Provisional IRA Derry Brigade

The Derry Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated in the city of Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. The Derry Brigade was one of the most active groups in the IRA.[2]

Derry Brigade
AllegianceProvisional Irish Republican Army
Size50 active members
Area of operationsDerry city,[1] Northern Ireland
Main actions1990 Proxy bomb attack at Coshquin
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Martin McGuinness
William McGuiness[1]

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.[1] The Brigade strength was around 50 active members.[1]

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.[1]

Notable IRA actions within the brigade's operational area
  • 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.[3]
  • 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.[4]
  • 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." [5]
  • 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.[6]
  • 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.[7][8]
  • 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.[9][1]
  • 29 June 1991: high ranking Ulster Defence Association commander Cecil McKnight was shot dead by IRA volunteers in the Waterside area of Derry City. The IRA claimed he had been involved in the assassination of Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton.[10] The IRA unit were pursued by the RUC after the shooting but escaped after they opened fire on an RUC patrol car.[10][11]
  • 23 January 1993: an RUC officer was shot and killed while on a foot patrol at Shipquay Street, Derry.[12]
  • 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 city.[13][14][15]
  • 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 City. Several other RUC officers were injured.[16][17]
  • 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.[18][19]

References
  1. Toolis, Kevin (2015). Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 205. ISBN 9781250088734.
  2. Moloney, Ed (5 July 2007). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-190069-8.
  3. Urban, Mark (1993). Big Boys' Rules: SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA. Faber and Faber. p. 42. ISBN 0-571-16809-4.
  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.
  5. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  6. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  7. "Derry Sinn Féin". Derry Sinn Féin. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  8. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  9. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  10. 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.
  11. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  12. Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  13. "Derry man handed 10-year jail sentence for IRA terrorist offences - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  14. Financial Times, 15 December 1993
  15. "Bomb attack in Londonderry". The Independent. 15 December 1993. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  16. "A Draft Chronology of the Conflict – 1994". CAIN.
  17. McKittrick, p. 1351
  18. Peter Heathwood, Peter Heathwood Collection of television programs: 1994, cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  19. "Derry man handed 10-year jail sentence for IRA terrorist offences". The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
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