The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  On the 20th, the Provisionals taxed the already over-stretched Army EOD to breaking limits as they carried out a series of hoax bomb warnings. The reasons behind this were to observe their techniques and better prepare anti-handling devices, to know where to place secondary devices based on the disposition of the EOD crews and of course to ensure that the pressures upon the teams was constant. On this particular day, over two hours was wasted on dealing with a hoax device which had been planted near the Army base at the Flax Street Mill in the Ardoyne. PIRA had hijacked a Northern Ireland Carriers van when it stopped in nearby Brompton Park and a box, purporting to contain explosives loaded on board. The driver was ordered to drive to Flax Street and then shout a warning and then run off. After two hours of efforts, the bomb-disposal team declared it a hoax. The following day, an armed IRA gang used a ten-year old girl to lure her part-time soldier father to the front door of their house in Tildarg Avenue in Belfast. When he came to the door, three armed men fired several shots at him, hitting him in the back and in both legs and only narrowly missing the girl. He survived after treatment, but the Provisionals had plumbed new depths of depravity.

  Retaliation to the funeral bomb was swift and overtly sectarian as the Provisionals targeted three Protestant workmates as they walked along Snugville Street in the Shankill. Brian Smith (24), father of two, was en-route to his local bank in order to cash his weekly pay cheque, in the company of two workmates. As they walked along and had just reached the junction with Queensland Street, a car hijacked in the nearby Ardoyne area pulled up, and gunmen opened fire through the window, cutting all three men down. It then raced off and was later found abandoned in the Nationalist Oldpark area. Mr Smith died before an ambulance could reach him but his badly injured friends were able to recover in the Mater Hospital. The ever pious and allegedly non-sectarian Provisionals claimed that they had not carried out the killings and that it was the work of the Republican Action Force, which to all but the blind, deaf and naïve was a cover name for the Provisional IRA.

  Foot patrol close to Boundary Bar, Shore Road, Belfast. (Mark ‘C’)

  SOUTH ARMAGH, 1977

  ‘Johnny’, Army Intelligence

  On my first patrol, I was scared as I walked out the gates; it was the fear of the unknown but after three patrols I thanked whoever that I was still alive and felt I was now a veteran. Frankly I was more concerned about the embarrassment of being killed on my first patrol, stupid really. Accommodation was tight; my bed space was in a wooden garden shed under a chicken wire screen, not the hardened concrete I was expecting. This I shared with another soldier, who I only saw as a lump in a sleeping bag. His webbing was a mix of 58 and 44 patterns with a metal water bottle pouch and his weapon, which everyone kept by their bed in those days, was an M16. No idea who or what he was as we never spoke; he was either asleep when I returned from patrol or was not there. At XMG the company there patrolled inside and outside of the village and had other multiples on four-day patrols in the cuds: the countryside surrounding it. During the day I patrolled the Square, watched over it from Borucki Sangar and at night time patrolled one of the housing estates and then the Square again.

  Here, as the pubs were closing, the commander I was with pointed out a known ‘player’ and suggested that I ‘P check’ him. Rather than do that I questioned this American woman he was with who turned out to be his cousin visiting from New York. Despite the initial provocation and abuse I received from her, I kept asking for her name and details. She was not happy but I kept cool and just repeated the requests quietly, explaining the powers of arrest I had as a soldier on duty in Northern Ireland. I never even bothered with the traced cousin; what would be the point of hassling a known player? I think she was disappointed I did not hit her, and give her more of a hard time so she would have a good story to tell the relatives back at home in the States. As cynically as it now sounds, with her facing me, my back to the pub wall and in shadow, I felt relatively safe. I reasoned any sniper would have to get in and out through the other patrols and be very good to hit me rather than her. I kept her talking for over two hours, quietly questioning her whilst the drunken cousin got more and more frustrated, as all he wanted to do was to go home to bed. Eventually I got her name, DOB, address in the ‘Big Apple’ and other information but the main point of the exercise was to show the British Army, even in XMG, don’t go around beating up Catholics, well not this one. OK she was quite attractive, gave me more information than I would have got from the cousin and, as I told the girl, I was on a four hour patrol and talking to her was better than walking the streets of Crossmaglen when the pubs have closed.

