The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  Deaths in February were much lower than of late, with 16 people losing their lives. The Army lost four soldiers for a variety of reasons and the RUC also lost four; three were killed by the Republicans and one almost certainly by Loyalist paramilitaries. A total of five civilians were killed and the Loyalists lost three, to a combination of feuds and own goals. Republicans killed seven and Loyalists, including the Shankill Butchers, were responsible for six deaths. Only two of the civilian deaths were overtly sectarian.

  27

  March

  March saw a slight decrease in deaths and three UDR soldiers were all killed, at work or en-route for work; another policeman was killed and the infamous Shankill Butchers struck again. The IRA stepped up their ‘economic’ attacks and killed an English businessman as he returned to Belfast airport to drive to the mainland; he was the second such person to be killed in this month.

  The month began with an attempt by Republican paramilitaries to kill a leading Loyalist politician but in their bungling, they managed to shoot his brother instead and badly wounded him. A murder gang had stalked the politician’s home in Portadown and followed the man as he left his house. As he began walking down the street, they opened fire with handguns and wounded him in the chest. The man – Robert Whitten, a magistrate – was fatally wounded and died over three months later [see Chapter 30]. Their intended target was not even in Portadown at the time; sources state that the attack might have been carried out by the INLA.

  The Provisionals’ economic war continued with the murder of a businessman from England as a warning to other financiers and investment companies to keep out of the Province. On the 2nd of the month, masked gunmen burst into the office of Apex Ceilings in Lawrence Street, Belfast where Donald Robinson (57) was attending to a customer. The gang forced the pair to lie on the floor before shooting Mr Robinson three times and leaving him mortally wounded; he died shortly afterwards. This was the second murder of a businessman in the last few weeks, and more were to follow. The excuse was that Apex Ceilings had carried out work at HMP, The Maze on behalf of the Northern Ireland authorities.

  It has been a long-standing Republican tradition that shots are fired over the coffins by masked men at the funerals of their dead volunteers. This was also mimicked by the Loyalists and the UVF funerals of the two own-goal victims – Long and Cordner – witnessed such a send-off. The RUC were on hand to prevent this and major scuffles and rioting broke out when they attempted to do so. A bomb attack on a Catholic betting shop in the Ardoyne would seem to have been timed to be in conjunction with the UVF funeral. The betting shop at the junction of Brompton Road and the Crumlin Road was hit by a 20lb device, but there were no injuries.

  The BBC programme ‘Tonight’ carried out an investigation into interrogation techniques employed at the RUC’s Castlereagh holding centre. This programme subsequently led Amnesty International to conduct its own investigation which was published in June 1978. The reaction to the programme also led to the publication of the Bennett Report from the British Government which was published in March 1979. Both these reports were critical of the methods used to interrogate people suspected of paramilitary involvement. The following day, Brian Faulkner died in a riding accident during a hunt. He had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1971 to 1972 and had been Chief Executive in the power-sharing Executive of 1974.

  On the 4th, the IRA again targeted a member of the legal profession as ‘….part of [their] continuing attacks against British imperialism’s judiciary…..’ Just as they had killed a JP the previous month, so they shot and killed a member of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as he relaxed on Friday lunchtime. Rory O’Kelly (59), who was also a Catholic, was having a drink at a bar in Coalisland, Co Tyrone. A gunman walked into the bar as he sat with friends, ordered a drink and then calmly shot the CPS man dead and just as calmly walked out.

  Three days later, a paramilitary murder gang tried to murder two Catholic workers at a building site close to the Nationalist Twinbrook area of West Belfast. Two people – possibly from an IRA ‘discipline squad’ – – walked onto the site at Areema Drive and entered a hut where two workers, aged 24 and 60 were sitting; two others were ordered outside. They then opened fire on the two men, seriously wounding them, and walked away. Had the gang been Loyalist, they would have shot all four of the Catholic workers. Shortly afterwards, an RUC man had a lucky escape in Belfast when he discovered a UVBT underneath his car; EOD defused the device. The UVF were most definitely involved 48 hours later when a Catholic died in a blatantly sectarian attack in Craigavon, Co Armagh. Myles Scullion (47), father of five, lived on the Eniskeen Estate in Craigavon and was shot by UVF gunmen as he went to answer a knock at his front door. He was mortally wounded, and died at the scene.

