Provisional IRA Derry Brigade

Derry Brigade
Allegiance	Provisional Irish Republican Army
Size	50 active members
Area of operations	Derry city, Northern Ireland
Main actions	1990 Proxy bomb attack at Coshquin
Commanders
Notable commanders	Martin McGuinness William McGuiness

Military unit

The Derry Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland, and its surroundings during the Troubles. The Derry Brigade was one of the most active groups in the IRA.

Origins

A small IRA battalion existed in Derry since the Troubles began, but it never had a steady number of volunteers until Bloody Sunday, which saw an influx of new recruits.

Structure and operational area

The Derry Brigade was organised in three different levels. The highest position was occupied by the Brigade's officer commanding, the top IRA ranking in the city. Beneath him was the ten-men Derry Brigade Command, made of experienced IRA volunteers, among them one or two prominent Sinn Féin politicians. The lower layer was the Command Staff, which includes the quarter-master, the engineering department, the financial department and internal affairs, the latter to deal with informers. The Brigade strength was around 50 active members.

The Command Staff, through their Officer Commanders, operated active service units in the four republican strongholds of the city: Bogside/Brandywell district, Creggan, Waterside and Shantallow.

Notable IRA actions within the brigade's operational area

27 October 1971 - two British soldiers, David Tilbury (aged 29) and Angus Stevens (aged 18), were killed in an IRA bomb attack on an observation post at the rear of Rosemount RUC/British Army base, Derry.
7 July 1972 - Two British Army captains were captured and arrested while off duty by an IRA patrol in Derry's Bogside area. The two officers were interrogated and released unharmed 18 hours later. The British Army set up a board of inquiry on the issue.
14 April 1974 – Captain Anthony Pollen of the Special Reconnaissance Unit was shot dead by the IRA in Derry while carrying out undercover surveillance on a demonstration in the Bogside area.
18 December 1975: two British soldiers, Cyril McDonald (aged 43) and Colin McInnes (aged 20), were killed in a bomb attack on the sangar they were manning at the city walls, near Guildhall Square.
2 February 1977: Businessman Jeffrey Agate was shot and killed outside his house at Talbot Park, while coming back from his work at the DuPont factory in Maydown.
28 August 1986: Mervyn Bell, a civilian contractor to the British Army, was shot dead by the IRA while sitting in stationary car outside his father's workplace, council depot, Strand Road, Derry. The IRA rejected claims that the killing was sectarian, stating: "The man's religion is of no interest to us. Despite previous warnings he continued to work for the UDR, and that was the reason he was targeted."
8 March 1989: two British soldiers were killed and six others badly wounded when their vehicle struck a massive IRA landmine on the Buncrana Road in Derry. The second vehicle in the patrol was completely destroyed.
28 January 1990: a civilian (Charles Love) was killed when he was hit by debris when an IRA bomb exploded on Derry's walls during a march to commemorate Bloody Sunday. The security forces described his death as a "freak accident" as he was a quarter of a mile from the bomb, which was targeting security forces. Love was a member of Republican Youth. He is commemorated at a Sinn Féin-organised march in his home town of Strabane each year.
24 October 1990: in a proxy bomb attack, the IRA forced a British Army civilian employee (Patrick Gillespie), by holding his family hostage, to deliver a bomb to a British Army checkpoint at Buncrana Road, Coshquin, County Londonderry (on the County Donegal border). The bomb detonated, killing Gillespie and six British soldiers. As the bomb exploded an IRA unit opened fire from across the border. The military facility was wrecked and several armoured vehicles destroyed by the huge blast. Over 25 houses in a nearby estate were damaged by the bomb.
29 June 1991: high ranking Ulster Defence Association commander Cecil McKnight was shot dead by IRA volunteers in the Waterside area of Derry. The IRA claimed he had been involved in the assassination of Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton. The IRA unit were pursued by the RUC after the shooting but escaped after they opened fire on an RUC patrol car.
23 January 1993: an RUC officer was shot and killed while on a foot patrol at Shipquay Street, Derry.
14 December 1993: two soldiers were wounded by a trip wire bomb blast in a fence at a railway bordering Ebrington Barracks in Waterside, Derry.
19 December 1993: an IRA landmine attack on a British mobile patrol at Buncrana Road, Derry using a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb left four civilians in a passing car - one adult and three young children - in need of hospital treatment. A suspect was arrested at his home eight hours later, where traces of Semtex were found. Damages were estimated at £450,000.
20 April 1994: an RUC officer was killed when the IRA fired a horizontal mortar at a British Army/RUC mobile patrol in the Waterside area of Derry. Several other RUC officers were injured.
23 May 1994: an IRA team used a motor boat stolen from Foyle Search and Rescue to cross Lough Foyle and plant an explosive device on the jetty of the British Army base at Fort George. Two British soldiers were wounded. One of them was permanently blinded by the blast.
11 June 1997: an undercover British Army unit on a stationary van received small arms fire from IRA volunteers riding on another van on Foyle Road in Derry. An intensive search recovered the attackers' van at Glendara Park but failed to round up any suspects. No injuries were reported, but 30 families were evacuated from the area as army technical experts performed forensic examinations on the abandoned vehicle.

