick’s on a cold, foggy December morning at around 09:00. A car was driven close by and a masked gunman got out of the car and walked up behind the part-time policeman and shot him three times in the back before running back to the car and making good his escape. Mr Scott died en-route to hospital. Belfast was the centre of some major terrorist activity on the same day, with a major gun battle around the Short Strand. Gunmen firing from Nationalist housing opened fire with automatic weapons on an Army foot patrol, and soldiers returned fire. One PIRA gunman was hit and was observed to fall, but with the help of supporters, managed to escape into the rabbit warren of houses. Later on, an IRA bombing unit planted a bomb at the Spar Foodliner Supermarket and it exploded, blowing out the front of the building. Houses on St Ives Gardens, Stranmillis Road suffered collateral damage.
On the following day, a bombing team from PIRA’s Andersonstown unit attempted to explode a car bomb at Linfield Football Club at Windsor Park. The club is supported in the main by Protestants and is probably the most Loyalist football club next to Rangers. A bomb weighing 60lbs was defused by EOD but trains on the nearby Belfast to Lisburn line were halted during the incident. Linfield FC was formed in 1886 in a mill close to Sandy Row and takes its support from that area of South Belfast and areas around Finaghy, Dunmurry village, Lisburn and probably all of the Shankill. Catholics regard it as a sectarian club, but in reality, Roman Catholic representatives have played for the club throughout its history. Windsor Park was the target for several IRA bombs during the Troubles. Additionally, the footbridge known locally as the Stone Steps was one of the targets on Bloody Friday when a dog set off a 30lb bomb. The INLA left a car bomb close to the same bridge, when trying to disrupt a football match between Northern Ireland and England in the 1980s.
During the same morning, a no-warning bomb exploded a few feet away from an Army OP on Mountview Street in the Oldpark area of Belfast. Several soldiers were inside the OP when the 10lb device exploded and were unhurt, as were some civilian passers-by. A nearby shop was badly damaged. In Cookstown, Co Tyrone, EOD were forced to spend seven hours defusing a massive 200lb milk churn bomb which had been left by an IRA unit. Over 300 homes were evacuated as the Army worked on two milk churns packed with high explosives and shrapnel and a primed mortar shell. At the same time, in Belfast an unknown unit – likely to be Loyalist – left a stolen car with an explosive device packed around metal filings, nuts and bolts, in the Nationalist Andersonstown area, The Army was forced to defuse the device outside La Salles Boys’ School in Rathmoan Gardens, where a bingo session was in full flow. Did this elicit a grudging thank you from Sinn Fein? The author cannot locate any such compliment from the IRA’s mouthpiece.
On the 6th, a sectarian killing in the Mountainview area of North Belfast caused outrage when the UVF shot and mortally wounded a young Catholic girl. The area, a small and, for those days, a rare mixed enclave is situated to the south-west of the Crumlin Road and close to the Nationalist Ardoyne and north of the Loyalist Woodvale. It comprises Mountainview Parade, Park, Drive and Gardens and from the Gardens it has a good view of Belfast’s Black Mountain. A murder gang from the UVF approached the McKeown house on Mountainview Gardens seeking ‘reprisals’ against the family because a relative had recently been charged with being a member of an IRA unit which had planted a bomb at the offices of the Belfast Telegraph [see Chapter 21]. On hearing a noise, Geraldine ‘Dina’ McKeown (14) looked through the blinds of a front window and the gunmen fired several rounds at her, fatally wounding the girl. She collapsed in a pool of blood and was rushed to the RVH for emergency treatment. Described as a girl with a permanent smile on her face and one who was always trying to make people laugh, she died in hospital on the 8th. Lost Lives quotes her favourite expression: ‘Would you smile and give your face a holiday?’ One cannot help but wonder how much joy this Loyalist murder gang deprived her family and the world of. At the time of writing, she would have been approaching 50.
On the 7th, the Provisionals continued their deadly tactic of attacking prison officers whils
t off-duty, and tried to access a PO’s house in Glengormley in North Belfast. Three masked men, driving a stolen car parked outside the officer’s house and one of them walked towards the front door and opened fire with a pistol at the man. The shot missed and the car drove off back towards Belfast, being later abandoned in the Nationalist Oldpark area. The same organisation attempted to add to the appalling toll of policeman’s lives when they threw two hand grenades from a car at an RUCR officer. The young policeman was on security barrier duty in Kildare Street with another colleague when the two grenades were thrown; he managed to kick it away a split-second before it exploded. The blast tore off his uniform jacket and also blew his fellow officer off his feet. Gunmen in another car then fired five shots from a pistol – all of which missed – before both cars raced off into the nationalist Derrybeg Estate.
On the day that Geraldine McKeown died in hospital, a PIRA bombing team left a large device outside a drawing office on University Road, Belfast. An RUC team in a Land Rover arrived to investigate and as they arrived, the device exploded. Other officers were evacuating the locals – mainly students from the nearby Queen’s University – and as the device exploded, the evacuations were not complete. A policeman was blown off his feet and broke both legs and two students were buried under rubble and had to be dug out. The three serious injuries gave a lie to an IRA claim about their actions during the Troubles: ‘Our whole campaign has been geared to avoid civilian casualties. There is no underground army in the world that tries so hard to protect civilians from injury. We strike at economic, political and judicial targets.’ (David O’Connell, November 1974). Dáithí Ó Conaill (1938–1991) was a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.