The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77

by Ken Wharton

  The day continued in the usual chaotic way of the Troubles and the Provisionals did their level best to exacerbate the chaos. First of all, the large Wellworth’s store in Dungannon was bombed and as a totally inadequate warning was given, 23 people, including seven RUC officers and a soldier, who was helping evacuate civilians, were injured. Screaming shoppers were running for cover as the device exploded and many were cut by flying glass. Damage was quite extensive and the resultant fire destroyed much of the building. The town centre was evacuated and the RUC cleared all pubs and ordered them to close their doors. No traffic was allowed in and the police were forced to search for more bombs. The scene switched to Newry and over a million pounds worth of alcohol in a bonded warehouse was lost as a PIRA bomb exploded, causing some injuries. The day ended with an ambush carried out by IRA gunmen on a police car near Moy, Co Tyrone. Their car had just reached Clover Hill Bridge on the Benburb Road, when gunmen armed with automatic weapons opened fire and several shots hit the vehicle. The quick-thinking police driver turned into a side road and the officers then got out and chased after the gunmen with their weapons drawn. A small firefight broke out and the terrorists escaped across fields.

  The 5th and 6th continued in the same vein, as the Provisionals, clearly not short of explosives, bombed and fire-bombed across the Province. Over 30 devices exploded, causing massive damage to industrial premises and interrupting commercial and transport disruption.

  Two soldiers were lost at the same time in tragic traffic accidents on the 6th. Trooper Anthony Sutton (19) of the Scots Dragoon Guards, a London boy, was killed in the Province. He was on top cover in the cupola of an armoured vehicle and failed to see an overhanging branch, receiving massive head injuries. His funeral was held at Manor Park in East London. Ranger Hugh Thompson (25) was killed on the same day in a separate accident. The following day, Cushendall, Co Antrim, scene of the murder of RUC Sergeant Joseph Campbell [see Chapter 26] was again in the news. A joint UDR/RUC patrol discovered a small arms cache in a derelict house consisting of rifles, pistols, 180 rounds of ammunition and two mortar tubes which were in such poor condition that EOD destroyed them on the spot.

  Forty-eight hours later, Roy Mason announced to the House of Commons that in view of the decrease in the level of violence, troop level reductions in the New Year would be carried out. Around 13,500 men or 13 major units of the combat arm would be the new maximum level of armed strength in the Province.

  Each year, the Darwin Awards are announced and which in a tragic way commemorate those who remove themselves from the gene pool in the most spectacular fashion. On the 12th, Colm ‘Rooster’ McNutt (18) an INLA member chose the wrong car to hijack when he picked on a vehicle which contained two armed undercover soldiers. McNutt and another INLA man, Hessie Phelan, were sent to hijack a car for a robbery in the Shantallow area of Londonderry. They were armed with an old Webley revolver which unknown to them was faulty and was not loaded. They walked into a car park on William Street and Little James Street when they noticed an old Hillman Hunter with two men sitting in it. The two INLA men walked over to the car and McNutt ordered the two men to get out, pointing the revolver at them. The men did so and Phelan climbed into the driver’s seat but was unable to start the ignition. McNutt had tucked the weapon into his waist band and was just lowering himself into the passenger seat when one of the two undercover soldiers kicked the car door against his head and he fell out of the car. The soldier shot him several times and Phelan seized the opportunity to run off. The men got back into the car and drove away. One of McNutt’s INLA comrades ran over to him but he died shortly afterwards. An excellent account is contained in Raymond Gilmour’s Dead Ground: Infiltrating the IRA (Little, Brown & Co, 1998). He writes of the incident: ‘There were no last words or tearful farewells. He just lay there, cold and dead, as a pool of blood slowly congealed like a dark halo around his head.’ (p.82). The soldiers were thought to have been from Det 14, although some publications claim that they were members of the SAS; either way, McNutt picked the wrong car to hijack. It was however, symptomatic of what a dirty war this had all become.

