Devenish Arms attack 1991

On 22 December 1991, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) of the Ulster Defence Association shot dead a Catholic civilian and badly injured an eight-year-old boy and two men in the Devenish Arms pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland.[1]

Devenish Arms attack 1991
Part of the Troubles
LocationDevenish Arms, Finaghy Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°35′07.8″N 5°55′22.7″W
Date22 December 1991
1:00 PM (GMT)
Attack type
Mass shooting
Deaths1 civilian
Injured4 civilians (1 child seriously injured)
PerpetratorUlster Defence Association's military wing the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)

Background

The 1990s during The Troubles in Northern Ireland brought back sectarian tit-for-tat killings that plagued Belfast, Armagh, Tyrone and parts of the Republic of Ireland in the mid 1970s.[2] The main groups involved in the killings were the Loyalist paramilitary groups the UFF, the Red Hand Commando and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), on one side and on the other side the Republican paramilitary groups, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), the Irish People's Liberation Organization (IPLO) and to a lesser extent the Provisional IRA (IRA), although the Republican groups did not like each other, they agreed the Loyalists had to be attacked back, but they had no combined force unlike the Loyalists who had the Combined Loyalist Military Command to plan attacks together. The IRA did not involve themselves in random wildcat attacks on Protestant pubs and clubs like the IPLO and INLA, but instead would try to kill leading Loyalist paramilitary members from the UDA and UVF, for example on the 29 June the IRA shot dead a Belfast UDA Commander Cecil McKnight and on the 9 August they shot UDA Derry commander Gary Lynch.[3] The IRA claimed these killings were revenge for the UDA killing of Sinn Féin member Eddie Fullerton and the killing of other Nationalist civilians. A week after the death of Gary Lynch the UDA killed another Sinn Féin member and former IRA volunteer Thomas Donaghy.[4] On the same day the UVF shot dead IPLO member Martin O'Prey.[5][6]

The Road to Devenish Arms

A month before the attack, the IRA went on the rampage on the 13 November, they had got a list of addresses of top Loyalists to shoot dead, first home they broke into belonged to a UDA man Billy Kingsberry (44) who they shot dead, also in the house with him was a young member of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) Samuel Mehaffey (19) they shot him also. The next house the IRA went to was owned by a UVF man two Protestant civilian workers were doing work in the UVF home when the IRA broke in and mistook the two Protestant workers for Loyalists and shot them dead, they were brothers Stephen Lynn (30) and Kenneth Lynn (28). The IRA also fired shots at Johnny Adair's house and they also booby-trapped the car of Gerry Drumgoole one of Adair's men in his unit, but even though Drumgoole was not killed he did lose a leg when the car exploded in Hazelfield Street.[7][8] The very next day the UVF hit back killing two Catholic civilians and one Protestant civilian who they mistook for a Catholic, during the 1991 Craigavon killings. These were the last killings of the year that the UVF claimed credit for. Ten days later the IRA hit back against the Loyalists, when the IRA managed to plant a time bomb in the Loyalist dining area of Crumlin Road Prison, two Loyalists were killed, one from the UVF and one from the UDA/UFF, eight others were wounded, see: Crumlin Road Prison bombing for more information. The UDA/UFF took revenge the day after on the 25 November shooting dead a Catholic civilian deliveryman on Kandahar Street. On 21 December early in the morning the INLA shot dead Robin Farmer (19) a Protestant civilian. Before the UDA/UFF even had time to retaliate the IPLO shot up a pub in the Donegall Arms shooting at the evening time, in which two more Protestant civilians were killed. Later that same night the UDA/UFF killed a Catholic civilian shooting him dead at his home on Fortuna Street, Belfast.[9]

Attack on Devenich Arms

According to the Irish writer Henry McDonald there was at least two gunmen from Johnny Adair's "C" Company at the Devenish Arms. They smashed their way in through the bar and started firing at people, the people inside the pub first believed it was somebody playing a prank with fireworks, and nobody bothered to dive for cover. But Aidan Wallace (22) a Catholic civilian was hit twice in the back by a range of only nine inches. Some sources that next Stephen McKeag himself walked calmly around the pub, pointing his 9 mm pistol at different people, picking his target. He finally stopped at an eight year old boy, the child was shot in the head and although he did not die he lost one of his eyes. One of the Loyalists shouted "Out, out, out" and the two UDA/UFF killers fled the scene firing more shots in the air as they left.

Aftermath

The reason no more people were killed was because the UFF hitmen were using Chinese ammunition from their Lebanese haul they got in the late 80's and the Chinese ammunition was always faulty and jammed on them on a number of occasions between 1990 - 1992.[10] In 1991 the UDA killed 15 people and the UVF 19, that is 34 altogether only about half a dozen short of the people killed by the IRA and Republicans, in 1992 the Loyalists would equal the Republican kill count for the year and in 1993 they would surpass it.[11][12][13]

See also

References
  1. Press, The Associated (23 December 1991). "Protestant Gunman Kills Man in Belfast Pub, 5th Slain in Weekend". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  2. Press, The Associated (23 December 1991). "Protestant Gunman Kills Man in Belfast Pub, 5th Slain in Weekend". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  3. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  4. Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack - UDA: Inside The Heart Of Loyalist Terror (Penguin Ireland) pp.200
  5. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  6. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1991". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  7. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  8. Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack - UDA: Inside The Heart Of Loyalist Terror(Penguin Ireland) pp.208
  9. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  10. Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack - UDA: Inside The Heart Of Loyalist Terror(Penguin Ireland) pp.209
  11. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  12. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  13. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
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