The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  On Wednesday 2 February, Jeffrey Agate (59), Managing Director of the American Du Pont factory in Londonderry was shot dead by masked IRA gunmen outside his home at Talbot Park. He was just returning home when the gunmen shot him in the head and chest and his distraught wife, alerted by the gunshots, found him moments from death in the driveway of their home. Mr Agate was originally from Calcutta and had moved to Northern Ireland in 1957; his death was intended to frighten away other industry leaders and entrepreneurs. This killing marked the beginning of a series of attacks on businessmen and they carried out what may be termed ‘economic assassinations’ in March of this year. Just 24 hours later, a Belfast-based Civil Servant was targeted by the same terror group who placed a UVBT underneath his car in Lismore Park, Belfast, close to the Antrim Road. He got into his car in order to drive to work, and as he started to reverse, the device detonated. Although the car was wrecked he survived with just cuts and bruises and his wife and children were treated for cuts caused by flying glass.

  Around 00:20 on the 3rd, Joseph ‘Joe’ Morrisey (52) and father to a staggering 13 children chanced upon the Shankill Butchers; or rather, they chanced upon him. He had been drinking most of the previous day and, worse the wear for drink, bade goodbye to his drinking companions and set off from his last port of call, the National Club in Berry Street, Belfast. He was walking towards the foot of the Antrim Road where he lived, well over a mile away. The Butchers had been drinking in the Lawnbrook Social Club and near to midnight, set off in a Ford Cortina belonging to one of the gang and drove towards the Antrim Road. On Upper Donegal Street, they spotted Mr Morrisey and jumped out of the car and laid him low with a blow from a hatchet. The desperate man struggled to his feet and began fighting back, but the gang hit him repeatedly and bundled him into the back of the car. They drove him around the Shankill and continued to torture the helpless and bloodied man. He was eventually driven up to Glencairn Community Centre on Forthriver Road where they attempted to sever the dying man’s head. His mutilated body was found several hours later by the RUC.

  On Friday 4th, a court hearing in Belfast convicted five members of the Black Watch Regiment (Nemo Me Impune Lacessit: ‘No One Provokes Me With Impunity’) on charges of planting evidence. The soldiers had planted false evidence on several members of an Andersonstown family which included bullets in vehicles and other charges of false imprisonment and falsification of statements; all five pleaded guilty and were jailed. On the same day, the IRA planted several bombs in Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh and made inadequate telephoned warnings which resulted in several injuries. The RUC received an anonymous warning but with only a five-minute lead time, there was little that they could do. The main post office in Dundalk Street was hit and a woman aged 49 who was making a telephone call inside the building was caught by the blast of the first bomb. A 14-year old boy who was close by was also badly injured and 150 people were evacuated in time before the others were due to explode. EOD successfully defused the remaining devices. On that day also, a booby-trapped device was attached to the car belonging to a senior legal executive employed by the Department of Finance. As he got into his car parked outside his home on Belfast’s Antrim Road, and reversed out of his drive, the device exploded. His wife and children were caught in the blast but fortunately escaped with cuts and bruises. The origins of the explosive device are unknown, but it is likely that it was placed there by Republicans.

  NEAR MISSES

  Keith Page

  One night, two of our mobile patrols were driving through the Kilwikee Estate, a really nasty and rundown Republican area of Lurgan. A mate of mine, Ray was driving one of the Land Rovers when a sniper opened up from the graveyard to the right of them. I never used to like going past this graveyard myself and it wasn’t the first time that an attack had come from there. This wasn’t one of the usual cowboys either; he knew what he was doing and the high velocity round missed Ray’s head by inches. They just put their foot down for 50 metres or so before debussing and getting into firing positions. Everything happened too quickly for them to return fire. Unfortunately, during the follow up no gunmen were found but what was known was that Ray and the two blokes riding shot gun in the Land Rover had had a lucky escape that night. The bullet hole in the Land Rover showed how close it was, and they were a thousandth of a second away from being just another statistic; you couldn’t get a nearer miss.