  Under-vehicle booby-trap (UVBT) made safe. (Roy Garnell)

  On the same day that the INLA volunteer made the wrong choice of car, PIRA was busy in Belfast with a combination of blast, incendiary and hoax bombs all over Belfast. There was a firebomb attack on the Co-op store in York Street in Belfast, although damage there was slight, despite the placing of incendiaries on each floor of the department store. A bombing team placed mortar bombs in shop doorways on the Albertbridge Road and these were made safe by EOD. One mortar bomb’s detonator went off, but the explosives failed to explode, thus saving the life and limbs of a passing foot patrol close to Dabney’s hardware store. PIRA followed this up by throwing home-made grenades at Army patrols on the Antrim Road, Grosvenor Road, Roden Street, and finally in Belfast’s Moyard district; no injuries were reported. Finally that day, a bomb was placed under a water hydrant in Canterbury Street and EOD were sent in. As the ‘wheelbarrow’ went in, the device exploded and 20 houses were badly damaged. In Londonderry, the IRA firebombed a Chinese restaurant in the Waterside area causing extensive damage.

  The 13th continued in the same vein, and a series of firebombs caused damaged ranging from slight to extensive all over the commercial heart of Belfast. In one shop – Jackson’s Sport in Bedford Street – Army ‘Green Goddess’ fire engines were sent in to fight the resultant blaze. Two gas cylinders had been planted as booby-traps and when they exploded, two soldiers were slightly injured. Shops were targeted in the Lisburn Road, Lislea Drive and the Markets area and much damage was caused.

  The Provisionals then attempted to kill a 51-year old, part-time UDR soldier at his farm in Ballymena, Co Antrim. The soldier worked full-time as a farmer and was working on his tractor. As he reversed, he triggered off a 6lb bomb which had been placed underneath and he was dreadfully injured. His leg was terribly mutilated and he also received bad head injuries. When he was found, he was rushed to hospital where his leg was amputated.

  On the 14th, an undercover soldier was killed in West Belfast by the Provisionals, as the dirty war became a little dirtier. Corporal Paul Harman (27) was a member of the 16/5 Queen’s Royal Lancers, a nominally cavalry unit which had become mechanised over the course of its history. He had been attached to Det 14, although the Provisionals claimed somewhat spuriously that he was a member of the SAS. The official line from HQNI was that he was delivering mail to an Army unit in the area. It is more likely that he was doing a one-man recce and was driving an unmarked car or ‘Q’ car as they were sometimes referred. The undercover soldiers called them ‘working cars’ and would often adorn their insides with old newspapers, food and sweets wrappers, old cans of soft drink and a myriad number of screwed up cigarette packets in order to make them look more ‘normal.’ Corporal Harman was wearing civvie clothes and had stopped his car at the junction of Monagh Road and Monagh Avenue at the top of Turf Lodge. He was approached on his blind side by several men, known to be PIRA gunmen, who shot him in the head and back without warning; he died almost immediately. The gunmen stole his Browning 9mm pistol as well as other ‘intelligence’ articles before setting the ‘Q’ car on fire. It was a tragedy for the Harman family in Orpington, Kent, but a propaganda triumph for Provisional Sinn Fein. They made all manner of incredible claims about the incident and the fact that the Army had ‘plain-clothed assassins’ inside the Nationalist communities. It is uncertain whether the soldier was ‘dicked’ or whether the gunmen were curious and, in their parlance, ‘struck lucky’. Early in January, Sinn Fein claimed that they had captured vital intelligence documents relating to Army undercover units; it was of course, denied by HQNI.

  Shortly after the murder of the Det 14 soldier, the IRA planted a bomb outside a Florist in Lisburn Road, Belfast and the RUC were sent in to keep traffic and pedestrians away. Someone in the shop had bravely carried the bomb outside and left it in the road; two RUC off
icers were diverting traffic away from it when it exploded. Both officers were blown off their feet and badly injured in the blast. Two devices then exploded in Londonderry and McDowell’s electrical shop and Monaghan’s Furniture were both damaged. Fire-fighting soldiers prevented the blaze from the latter spreading to other shops in the immediate area.

