Timeline of British undercover forces in Operation Banner

The following is a Timeline of British Amy and Police undercover operations during Operation Banner during the 1969 – 1998 Northern Irish conflict in Northern Ireland that resulted in death or injury. Including operations by the SAS, 14 Intelligence Company, the Military Reaction Force (MRF), RUC Special Patrol Group and Special Branch.

  • Dates resulting in at least three or more deaths are marked in bold.

1970s

1972
  • 15 April – Brothers Gerry and John Conway—both Catholic civilians—were walking along Whiterock Road to catch a bus.[1][2] As they passed St Thomas's School, a car stopped, and three men leapt out and began shooting at them with pistols.[2][1] The brothers ran, but both were shot and wounded.[2] Witnesses said one of the gunmen returned to the car and spoke into a handset radio. Shortly afterward two armoured personnel carriers arrived, and there was a conversation between the uniformed and the plain clothes soldiers.[2] The three vehicles then left, and the brothers were taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital.[2] The British Army told journalists that a patrol had encountered two wanted men, that one had fired at the patrol, and that the patrol returned fire.[2] In a 1978 interview, a former MRF member claimed he had been one of the gunmen.[1] On 1 December 2015 the PSNI listed this shooting as one of nine incidents it was investigating in relation to the activities of the British Army's Military Reaction Force (MRF)[3]
  • 6 May – An 18-year-old male was shot and injured at the Glen Road area of west Belfast, by the MRF.
  • 7 May – A 15-year-old boy was shot and injured outside a disco in the Glen Road area of west Belfast by the MRF.
  • 9 May – The MRF fired shots at a vehicle in the Kashmir Road area of west Belfast. Nobody was injured
  • 12 May – Patrick McVeigh a 44 year old Catholic civilian was shot dead by the British Armies undercover MRF unit, at Riverdale Park South, Andersonstown, Belfast. Four other people were injured in the attack.
  • 12 May – Later the same night Patrick McVeigh was shot and killed, the MRF shot and injured an 18-year-old man in the Slievegallion area of west Belfast.
  • 26 May – The MRF shot and injured a 34-year-old man, in the Silvio Street area of north Belfast.
  • 22 June – In the afternoon the MRF shot and injured four civilians in the Glen Road area of west Belfast.
  • 26 June – 19 year old Catholic civilian Daniel Rooney was shot dead by the MRF, at St James Crescent, Falls Road, Belfast. Another 18-year-old man was also shot and injured in this shooting attack.[4]
  • In total at least two people were killed by the MRF between April – June 1972 with another 13 people being injured.[5]
  • 2 October – Attack on MRF – After extracting confessions from IRA Volunteers who were working for the MRF, the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade attacked the Military Reaction Force. From the confessions of one of the IRA Volunteers, they found out the MRF had a number of front companies including the Four Square Laundry and the Gemini massage parlour on the Antrim Road. The Belfast Brigades 2nd Battalion lead by Brendan Hughes first attacked the Four Square Laundry van in the Twinbrook, Belfast area. Four Volunteers attacked the van & killed the driver who was an undercover soldier in the Royal Engineers, a MRF woman posing as Nationalist under attack from Loyalists escaped. The IRA claimed they machine-gunned and killed undercover operatives in the hidden roof part of the van, the 3rd Battalion of the brigade shot up the Massage Parlour. The IRA claimed they had killed five undercover soldiers, the British only admitted to one killing, the driver shot dead at Twinbrook.[6]

1973
  • 4 February – IRA Volunteer Tony Campbell (19), and civilians Ambrose Hardy (26), Brendan Maguire (33) and John Loughran (35) were shot dead by British undercover snipers in the New Lodge area of Belfast. See:New Lodge Six shooting [7]

1974
  • 14 April – Captain Anthony Pollen was shot dead in Derry while carrying out undercover surveillance on a Sinn Féin event. He was shot twice by the IRA South Derry Brigade in front of a crowd of more than 150 people.[8]
  • 3 August 1974 – Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade IRA volunteer Martin Skillen was shot dead by a British Army undercover post in Clonard cinema along the Falls Road.[9]

1976
  • March 1976 – The SAS abducted Sean McKenna, an IRA volunteer wanted for attempted murder and a string of other offences. McKenna was abducted at 2:30 am while sleeping at home in Edentober, on the Republic's side of the border, in a cross-border raid by the SAS. Once across the border, he was officially arrested by another detachment of the British Army. McKenna wrote a statement in jail, "....they kicked the door down. One of them put a short against my head, it was a 9 mm Browning, he told me not to move or he would blow my head off.[10]
  • 16 April – IRA volunteer and Staff Officer in the Provisional IRA's South Armagh Brigade 1st Battalion, Peter Cleary was shot dead by the SAS in the south Armagh area near his sisters home in Forkhill.[11][12]
  • 5 May – The Irish Army and An Garda Siochána arrested an 8 man-strong SAS unit who were on a secret mission in Northern Ireland but passed over into County Louth in the Republic of Ireland by mistake. The SAS team were stopped at a Gardai checkpoint, they had several SMG's and a shotgun in their car. At first the SAS commander was resisting to surrender to Gardai in charge but once the Irish Army appeared out of the bushes the SAS laid down their weapons and were taken in custody.[13]
  • 2 November – The IRA shot dead undercover RUC member Noel McCabe while he sat in his car at the junction of the Falls Road and Clonard, Belfast.[14][15]