  Later, we were doing a big search in Craigavon, and somewhat unprofessionally, there was a few of us congregating around a couple of Land Rovers. Because we were in this same spot for quite a time, we must have attracted the attentions of an IRA unit because just as it got dusky, someone opened up with a Thompson in our general direction. Clearly this wasn’t a planned attack and it was one of those cowboys again. But, cowboy or not, you’ve never seen people duck so quickly; everyone got down into a firing position and looked around for a target. Anyway, there was a street lamp pretty close to us and one of the lads wisely shot it out. Then all of a sudden one of the lads – I’ll call him ‘S’ – instead of getting down into a firing position and looking around, started running towards some thickets where the rounds sounded like they were coming from.

  Wrecked garage after IRA bomb blast 1977. (Mark ‘C’)

  It was reckless rather than brave and it was stupid as well as he was just running blindly forward in the dark. He had no idea who or what was in front of him and if there had been a less panicked and perhaps more professional IRA gunman facing him, ‘S’ might well have just been picked off. It must have done enough to put the gunman off, and he scarpered! The lad concerned had done a few other stupid things on that tour and he wasn’t going to win any hearts and minds competitions!

  Sometime afterwards, we were on a mobile patrol on the outskirts of some rural town close to Lurgan when a gunman opened up in our general direction from across some open fields. Although we were a moving target they fortunately weren’t great shots. It would appear that this wasn’t a carefully planned attack and maybe we were just a target of opportunity and it was a spontaneous shoot. We couldn’t see them and just put down a few suppressing rounds, just enough to keep their heads down and let off some frustration.

  On the 5th, another policeman was killed, this time RUCR Constable Robert Harrison in Gilford, Co Down. Gilford is a village which sits on the River Bann between the towns of Banbridge, Tandragee and Portadown. The officer and a colleague were sent to investigate reports of a bomb in a drapers’ shop close to the hospital where he was a fulltime orderly. He and his colleague searched the shop, but were unable to find anything there, but when they got back into their patrol car, a stolen car containing PIRA gunmen pulled alongside and several shots were fired at them. Constable Harrison (50) was killed instantly and his colleague was badly wounded. The wounded man survived, but his arm was badly mangled and it was eventually amputated. The dead policeman had also been a member of the UDR but had resigned to join the RUCR. The Provisionals had earlier tried to kill another policeman with an explosive package which was delivered to his home in Bessbrook. However, the man’s wife started to open it and noticed wires and quickly stopped. EOD were called to defuse the parcel which contained a hollowed-out book, packed with explosives.

  The long-running trial of the IRA’s England Team arrested at the end of the Balcombe Street siege in London was coming to an end – they were convicted of six murders on the 10th – and the Provisionals launched a seven bomb blitz as a reminder that they hadn’t gone away. In what the mainland newspapers called a ‘midnight blitz,’ several West End stores were hit including the iconic Selfridges as the Provisionals rocked London’s Oxford Street. At the same time, Merseyside police uncovered a PIRA bomb-making factory in Liverpool.

  On the 7th, a UDA member – Frank McCarroll (47) – was found dead in the Glencairn Estate, which was turning out to be a regular dumping ground for those murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries. He had been beaten unconscious after an internal dispute in a nearby Loyalist drinking c
lub and then left to drown in a stream close to Forthriver Way. After the father of four children was found, a deputation of Glencairn mothers marched to the local RUC station to complain that their residential area was being used as a ‘cemetery’ for the victims of sadistic murders. The RUC agreed to step up patrols in the area.

  Two days later, several PIRA gunmen launched an attack on the RUC station at Draperstown, Co Londonderry, north-west of Lough Neagh. As a police car pulled out of the fortified station in the foothills of the Sperrin Mountain, it was greeted by a hail of automatic gunfire. Around 40 shots were fired at the car and the station but there were no casualties. Nearby homes were also hit and innocent and terrified civilians were forced to duck for cover. Police officers fired back, but the armed gang drove off in a stolen car. The little RUC station is no longer there, and instead the local police station is in nearby Magherafelt where the red-bricked PSNI station still looks as though it is under constant siege. Shortly afterwards, Republican gunmen attempted to assassinate a former Loyalist MP when they attacked him at his home in the Shankill. The man and his wife were watching television at their home in Carnan Street when a gunman burst through the open front door – it was secured only by a chain – and fired one round at them. The shot missed and the gunman turned and ran, leaving the couple severely shocked.