  On the 15th, IRA gunmen attacked a UDR mobile border patrol in Kinawley, Co Fermanagh with automatic weapons. Over 40 rounds were fired, of which a staggering 32 hit the leading vehicle and the following armoured car. The soldiers fired back a total of ten rounds, but there were no injuries on either side. The gunmen escaped over the border, which was less than 400 yards away. On the following day, Loyalist gunmen, thought to be UVF, fired several shots at the Meeting of the Waters pub in Manor Street, in the Nationalist Oldpark Road. A Catholic woman aged 45 was slightly wounded by a round which smashed through a window. A total of 20 families were evacuated from their homes in Ardmore Park in Finaghy, Belfast after a car was abandoned outside one of the houses. The lights had been left on and the doors open after men were seen getting out and running away. It later transpired that there were no explosives inside and it was declared a hoax. In Crossmaglen, the IRA attempted to kill a lorry driver whom they suspected of being a tout. Two gunmen opened fire on the lorry at Ford’s Cross and the driver, although unwounded veered dangerously across the road and his vehicle overturned. He was treated for cuts and bruises.

  An off-duty RUC officer was attacked in Bangor as he drove along a dual carriageway at Newtownards Road. He was driving home when a vehicle came up behind him and a man leaned out of the car and fired two shots at him. The bullets smashed the rear windscreen, but the policeman kept control and was able to fire back at the PIRA gunman’s car. The following day, the IRA attacked an RUC mobile patrol at Dromore, Co Tyrone when gunmen hidden behind a wall fired five rounds at their car. An RUCR officer was hit in the arm and another was wounded in the head. Shots were returned, but the gunmen escaped. Attacks against the police continued and on the 20th, an RUCR officer was maimed by an IRA booby-trap. A team had planted the device underneath the policeman’s car which was parked outside his home in Ashley Avenue, close to the Lisburn Road in Belfast. His wife was just opening the gates to the driveway when an explosion tore through his car. The blast virtually tore the man’s foot off and smashed windows in nearby houses. His foot was later amputated in hospital where his wife was also treated, in her case for shock.

  On the 18th, the ugly head of sectarianism was reared again as a Protestant James Clifford (53) was shot by Republicans as he stood outside his home in Belgrave Street in the Shankill area. He was hit in the chest and neck and fatally wounded. He was rushed to hospital, but he died of his wounds on the penultimate day of the year.

  The Provisionals’ blast and incendiary bomb campaign continued and in the hectic build up to the final days of the Christmas shopping campaign, their bombers were getting though the security on many occasions. Several buildings, particularly commercial premises in both Londonderry and Belfast, were successfully targeted on the 20th and 21st, causing major disruptions for the Christmas shoppers. Loyalist then tried to kill customers at a Catholic bar in Strabane and a man was observed planting a device outside Finlayson’s pub in Victoria Bridge. He fired a shot at the bomber as he tried to run away and the man was wounded and arrested. Thanks to the actions of this quick-thinking policeman, the pub was evacuated before the bomb exploded.

  UVBT in-situ. The one in the photo was already safe. (Roy Garnell)

  1977 was the ninth Christmas of the Troubles and each festive season had been marked by an IRA ceasefire. The Reverend Ian Paisley had often referred to such as ‘insults’ because it only meant a three or four day break from their murder campaign and it was a mere sop to their supporters and apologists; it gave the illusion of a caring Republican movement, ‘sensitive’ to the season of goodwill. On the morning of the 22nd, a spokesman for the Provisionals announced that this year, there would be no cessation of the hostilities and the bombing campaign would continue. For the troops and the RUC, it meant that their turkey and stuffing would be hurriedly consumed before going back onto the streets of the Province. To underline the statement, their bombing units exploded devices on the Shore Road, Belfast. That same day, bombs were planted at Clonard Street, Belfast, the Dunadry Inn, Templepatrick, White Gables Hotel, Hillsborough, Culloden Hotel, Holywood, Country Club Hotel, Lurgan, Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen, Bohill Auto Inn, Coleraine and finally at the Brooklands Hotel, Ballinmallard in Co Fermanagh. The idea behind attacking these hotels was to cause a major disruption to their Christmas events and thus deprive customers of meals and drinks as well as wrecking the traditionally busy seasonal period for these businesses.

  On the 23rd, Belfast City Centre was ringed with security checkpoints as the SF fought to keep IRA bombs out of the main shopping areas. However, the Provisionals succeeded in planting and detonating devices at Bullick’s Gifts and Bradley’s Hi Fi shop on the Lisburn Road. The explosions which occurred at two-minute intervals caused injuries to six soldiers and police officers and to two civilians. The IRA then returned to the Dunadry Inn in Templepatrick which had suffered only slight damage the day before and planted another device! Army EOD managed to make the device safe.