1977
  • 16 January – Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade volunteer Seamus Harvey was shot dead by four SAS soldiers in Coolderry, Armagh.[16]
  • 15 May 1977: Captain Robert Nairac was kidnapped in a south Armagh pub and shot by the IRA. He was driven across the border, beaten and shot, and his body buried in an unmarked grave. To this day nobody has found his corpse.[17]
  • 12 December – Irish National Liberation Army volunteer (INLA volunteer) Colm “Rooster” McNutt was shot dead by 14 Intelligence Company in the Bogside area of Derry.[18]
  • 14 December 1977: Corporal Paul Harman was shot dead by the IRA in west Belfast. Harman was undercover when he stopped his red Morris Marina on Monagh Avenue. An IRA unit approached the car and shot him in the head and back and torched the car.[19][20]

1978
  • 26 February – IRA volunteer Paul Duffy was shot by the SAS at farmyard while retrieving an arms cache, in Ardboe, County Tyrone. Duffy was the first IRA volunteer to be shot dead by special forces outside of south Armagh.[21][22]
  • 17 March – 1978 Lisnamuck shoot-out – During a gun battle between the SAS and IRA, in a field near Maghera, the IRA unit shot dead SAS Lance-Corporal David Jones and injured another soldier, the SAS shot and badly injured the IRA Commander for their South Derry Brigade and future 1981 Hunger Striker South Derry Brigade, Francis Hughes who was captured after the gun battle.
  • 10 June – IRA Vol. Denis Heaney was shot dead by soldiers from the 14 Intelligence Company while attempting to steal a car in the Bogside area of Derry.[23]
  • 21 June - An IRA active service unit of three Volunteers was shot and killed by the SAS while trying to plant a bomb in a post office on the Ballysillan Road, Belfast. The IRA volunteers killed were Denis Brown, William Mailey and John Mulvenna, they were the first IRA members killed by the SAS in Belfast. Also shot by the SAS was an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) member William Hanna.[24][22]
  • 11 July – The SAS shot dead 16 year old Catholic civilian John Boyle in Dunloy, County Antrim while he was standing near a Provisional IRA arms cache.[25]
  • 11 August – Lance Corporal Alan Swift was shot dead while undercover in the Bogside area of Derry City. Two IRA members fired into the corporal's car with automatic rifles.[26]
  • 30 September – The SAS shot dead Protestant civilian James Taylor in the Tyrone village of Coagh.[27]
  • 24 November – The SAS shot dead 50 year old Provisional IRA volunteer Patrick Duffy on the Maureen avenue near the Abercorn road in Derry.[27][22]

1979
  • 6 May 1979: Sergeant Robert Maughan (30), from the 14 Intelligence Company and Norman Prue (29) an undercover RUC officer, were both shot dead as they sat in an unmarked parked car outside of a church in Lisnaskea by the Provisional IRA South Fermanagh brigade.[26][28]

1980s

1980
  • 2 May – SAS Captain Herbert Richard Westmacott was killed by a unit of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade known as the "M60 Gang" during a shoot-out on the Antrim Road. Westmacott was one of the most senior British Army personnel to be killed by the IRA during Operation Banner and the most senior SAS man.[29][30][31]

1981
  • 28 May – IRA volunteers George McBrearty and Charles Maguire were shot dead by the 14 Intelligence Company in south Derry.[32]

1982
  • 11 November 1982: The killing of three unarmed IRA members at an RUC checkpoint in east Lurgan, County Armagh, gave rise to allegations of a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland The volunteers killed were Sean Burns, Eugene Toman and Gervaise McKerr. It was later established they were killed by the RUC Special Patrol Group & the Headquarters Mobile Support Unit (HMSU) [33][34] Three officers were acquitted of their murder in June 1984, the presiding judge, Lord Justice Maurice Gibson, commending them for their "courage and determination in bringing the three deceased men to justice – in this case, to the final court of justice."[35][36]
  • 24 November - The killing, by an RUC undercover unit, of Michael Tighe and the wounding of his friend Martin McCauley at an IRA arms cache on a farm near Lurgan, County Armagh, this killing provided more Sinn Féin propaganda for a shoot to kill policy.. (19 years later, McCauley was arrested in Colombia, accused by the Colombian authorities of teaching FARC guerillas in the use of explosives, in particular the "barrack buster").[37][38][39][40]
  • 12 December 1982 – At an RUC checkpoint in Mullacreevie, County Armagh, the same group of RUC SPG and HMSU that killed the three IRA Vols. in November, shot dead two of the INLA's Vols.Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll. (The intended main target, Dominic McGlinchey, was not in their car as expected.)[41][42] Just six days before this shooting the INLA carried out the Droppin Well bombing in County Londonderry killing 17 people, 11 soldiers and 6 civilians, it was the worst bombing in County Londonderry during the whole of the conflict from 1969 – 1998.[43]