  A soldier fires a baton round at rioters in the Bogside. (Mark ‘C’)

  After XMG the next stop was Newry and this time it was a ‘scout’ helicopter tasked to pick us up. On the trip out from Bessbrook the pilot had been flying solo so it came as a surprise when the Int sergeant opened the port side front door to find an air crewman in the seat. This caused some slight delay and the aircrew were not pleased to say the least to be caught hanging around on the ground in Crossmaglen because of the stupidity of some grunts. The scout had no seats, or seat belts for that matter, so the four of us just sat on the floor. Hardly was the door shut than we were in the air and on the way to Newry. Unfortunately in our rush to get on board we had neglected to shut one of the doors properly and it came loose in flight. I was in the middle so not too concerned until the lad nearest me and the closest to the slightly open door started to grip my arm ever tighter with a look of fear on his face. As he and I had no headsets on, we had no way of talking to the crew so I tapped the air crewman on the shoulder and pointed out the door. Putting it mildly, he did not look pleased. I can’t recall if we landed prior to Newry to sort out the door, I just remember the four of us being abandoned in a tall grassy field surrounded by a stone wall and trees. The scout then very quickly departed as we looked around to see countryside, not the minor city I was expecting. Eventually after what seemed ages we heard someone calling out to us and saw a soldier who took us over a wall and onto a road that led down to Newry Police Station. I liked patrolling the streets of Newry even less than those of XMG, much preferring to be out in the countryside. Accommodation this time was on the top bunk of a three-stacked Army bed in a store room.

  On the 23rd, the Reverend Ian Paisley, in his role as head of the United Unionist Action Council (UUAC), threatened to organise a region-wide strike, unless Roy Mason acted against the IRA. Just 48 hours later, the UUAC, which was led by Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and Ernie Baird, then leader of the United Ulster Unionist Movement (UUUM), announced that it would hold a region-wide strike the following month. The strike was organised to demand a tougher security response from the British Government and a return to majority-rule Government at Stormont. The strike was supported by the Ulster Workers’ Council (UWC), the group which had organised the successful strike three years earlier, and also by the UDA, the largest of the Loyalist paramilitary groups. The UUAC gave Roy Mason seven days to respond to their demands. The threat of strike action by the UUAC was condemned by other groupings within Unionism including the Vanguard Unionist Party (VUP), the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and the Orange Order.

  Ian Paisley warned in a statement that if the British authorities failed to alter its policies then Loyalists might have to consider taking over the administration of Northern Ireland. He also called for people to consider a rent, rates and VAT strike. A meeting was held in Harland and Wolff shipyard at which a large majority of workers voted not to support the planned UUAC strike. In addition workers at the Ballylumford power station made it clear that they would only support the stoppage if it obtained clear support across all sectors of Northern Ireland industry. Following a request by Roy Mason, it was announced that an extra 1,200 British soldiers would be sent to Northern Ireland to maintain law and order in anticipation of the UUAC strike taking place.

  On the same day that the bi
goted Mr Paisley was pontificating about law and order, a British Army patrol on the Lenadoon Estate in West Belfast confronted a three-man IRA ‘patrol’ which was on ‘defence duties’ close to the Hunting Lodge. Brendan O’ Callaghan, an IRA ‘volunteer’ and two other armed men reacted aggressively and O’ Callaghan (22) was observed to cock a pistol – he was fired upon and hit; he died at the scene. On the 24th and 25th, there was a series of bomb attacks on commercial properties by the Provisionals. Shops on the Antrim Road, Belfast, Londonderry City Centre, Merchants’ Quay, Newry were all damaged by both explosive and incendiary devices and McKnight’s Furniture store in Mill Street, also in Newry, was completely wrecked by a bomb. Showing scant regard for the lives of their community, the IRA allowed a three-year old boy to be injured by a claymore type booby-trap in the New Barnsley. The toddler was walking close to an Army foot patrol when the device was detonated by remote control and he was seriously injured.