References

^ Toolis, Kevin (2015). Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 205. ISBN 9781250088734.
Moloney, Ed (5 July 2007). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-190069-8.
"A Chronology of the Conflict - 1971". CAIN.
"The Troubles 15 by Joe Baker - Issuu". issuu.com. pp. 18–20. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
Urban, Mark (1993). Big Boys' Rules: SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA. Faber and Faber. p. 42. ISBN 0-571-16809-4.
Sheehy, Kevin B. (September 2008). More Questions Than Answers: Reflections on a life in the RUC. G&M. ISBN 978-0-7171-4396-2.
"Dr Raymond McClean: Doctor who joined Ulster's civil rights movement". The Independent. 21 February 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
"Derry Sinn Féin". Derry Sinn Féin. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
^ McKittrick, David (2004). Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Mainstream Publishing. p. 1241. ISBN 978-1840185041.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
"Derry man handed 10-year jail sentence for IRA terrorist offences - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
Financial Times, 15 December 1993
"Bomb attack in Londonderry". The Independent. 15 December 1993. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
Fortnight, Issues 319-23, p. 33 (1993)
Irish Independent, 7 January 1994.
"Terrorist Incidents". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 10 March 1994. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
"A Draft Chronology of the Conflict – 1994". CAIN.
McKittrick, p. 1351
Peter Heathwood, Peter Heathwood Collection of television programs: 1994, cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
"Derry man handed 10-year jail sentence for IRA terrorist offences". The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
Breadun, Deaglan De (11 June 1997). "IRA gun attack in Derry may put SF talks at risk". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 August 2020.

Provisional Irish Republican Army

General

Organisation

Actions

1970–1979	Battle of St Matthew's Falls Curfew 1970 Crossmaglen bombing Scottish soldiers' killings Red Lion bombing Balmoral showroom bombing Abercorn bombing Donegall Street bombing Battle at Springmartin Battle of Lenadoon Bloody Friday Claudy bombing Newry customs bombing Old Bailey bombing Honey Trap killings King's Cross & Euston bombings Coleraine bombings 1973 Westminster bombing M62 bombing Clogher attack Houses of Parliament bombing Tower of London bombing Guildford pub bombings Harrow School bombing Brooks's Club bombing Woolwich pub bombing British Airways bombing attempt Birmingham pub bombings London pillar box bombings Talbot Arms bombing Bristol bombing Telephone exchange bombings 1974 Oxford Street bombing Carlton Tower & Portman Hotel shootings Mountainview attack Bayardo Bar attack Forkhill attack Caterham Arms bombing Tullyvallen massacre London Hilton bombing Piccadilly bombing Trattoria Fiore bombing Scott's Oyster Bar bombing Walton's Restaurant bombing Drummuckavall ambush Balcombe Street siege Kingsmill massacre West Ham station attack Olympia bombing Store bar shooting Stag Inn attack Garryhinch ambush Jonesborough Gazelle downing La Mon restaurant bombing Crossmaglen ambush Warrenpoint ambush Brussels bombing Dungannon attack
1980–1989	Dunmurry train bombing Lough Foyle attacks Glasdrumman ambush 1981 Bessbrook attack Chelsea Barracks bombing Hyde Park & Regent's Park bombings Harrods bombing Royal Artillery Barracks bombing Brighton hotel bombing Ballygawley land mine attack Newry mortar attack Ballygawley attack Enniskillen mortar attack RUC Birches barracks attack Rheindahlen bombing Loughgall ambush Operation Flavius Corporals killings Lisburn bombing Aughanduff Lynx shootdown 1988 Netherlands attacks Glamorgan barracks bombing Inglis Barracks bombing Ballygawley bus bombing Jonesborough ambush Clive Barracks bombing Deal barracks bombing Mayobridge attack Derryard attack
1990–1991	Derrygorry Gazelle downing South Armagh sniper Downpatrick roadside bomb Operation Conservation 1990 Wembley bombing Carlton Club bombing London Stock Exchange bombing Honourable Artillery Company bombing Lichfield gun attack RFA Fort Victoria bombing Proxy bombings Downing Street mortar attack Paddington & Victoria station bombings Mullacreevie ambush Glenanne barracks bombing Coagh ambush Musgrave Park Hospital bombing Crumlin Road Prison bombing
1992–1997	Teebane bombing Clonoe ambush London Bridge bombing Staples Cnr bombing Baltic Exchange bombing Sussex Arms bombing Cloghoge attack Coalisland riots Forensic Science Laboratory bombing Stoke Newington Road bomb 1992 Manchester bombing Night of the Long Knives 1993 Harrods bombing Warrington bombings Cullaville occupation Camden bombing Bishopsgate bombing Finchley Road bombings Battle of Newry Road Shankill Road bombing 1993 Fivemiletown ambush Heathrow attacks Crossmaglen Lynx downing Drumcree conflict Docklands bombing Aldwych bus bombing 1996 Manchester bombing Hammersmith Bridge bombing Osnabrück mortar attack Thiepval barracks bombing Coalisland attack 1997 Northern Ireland riots

Personalities
(Volunteers)

Espionage and
Supergrasses

Eamon Collins
Denis Donaldson
Joseph Fenton
Kevin Fulton
Raymond Gilmour
Martin McGartland
Sean O'Callaghan
Freddie Scappaticci (allegedly "Stakeknife")

Associates

Derivatives

Prominent
killings

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