  On the 8th, eight SAS soldiers were each fined £100 by a Dublin court for carrying guns without a certificate. The men had strayed over the border whilst on operations and were arrested by the Gardaí Siochana. The incident caused a major diplomatic incident and severe embarrassment for the Callaghan Government. To others such as this author, the question was: If soldiers can be arrested, why not the Republican terrorists who cross the border with impunity?

  On the 9th, the IRA shot dead a UDR soldier at a remote farm in Co Tyrone which straddled both sides of the border and was also in Co Monaghan. Private John Reid (55) was, unusually for a man of his age, a full-time soldier in the UDR and also operated farmland as well. He had been observed by the IRA on several occasions going to check on his cattle at the remote farm at Glasslough and he had been seen travelling there from his home in the Caledon area of Co Tyrone. On the night of his death, he had driven to the farm and gunmen were waiting; as he arrived, they jumped out and shot him dead. That same night, another PIRA unit from the Co Tyrone Brigade attempted to kill a police officer in Dromore, Stewartstown. An armed gang lay in wait outside and when the RUCR officer’s 15-year old daughter turned on a bedroom light, they opened fire with automatic weapons and raked the house. The girl threw herself to the floor and narrowly escaped death, although her face was badly cut by flying glass. Her policeman father ran out of the house and fired back at the Republican thugs with his shotgun and service revolver, and the gang ran away across nearby fields to their waiting car.

  The following day, an IRA bombing unit targeted shops in the York Street/Great Patrick Street area of Belfast City Centre. A large device was left inside a car accessory shop there and a young employee, Norman Sharkey (18) bravely tried to warn his fellow-workers of the danger. One of the PIRA thugs shot down the young man in cowardly fashion and then fled before the explosion which gutted the premises. The young Protestant died just before reaching the nearby Mater Hospital; his death like so many others was totally pointless. The author remembers this incident and remarked at the time just what kind of Ireland these Republican thugs were actually building or hoping to create after their hoped for victory.

  Another bomb blast in Belfast City Centre 1977 . (Mark ‘C’)

  On the 10th, PIRA attacked a part-timer soldier as he arrived for work at a concrete factory in Gortgenis, Coalisland. Masked men had forced the staff at gunpoint into a room and they then lay in wait for the UDR man. Armed with a pistol and a shotgun, they shot Corporal Davy Graham (38) father of three, as he walked into the building, fatally wounding him. He died of those wounds on the 25th of this month.

  On the following Saturday, a mini-blitz carried out by the IRA against prison officers almost resulted in three deaths. In the first incident, masked gunmen opened fire at a PO in Glengormley, Co Antrim but missed their target and instead, badly wounded the officer’s wife in the neck. Moments later in another part of Belfast, POs discovered UVBTs had been attached to their cars in separate incidents. Army EOD were called out to make the devices safe and were again in action when a third device was found attached to the window sill of a nearby PO’s house. There was a suggestion that this action was the work of the UVF after the announcement of verdicts in co
urt the previous day. Twenty-six members of the UVF were sentenced in Belfast to a total of 700 years in prison. The imprisonment of so many members of the UVF is believed to have helped curtail activities by the Loyalist paramilitaries. Sources close to the trouble, however, feel that the mini blitz was part of the ongoing PIRA campaign against POs.

  On the 11th, an alleged PIRA member – William James McGookin – attempted to murder a prison officer at his home in Carmoney, Co Antrim. The PO was not present and McGookin attempted to murder the man’s wife. The 26-year old woman answered a knock at her door, but as she attempted to open it, the gunman fired through the glass panelling, hitting her in the neck. She later told the court in March, 1979:

  I am not sure now if I heard the shot but I can remember putting my hand to my neck and falling to the floor. The next thing I can remember was that the telephone was ringing. My little daughter had opened the back door and my neighbour and sister came running in.

  The woman was rushed to the Mater Hospital where she underwent an emergency operation to enable her to breath properly.