  On the 10th and 12th respectively, two more soldiers were killed in the Province; one died in an RTA and the other death was one of the seemingly ubiquitous ‘unknown cause of death.’ Sapper Michael Larkin (24) of the Royal Engineers is listed on the AFM ROH but enquiries to the MOD have failed to elicit the reasons behind his death; he was from the Chester area. Sergeant Peter Girvan (35) of the Army Catering Corps was killed in a vehicle crash on the 12th of the month. On the day of Sapper Larkin’s death, PIRA attacked a village post office in Gortin, Co Tyron, but this was foiled by a quick-thinking and brave postmistress who spotted the device – a 10lb bomb – in a post box and removed it. It was later defused by EOD.

  In what the folk of Northern Ireland refer to as the ‘wee hors’ of the 12th, another policeman was murdered by the IRA. RUCR Constable Samuel McKane (33) worked as a manager at a local mill in Cloughmills, Co Antrim which produced shirts as well as being a part-time policeman. He was also based at the small RUC station in the same town. PIRA gunmen had tracked his movements and although he did vary his routine, they knew that he arrived at his home in Culcrum Road shortly after midnight. An armed gang lay in wait for him in a nearby farm and as he got out of his car, shot him in the head and chest; he died shortly afterwards.

  A PIRA unit in Londonderry planted an explosive device on the 16th along a well-used patrol route with the intention of killing and maiming soldiers. Tillie and Henderson’s factory near the Bogside was derelict and was therefore ideal for placing such a device. However, just before an Army patrol was due past, a local youth accidentally triggered it off and was badly injured; yet more evidence that the Provisionals were not overly concerned about protecting their own community. Throughout the 18th, there was a series of attacks on small premises by the IRA but most were either defused, or carried to safety where they exploded harmlessly. Also on that day, Sergeant Frederick Pulford (32) from Kilkeel, Co Down was killed in an RTA whilst on duty.

  The Provisionals attempted to kill a policeman in Co Fermanagh on the 17th, when they ambushed a joint Army/RUC patrol very close to the border with the Irish Republic. Gunmen opened fire on a mobile patrol as it drove along an isolated country lane, hitting the lead vehicle and seriously wounding one officer in the neck and also shattering his wrist. Soldiers returned fire and then the fleeing terrorists were confronted by a patrol of the Irish Army and shots were exchanged. Later that same day, IRA gunmen attacked two separate Army patrols in different parts of Belfast and short firefights broke out in Duncairn Gardens in North Belfast and shortly afterwards at Edgar Street in the Nationalist Short Strand.

  On the 19th, it was a case of guilt by association and an innocent Catholic was shot dead by the UDA/UFF at his home on Clifton Crescent in North Belfast. Brian Canavan (35) and the father of four young children was related to an IRA man, William Carson who was also killed by Loyalists in April 1979. Masked UFF gunmen knocked at the door of the house, which was close to both the Crumlin Road and Antrim Road. They saw Mr Canavan through the frosted glass of the door and fired five rounds through the glass, hitting him in the head and in his body. He died at the scene in front of his distraught wife and children. The car used by the murder gang was found abandoned in a Loyalist area and it would appear that they were looking for the man’s IRA brother-in-law.

  On Monday 21 February, Margaret Thatcher, then leader of the Opposition Conservative Party, visited Belfast and other parts of the Province on a fact-finding mission. She was still some two years away from becoming Britain’s first woman Prime Minister and was already considering her close friend and campaign controller Airey Neave, MP for the role as Northern Ireland Secretary. Neave, a wartime hero and one of the few Allied POWs to make a ‘home run’ escape from the notorious Colditz Castle, was a hard-liner who actually praised his Labour counterpart Roy Mason for his tough approach to terrorism. Neave was the party’s spokesman on Northern Ireland and was beginning to make enemies amongst the Republican paramilitary groups.