1983
  • 2 February – INLA Volunteer Eugene McMonagle was shot dead by 14 Intelligence company near Shantallow, County Londonderry.[44]
  • 13 August: undercover RUC men shot dead two INLA members, Gerard Mallon and Brendan Convery, as they were about to attack RUC officers in Dungannon.
  • 4 December – IRA Vols. Brian Campbell and Com McGirrr were shot dead by the SAS in Clonoe, Tyrone.[45][46]

1984
  • 21 February - A gun battle broke out between the an IRA unit and 14 Intelligence Company, in the battle IRA Vols Henry Hogan and Declan Martin were killed. One British undercover soldier Sergeant Paul Oram was killed in the gun battle and another soldier injured [47]
  • 2 December - An IRA unit from the Provisional IRA Derry Brigade was ambushed by the SAS in Kesh, west County Fermanagh. IRA volunteer Kieran Fleming was killed during the subsequent gun battle, Ciaran Fleming drowned in the Branagh River while two other IRA men were eventually captured. During the exchange of fire the IRA shot dead SAS Lance Corporal Alistair Slater, one of the highest ranking soldiers killed during Operation Banner. See: Kesh ambush[48]
  • 6 December – Two IRA volunteers. William Fleming and Danny Doherty were shot in the grounds of Gransha Hospital of Clooney Road, Derry by the SAS while on a motor bike. William Fleming was the brother of Kieran Fleming who died four days earlier.[49][50]

1985
  • 23 February - A three-man IRA unit was ambushed and killed by the SAS in the County Tyrone town of Strabane. Those were killed were unit commander Charles Breslin, and brothers Michael and David Devine. At just 16 years old David Devine was the youngest IRA Volunteer to be killed by enemy forces. See: Strabane ambush.[51][52]

1986

1987

1988
  • 6 March - Operation Flavius – Three unarmed IRA Volunteers were killed in Gibraltar by the SAS, those killed were Seán Savage, Daniel McCann, and Mairéad Farrell (all senior members of Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade)
  • 19 March – Corporals killings – Undercover British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes were attacked by a mob at an IRA funeral and shot dead on waste ground by the IRA.[58]
  • 4 July – The SAS shot dead Protestant civilian Kenneth Stronge while driving his taxi past North Queen Street RUC station.[59]
  • 30 August - Ambush at Drumnakilly – Three IRA Volunteers were ambushed by the SAS while trying to carry out a killing of a UDR soldier. Those killed were brothers Gerard (29 years old) and Martin Harte (23), and their brother-in-law Brian Mullin (26) all from the East Tyrone Brigade.[54]

1989

1990s

1990
  • 13 January 1990 - Three men with no paramilitary links or political links who were in the process of escaping after robbing a shop were shot dead by an undercover British army unit in west Belfast.[62]
  • 24 March – a gun battle erupted between an IRA unit and undercover British forces at Cappagh, County Tyrone, when a civilian-type vehicle driven by an undercover agent was fired on by IRA volunteers without warning, according to Archie Hamilton, then Secretary of State for Defence. Hamilton stated that there were no British casualties.[63]
  • 6 May – Operation Conservation -a British soldier was shot dead when an IRA unit launched a machine gun attack on a British Army foot patrol near Cullyhanna, County Armagh, during an undercover operation to lure an IRA unit into an ambush. The patrol's survivors were airlifted to safety.[64][65]
  • 9 October – Two of the IRA's most wanted men Martin McCaughey and Dessie Grew were ambushed and shot dead by 14 Intelligence Company while returning weapons back to an arms cache in a field at Loughgall.[66][67][68]
  • 22 November: Undercover British soldiers shot dead INLA volunteer Alexander Patterson as he tried to assassinate an off-duty soldier in Strabane.[69]

1991
  • 3 June 1991 - Coagh ambush – Three IRA Volunteers, Tony Doris (21 years old), Michael "Pete" Ryan (37) (on the run at the time from the RUC since 1981) and Lawrence McNally (39), all from the East Tyrone Brigade were shot and killed by the SAS in ambush using a UDR soldier a bait and a decoy for the unit to attack.[70][56][71]