  Christmas Eve came around and with it, no let-up in the IRA’s terror campaign as they tried to send an early ‘Christmas present’ via a CVO back to the family of a soldier on the mainland. Two armed Provisionals went to the Carrybridge Hotel in Lisbellaw, Co Fermanagh and placed an explosive device in the kitchen. Staff were forced to lie on the floor and warned not to touch the bomb as it would explode if they did. The Army was called in, and EOD personnel spent over five hours making the large device safe. PIRA then targeted another two hotels and planted devices in the Valley Hotel, Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone and the Coast Road Hotel at Carrickfergus. Staff bravely carried a device outside at the Valley Hotel and it exploded harmlessly. In Belfast, a routine RUC patrol in King Street, Belfast saw two youths blatantly carrying what appeared to be a bomb and when challenged, they dropped the device and ran off; the device exploded but there were no injuries.

  The bombing campaign continued through Christmas and a home-made hand grenade was thrown over the security wall at Springfield Road RUC station from the direction of Violet Street; no-one was injured. Later the same day, an RUC Land Rover was attacked by youths throwing petrol bombs but again, there were no injuries.

  Christmas Day came and went, but there was to be no season of goodwill in Northern Ireland and on the very last day of the year, a UFF member – Gordon Quinn (18) – was killed in a fight with rival UVF members. Quinn was known to have argued with UVF members through the day and had become involved in a fracas. Sometime later, he was stabbed over 20 times in a frenzied attack and his body was dumped in a large refuse bin in Conlig Street, not far from his home in Hopewell Crescent.

  Then, as if to give the Province a taste of what was in store for it in 1978, the Provisionals exploded three bombs in the Crown Hotel in Warrenpoint and then bombed the Country Club Hotel in Craigavon, Co Armagh. The message from the Provisional IRA was Blianadh Bha Ur (Happy New Year).

  The month – and the year – was over. Six people had died; the Army had lost three, the INLA had one member killed and the UFF had lost one man in a feud. Only one civilian – a Protestant – had been killed and whilst it was accepted as a sectarian death, there was some doubt as to whom his killers were.

  1977 saw the deaths of 137 people; military, civilian and paramilitary. This equates to just under three deaths per week, approximately one death for every two and a half days of the year.

  British Army

  48

  RUC

  15

  Civilians

  51 (21 of whom were considered overtly sectarian; a sectarian murder every 15 days throughout the year, compared with a total of 165 the previous year).

  Republicans

  9 />
  Loyalists

  9

  Prison Officers

  5

  Sectarian murders showed a marked reduction from the previous year and overall deaths were down by almost 200.

  Select Bibliography

  Barzilay, David, The British Army in Ulster Volume 1 (Belfast: Century Books, 1973)

  Clarke, A.F.N., Contact (London: Secker & Warburg, 1983)

  Clarke, George, Border Crossing: true stories of the RUC Special Branch, the Garda Special Branch and IRA moles (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2009)

  Collins, Eamon, Klling Rage (London: Granta Books, 1997)

  Cusack, Jim and McDonald, Henry, UVF: The Endgame (Dublin: Poolberg Press, 2008)

  Dillon, Martin, Political Murder in Northern Ireland (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973)

  Dillon, Martin, The Shankill Butchers: a case study of mass murder (London: Hutchinson, 1989)

  Dillon, Martin, The Dirty War (London: Arrow Books, 1990)

  Dillon, Martin, Killer in Clowntown: Joe Doherty, the IRA and the Special Relationship (London: Arrow Books, 1992)

  Dillon, Martin, Stone Cold: The True Story of Michael Stone and the Milltown Massacre (London: Hutchinson, 1992)

  Dillon, Martin, God and the Gun: The Church and Irish Terrorism (London: Routledge, 1999)

  Dillon, Martin, The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict (London: Mainstream, 2003)

  Doherty, Richard, The Thin Green Line: The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC 1922-2001 (Pen & Sword, 2004)

  Feeney. Brian & Gerry Bradley, Insider: Gerry Bradley’s Life in the IRA (O’Brien, 2009)

  Gilmour, Raymond, Dead Ground: Infiltrating the IRA (London: Little, Brown & Co, 1998)