  Another UDR soldier was killed by the IRA on the 23rd when Major Peter Hill (45), a father of three was shot at his home in Limavady Road, Londonderry as he returned home from work. Major Hill was a part-time soldier who worked as a company director and had just turned into the driveway of his home when masked gunmen fired a hail of bullets at his car, killing him. He had announced his intention to resign his commission that very day, but it didn’t prevent his murder at the hands of terrorists.

  The day after, another policeman was killed, this time at Cushendall, Co Antrim. The tiny seaside resort is located on the Province’s north-eastern coast and was considered a ‘safe’ place and certainly one which had been apparently bypassed by the Troubles. Sergeant Joseph Campbell (49) and a father of eight, was the personification of the ‘village Bobby’ and was well known for his humanitarian and community qualities; he had been the village policeman for over eight years. At around 22:30 hours on the night of the 25th, he was locking up the police station for the night when a concealed sniper hit him with a single round. He died at the scene and was found lying in a pool of blood. No paramilitary organisation ever claimed responsibility. Given that he was a Catholic, a rare breed in the RUC, his likely killers were thought to have been either UFF or UVF.

  However, the truth was later revealed by a former senior RUC man – Alan Simpson – in his excellent and informative Murder Madness; True Crimes of the Troubles (G&M Books, 1999). His killer was alleged to be a ‘bent copper’ whose name I am unable to reveal for legal reasons as although he was convicted for the murder, his sentence was quashed on appeal after serving some time in prison. A fellow RUC officer who was alleged to have been involved with an INLA ‘bit player’ Anthony O’Doherty, in bank and post office robberies was arrested and charged with Sergeant Campbell’s murder. O’Doherty claimed in court that the unnamed officer had fired the fatal shot, in order to silence him after he had started to get close to the accused RUC detective’s extramural and nefarious criminal activities.

  The Provisional IRA had already begun a campaign against what they termed as ‘representatives of the Crown Forces’, namely those who worked and operated the legal system. They had targeted judges and solicitors previously and on the 26th, killed a JP. An armed gang burst into the home of Robert Mitchell (69) a local magistrate in Windsor Hill, Newry. The gang held the JP’s elderly sisters hostage and when Mr Mitchell returned home, one of the terrorists shot him as he walked into the hallway. Mr Mitchell had been a wholesale grocer and after retirement had taken up the law.

  This author has previously covered the deaths of former British soldiers who had left the Army, returned to Northern Ireland and married their tour sweethea
rts. If the former squaddies felt that disassociating themselves from the Army and severing their service ties would ‘exonerate’ them in the eyes of the Republicans, the deaths of at least three others was proof to the contrary. John ‘Jackie’ Lee (35), father of three, was a former paratrooper who had served with the Parachute Regiment on several tours of Northern Ireland. Unlike the others, he had married before joining the Army but like them, had returned to live in Northern Ireland. On the night of the 27th, he and his wife had been drinking in the Crumlin Star Social Club; as they left, an IRA gunman was waiting outside and came up behind Mr Lee and shot him several times in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Mr Lee and his family had been living in Mountainview Gardens. See also the deaths of Brian Shaw (21/07/74) and Nicholas White (13/03/76).

  Both wings of the IRA and later the INLA would suffer from premature detonations – in Army parlance an ‘own goal’ – and the removal of their bombers from the gene pool. On the same night that the IRA murdered John Lee, the UVF lost two of their members in another ‘own goal’ explosion. On the 27th, Joseph Long (33) and James Cordner (23) were walking along Corporation Street, close to the City Centre and alongside the River Lagan. A spokesman for the Loyalist paramilitaries claimed that the pair was en-route to plant a device under an IRA member’s car when it exploded. Both terrorists were killed instantly and body parts were scattered over a wide area.