1992
  • 16 February 1992 - Clonoe ambush – Four IRA members attacked an RUC station in Coalisland, County Tyrone, with heavy machine guns, all volunteers were from the East Tyrone Brigade and were ambushed by the SAS shortly after firing on the RUC base. The Volunteers killed were Patrick Vincent (20 years of age), was shot dead with five bullets whilst still in its cab. Peter Clancy (19) (hit by ten bullets) and Kevin O'Donnell (21) (shot twice) were killed whilst dismounting the DShk on the back of the lorry, Sean O'Farrell (23) was pursued on foot across the church grounds over a distance of 100 yards before being shot dead with five bullets.[70][72][73]
  • 25 November – Unarmed Provisional IRA Volunteer Pearse Jordan was shot dead on the Falls Road by an undercover RUC mobile patrol unit, he was given no chance to surrender.[74]

1997
  • 26 March – 1997 Coalisland attack – Undercover British soldiers shot and seriously injured 19 year-old republican Gareth Doris just seconds after a 1 kg home-made bomb was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland, County Tyrone. The soldiers left the scene under the protection of the RUC after being cornered by a crowd and after firing shots in the air. Two women were wounded by plastic bullets fired by RUC officers.[75]
  • 10 April – a group of 16 undercover SAS members restrained four IRA volunteers, part of one of the two sniper teams which operated in South Armagh and handed them over to the RUC, after tracking the IRA men to a farm complex. The owner of the farm was also arrested. Given the imminence of a second IRA ceasefire and the prospective of a political solution to the conflict, the SAS were under strict orders to avoid IRA casualties.[76]

See also

References
  1. Murray, Raymond. The SAS in Ireland. Mercier Press, 1990. pp.44–45
  2. Marrtin Dillon, The Dirty War, pp.52–55
  3. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1972". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  4. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  5. CAIN Web Service A Chronology of the Conflict – 1972
  6. Ed Moloney – A Seceret History of the IRA pp.119,120
  7. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  8. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.42
  9. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  10. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.163,164
  11. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.161 – 163
  12. Peter Cleary, South Armagh Memorial Garden, retrieved 28 February 2011.
  13. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.164 – 166
  14. "RUC Roll of Honour". www.angelfire.com. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  15. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  16. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.155 – 157
  17. Tony Harnden – Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh pp.53 – 57
  18. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.42–43
  19. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.43–44,55
  20. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  21. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.3
  22. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  23. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.44,55
  24. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.60
  25. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.61 – 63
  26. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.44
  27. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.66
  28. https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=06&month=05&year=1979
  29. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.140, 171
  30. Bowyer Bell, pp.487–488
  31. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  32. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.180, 181
  33. Department, Law Lords. "House of Lords – In re McKerr (AP) (Respondent) (Northern Ireland)". publications.parliament.uk.
  34. "BBC News – NORTHERN IRELAND – 'Shoot-to-kill' case gets go-ahead". news.bbc.co.uk.
  35. Ellison, Graham; Smyth, Jim (2000). The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland. Pluto Press. p. 120. ISBN 0745313930. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  36. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.151, 152, 153
  37. "The Times & The Sunday Times".
  38. "News – The Scotsman". news.scotsman.com.
  39. Archived 13 August 2004 at the Wayback Machine
  40. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.154, 156 193
  41. Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Bill Rolston (2000) Unfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth". cain.ulst.ac.uk.
  42. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.151 – 155
  43. "BBC – INLA kill 17 at Droppin' Well bar". BBC. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  44. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.174, 181
  45. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.174, 175
  46. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  47. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.177, 178, 179–181
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  49. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.194, 195
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  54. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  55. Peter Taylor – Behind The Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein pp.317 – 322
  56. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.224 – 237
  57. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  58. CAIN: Army Corporals Killed
  59. Mark Urban – Big Boys Rules: The SAS & the Secret Struggle against the IRA pp.253
  60. https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1989.html
  61. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/violence/docs/rolston00.htm
  62. https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch90.htm#13190
  63. Cappagh (Incident) Parliamentary debate, 3 May 1990
  64. "A Chronology of the Conflict – 1990". CAIN.
  65. McKittrick, p. 1198
  66. Peter Taylor – Behind The Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein pp.325
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  68. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  69. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  70. Ed Moloney – A Seceret History of the IRA pp.318
  71. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  72. Peter Taylor – Behind The Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein pp.359
  73. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  74. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1992". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  75. Conor Hanna,"How Elite Squad Pounced", Daily Mirror, 28 March 1997
  76. Harnden, Toby (2000). Bandit Country: The iRA and South Armagh. Coronet Books. pp. 420–22. ISBN 0-340-71737-8.
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