  On the same night, the UVF attacked a Catholic pub in Craigavon, Co Armagh and killed a drinker. Masked men stormed into the Legahorey Inn just before throwing out time and opened fire with an automatic weapon and pistol, firing indiscriminately into a crowd of drinkers. Three men and a woman were wounded, but Patrick Devlin (72), who had bravely tried to prevent them entering, was shot twice in the head and died at the scene. The killers escaped on a stolen motorbike leaving a scene of bloody chaos behind them.

  Two days later, armed with newly-supplied rocket propelled grenade launchers (RPG-7), courtesy of the unstable Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, then dictator of Libya, PIRA attacked an Army escort group. As an armoured Land Rover escorted a Post Office van along Springfield Road, Belfast, an RPG-7 was fired by a two-man IRA gang. The missile missed and instead crashed into the living room of a nearby house where a night shift worker was sleeping. The blast caused extensive damage and hurled him to the floor; he suffered cuts and bruises.

  There were no killings in the Province for the next six days, but the lull was only temporary and PIRA had been stalking a part-time soldier in the Dungannon area. Captain Eric Shiells (49) and a father of six was a part-time soldier in the UDR and also a businessman in the Dungannon area; he had served in the Royal Navy at the tail-end of World War II. On the morning of the 29th, he left his home in Northland Row and got into his car, intending to drive to work. Masked IRA gunmen who had been hiding in his garden walked up to him and shot him several times; he died at the scene. He was the second Royal Navy man killed by the IRA in this month. Later that day, two RUC detectives on the Turf Lodge Estate in West Belfast confronted a gang of four armed youths, thought to have been IRA members. There was a brief exchange of fire and both officers were wounded before reinforcements arrived; the armed gang ran off into the estate. The day ended when an unknown group threw a bomb onto the roof of the Club Bar at Queens University, Belfast; there was widespread damage but none of the 200 drinkers were injured.

  Deaths in April were slightly up, with 17 people losing their lives. The Army lost four soldiers all killed by the IRA and the RUC lost two officers. A total of nine civilians were killed, with seven being overtly sectarian; seven of the dead were Catholic and two were Protestant. Republicans lost two, both killed by the Army. In turn, they (the Republicans) killed ten this month and Loyalists were responsible for the remaining five.

  1 On 6 March 1988, three IRA members, Danny McCann, Sean Savage and Mairéad Farrell, were shot dead in Gibraltar by the SAS. The trio of terrorists had intended to detonate a massive car bomb close to an area where a regimental band and military changing of the Guard would be taking place. Had they been successful, the carnage is almost impossible to imagine. All three were subsequently found to be unarmed. Ingredients for a bomb, including 64 kilograms of Semtex, were later found in a car in Spain, identified by keys found in Farrell’s handbag. It was at their funerals on 16 March 1988 that Michael Stone made a gun and grenade attack and killed three people, including a PIRA volunteer. It was his stated aim that he wanted to wipe out the Provisionals’ hierarchy.

  29

  May

  Deaths remained below 20 in May, although the Army lost four soldiers and a former soldier was killed by the IRA because of his past associations with the Army. Another policeman was killed and the Provisionals killed another member of the judiciary. It was also the month in which Captain Robert Nairac was killed whilst working undercover and sparked off a 30+ year search for clues as to his whereabouts.

  The Provisional IRA saw some criminals – both Catholic and Protestant – called ‘ordinary decent criminals’, i.e. non-paramilitaries, as pure anathema. If these ODCs’ criminal activities impacted on those carried out by PIRA or were perceived as anti-social by them, they could expect anything from tarring and feathering to exile; or worse. On the 3rd, they abducted and killed a local gravedigger from near his home on the Nationalist Turf Lodge and took him to an industrial site near the Glen Road and shot him dead. There was a suggestion that Edward Coleman (23) father of two babies had been an ODC and had been executed by the pious Provisionals. However, there is absolutely nothing to link this man with any criminal activities and it may simply have been a matter of score-settling.