  On the 13th, yet another policeman was killed and his female colleague came close to death in an incident close to Lisnaskea, Co Tyrone. The two officers were driving their patrol car at Ballagh’s Cross, when several PIRA gunmen opened fire from concealed positions. A hail of rounds fired from American-supplied Armalites hit the car and Constable William Brown (18), who had only been out of training for four months, was hit in the neck. The car crashed and the female RUCR officer was also hit. However, she extricated herself from the car and fired back at the PIRA men, but the gang escaped; the young officer died at the scene. Later that day, the Provisionals detonated devices in the Ann Street/Castle Lane areas of Belfast and hit a branch of the Curtess’ shoe chain and the iconic British Home Stores building in the City Centre.

  Before that day was over, they also tried to kill a former UDR member at his home in Dungannon. The former soldier had just parked his car and was walking towards his front door when hidden gunmen sprayed him with automatic fire. He was hit several times but only slightly wounded and managed to escape. Over the course of the Troubles, both the Provisionals and INLA targeted former members of the UDR claiming that their past association with the Regiment marked them as ‘legitimate’ military targets. From D.J. McCormick (10/12/71) to Eric Smyth (28/04/94) no less than 64 former members of the UDR were murdered by Republicans.

  The Provisionals’ tactics of attacking soft targets was in evidence again the day after, when an armed gang in a stolen car waited opposite the regular pick-up spot of Private David McQuillan (36), father of three and a part-time UDR soldier. He had been observed on a regular basis being collected for work at a spot only a few yards from his home in Mullaghboy Crescent, Bellaghy, Co Londonderry. When he appeared with a fellow construction worker and in full view of his wife and children who were waving him off, the car closed in on them and gunmen opened fire. The part-time soldier was killed instantly and his colleague badly injured. The soldier’s 14-year old son was at the other side of the road waiting for the school bus and he witnessed his father’s murder.

  It was horrible; I saw them kill my Daddy. He tried to run away, but he didn’t have a chance. I ran across and turned him over but he was dead. (John Potter’s A Testimony to Courage, Pen & Sword Books, 2001, p.185)

  Later that same day, James Nicholson (44), an English businessman, was shot dead by PIRA gunmen as he left the Strathearn Audio factory, Stockman’s Lane, Belfast, en-route for Aldergrove International Airport. The businessman from Harrogate in Yorkshire was with the company chauffeur when their car stopped at traffic lights. Gunmen opened fire hitting both men, but Mr Nicholson was killed instantly. The twisted rationale and justification for the cowardly murder was the claim by the Provisionals that convicted terrorists in jails in both England and Ireland were being brutalised and this was their method of forcing influential people – such as businessmen – to put pressure on the British Government to withdraw from Northern Ireland.

  The Provisionals then launched a simultaneous bombing blitz on Belfast City Centre and although there were no injuries, seven premises were damaged in the resultant explosions. They then hijacked a Belfast Telegraph delivery van in Berlin Street, Shankill and, having packed it with explosives, forced the driver to drive it to Crumlin Road Jail and Courthouse. When it exploded, severe damage was caused to both buildings; the driver escaped unhurt. Two days later, there was the bizarre case of a PIRA sniper opening fire on a Royal Navy vessel as it left Carlingford Lough. A crewman on board HMS Vigilant spotted the gunman as he hid by a church near Omeath at the side of the Lough and fired two rounds at the vessel. Armed Marines returned fire but the gunman escaped. On the same day, two part-time UDR soldiers in Oban Street, Portadown were fired on as they returned home from work. Thankfully in neither case were any injuries reported. Later, there was a miraculous escape for a businessman and his daughter in Londonderry when the IRA set a booby-trap device at their home. The device had been left in the driveway of their home in Tirkeeran and attached to a piece of catgut. As the man drove over this, en-route for his daughter’s school, the explosive charge was triggered. However, as it only partially detonated, the car was severely damaged but both escaped with just cuts and bruises.