  On the 4th, as the Loyalist strike got under way, workers at the Ballymumford Power Station threw their weight behind it and put severe pressure on Belfast’s electricity supply in doing so. It was at the time the largest power station in Northern Ireland and supplied two-thirds of the Province’s electricity. There were mass riots by Loyalists in the Newtownards Road area of East Belfast and RUC riot squads fought all day with them, deploying CS gas and baton rounds. However, many Protestant workers continued to ignore calls to join in the strike and there were also clashes between pro- and anti-strikers. Transport services were affected with Larne Harbour closed and no bus services operating in routes through Loyalist areas of Belfast. Police were forced to drive several vehicles abreast down the Newtownards Road in an effort to cut through the swathes of Loyalist demonstrators who were trying to strangle commercial movement in that part of the city. Newspaper photos of the day show dozens of masked youths, in a deep phalanx, obstructing movement on the Newtownards Road. The Army was sent in in order to help the hard-pressed RUC and the day was marred by shootings and arrests.

  The UDR was one of the most hard-pressed units operating in the main strike areas during those first few days. They were called out to remove fallen trees, oil drums and milk churns which were blocking the roads. There were also numerous hoax bomb calls, as well as ‘mocked up’ bombs with suspicious wiring coming from them which needed to be carefully investigated. They also had to deal with reports of UDA gangs roaming the area forcing factories, shops, filling stations etc. to close and using various forms of intimidation to achieve their goals. The UDA were known as the ‘Wombles’ by their counterparts on the Republican side. The term, however, is thought to have originated amongst the Protestant population when referring to the organisation, named, of course, after the popular children’s TV programme of the time.

  In Bangor on the same day as the strike commenced, a bus carrying Catholic schoolchildren along Owenroe Drive in the Kilcooley area was fired on by Loyalist gunmen; the bus was hit by three shots but none of the children were injured.

  On the 5th, the Provisionals exploded a series of bombs in Newry, Co Down including a bomb attack on the Bit and Bridle Bar in Market Square. In Larne, a 19-year old petrol pump attendant was badly injured when a bomb exploded at a garage in the town; the resultant explosion destroyed several cars including two Rolls Royces. The Provisionals then hijacked a milk float in Belfast, placed explosives on board, and forced the terrified driver to take it, proxy-style, to York Road RUC station. A police Land Rover was positioned to stop the milk float’s progress, and when it exploded, it bore the brunt of the blast although there were some minor injuries.

  Before the day finished there were separate attacks on two former British soldiers; one ended in death. James Green (22) was a former soldier
in the Royal Irish Regiment and lived in the Nationalist Divis Street area. He was a Catholic who drove a taxi for a living and considered himself safe in a Catholic area and disassociated from his military past. However, the Provisionals, ever paranoid about touts, spies and ‘British agents,’ decided that Mr Green was a spy. He was hailed by a woman posing as a ‘fare’ in Glen Road, West Belfast, but as he stopped, at least two gunmen stepped out of a parked car and shot him in the head and chest at close range; he died before an ambulance could arrive. The next day, another former British soldier living in Andersonstown was driving a tractor in the Granshas area and was confronted by masked IRA gunmen who opened fire. Fortunately for the former squaddie, both gunmen’s pistols jammed and he was able to escape.

  The following day, a soldier and several civilians, including a young girl, were injured by an IRA bomb in Marcus Square, Newry. A large device had been planted in order to kill members of an Army foot patrol as they passed a derelict building. It exploded just as four civilians were in the immediate vicinity of the soldiers. The IRA members responsible for remote detonating the bomb must have seen the innocent passers-by but still continued with the explosion. It was a further clear example of their callousness and obsessive desire to kill security forces whatever the cost. None of the civilians were badly injured, but one of the soldiers almost had his arm severed and he was saved when a comrade made a tourniquet from his webbing belt. The following evening – Saturday – a gang, thought to have been from one of the main Loyalist paramilitaries, hurled two petrol bombs into the Coachman’s Inn on Rathgael Road, Bangor. Before this, they had seized the manager and a member of staff and bundled them into a waiting car. They were taken away and severely assaulted, with the female member receiving very bad head injuries.