  The day after the double murder, a Protestant man, described as inoffensive and having no paramilitary links, was found shot dead near Londonderry. Alexander Watters (62) was found, having been shot five times, lying in the road near Banty Bridge, some two hours after he set off to cycle to Draperstown; no motive was clear and none of the paramilitary organisations claimed responsibility. At approximately the same time, three armed and masked PIRA men took over the Customs Post at Mullan, near Derrylin. Having ascertained that there were no RUC or Army personnel around, they physically assaulted the staff. However, the RUC showed up and a gun battle broke out. The IRA gang escaped over the nearby border into the Republic.

  Twenty-four hours after the killing of Mr Watters, the UFF killed a Catholic man and came close to killing his ten-year old son. Daniel Carville (35), father of three, was taking his family from their home in the Ardoyne to an aunt’s house in the Springfield Road. As they slowed to leave the Ardoyne masked UFF gunmen opened fire on their car and Mr Carville courageously threw himself on top of his young son to shield him from the Loyalist bullets. He was hit four times in the head and died instantly but his son was spared, physically at least. He had noticed a car behind him and it flashed its lights to waiting gunmen who had positioned themselves by road ramps designed to slow traffic down. The flashing lights were a pre-arranged signal to indicate the occupants of Mr Carville’s car were Catholics as they had come out of the Ardoyne. Samuel McCaw, a Loyalist paramilitary, was later found guilty of the cowardly murder and also of a later bomb in the Falls area which killed a child.

  At the time of publication the boy must now be in the region of 45; one wonders how much trauma that young boy has suffered over the last 35 years without his brave father. McCaw also came close to killing two innocent Catholic boys on the Shankill Road after he had killed Mr Carville. As the boys walked past the Loyalist Salisbury Bar, he had drunkenly fired several shots at them from an upstairs bar; both boys were uninjured.

  There were further attacks on Belfast City buses and five more were hijacked by masked gunmen and taken away to be torched. Eventually the constant financial drain of losing their vehicles and the cost of replacing drivers who refused to operate routes into Nationalist areas led to the bus companies refusing to enter these areas. Of course the residents had the ready to hand black cab replacements which were controlled by the Provisionals, and operated safely, as a consequence of the protection money paid to them.

  Over the past two months, the Provisionals had used a mixture of wire and fishing line in order to attach explosive devices to cars and properties in their latest booby-trap campaign. The Loyalists had learned from this and a similar method was employed on a works bu
s which was known to ferry Catholic workers to and from Abbey Meat Packers, Greenisland. The itinerant workers from Co Armagh had been staying in at a company-owned house in Shore Road, North Belfast and as it set off, the attached fishing line tautened and the device exploded. The resultant explosion killed Larry Potter (26) and badly injured his five work colleagues on the bus. The UVF admitted that they had bombed the bus. One of the men who planted this bomb is the son of the driver that took part in the McGurk’s bomb six years earlier [see The Bloodiest Year by the author] and was also later jailed for life. At the time they were the only father and son serving life in a UK prison.

  The same Loyalist paramilitary group then knocked at the door of a house in Upper Meadow Street in the Nationalist New Lodge area of Belfast intent on sectarian murder. When the babysitter, a 12-year old girl came to answer, they began shooting through the door, firing a total of ten rounds and hitting her three times. God was clearly on the girl’s side as one of the rounds intended for her heart was deflected by her St Christopher medallion which was hanging around her neck. The Patron Saint of Travellers was indeed smiling on her and she escaped with just minor wounds.

  Dominic ‘Mad Dog’ McGlinchey and a gang of INLA thugs attempted to kill an RUCR officer as he drove his works lorry at Toomebridge, Co Antrim. Although they raked the cab with automatic weapons, the officer escaped with only cuts, despite 17 rounds being fired at him. Apparently enraged, the INLA gang drove to the officer’s home – a small cottage at Culnafay Road, Toomebridge – where his elderly mother was in bed at the time. Also in the house was his young daughter. The gang opened fire with Armalites and other automatic weapons. The girl escaped injury, which was surprising in view of the incredible number of rounds fired at the house, but Hester McMullan (77) and the mother of seven including the RUCR officer was hit twice and died at the scene. On the same day as McGlinchey was busy, murdering old, defenceless ladies, three major firefights between the Army and IRA in which over 400 rounds were expounded, miraculously saw not a single casualty. Attacks were made on the Army at Cullaville, South Armagh and in nearby Forkhill.