1997 Coalisland attack
Encyclopedia
On the evening of 26 March 1997, the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade
launched an improvised grenade attack on the fortified RUC
/British Army
base in Coalisland
, County Tyrone
, Northern Ireland
. The blast sparked an immediate reaction by an SAS
unit, who shot and wounded alleged IRA volunteer Gareth Doris. The SAS unit was then surrounded by a crowd of protestors. RUC officers arrived and fired plastic bullet
s at the crowd, allowing the special forces to leave the area.
, in which a paratrooper lost his legs, triggered a series of clashes between local residents and British troops on 12 and 17 May. A number of civilians and soldiers were injured and two army weapons stolen. The meleé was followed by a 500 people protest in the village and bitter exchanges between Irish and British officials.
. The grenade was dropped or fired by two unidentified men. At the time of the attack, there was an art exhibition at Coalisland Heritage Hall, also known as The Mill, from where the explosion and the gunshots that followed were clearly heard. The incident lasted one to two minutes.
. The men were firing Browning pistol
s and Heckler & Koch sub- machine guns
. Witnesses said there were eight to ten gunshots, while a republican source claimed that up to 18 rounds were fired. Nineteen-year-old Gareth Dorris was shot in the stomach and fell to the ground. Doris was allegedly returning from the local church and was in company of a priest when he was shot.
Three minutes after the blast, hundreds of angry residents gathered at the scene and confronted the undercover soldiers. The soldiers fired live rounds at the ground and into the air to keep people back. The crowd kept drawing back and moving forward again until 9:50, when the RUC arrived and began firing plastic bullets at the protesters. Two women were wounded by plastic bullets and the car of local priest Seamus Rice was hit by bullets fired by the undercover team. The undercover soldiers then fled in unmarked cars; setting off crackers or fireworks at the same time. Sinn Féin
councillor Francie Molloy
claimed that the protesters forced the SAS to withdraw, saving Doris's life in the process. Witnesses feared that one undercover soldier, who was brandishing a pistol, would have killed the wounded Doris with a shot to his head.
Afterward, hundreds of residents were forced to leave their homes as security forces searched the area near the base. This kept tensions high according to local republican activist Bernadette McAliskey. Two men were later questioned by the RUC about the attack.
, England
—raised concerns that the IRA was trying to mar the upcoming UK general election
. Martin McGuinness
dubbed the shooting "murderous", while independent councillor Jim Canning said that more than a dozen soldiers "were threatening to shoot anybody who moved [...] while a young man lay shot on the ground". Republican sources claimed that this was another case of shoot-to-kill policy
by the security forces; Ulster Unionist Party
MP
Ken Maginnis
, however, acknowledged the SAS for their actions.
Gareth Doris was admitted to South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon
, where he was arrested after undergoing surgery. He was later transferred to Musgrave Park military hospital
in Belfast
. Doris was later convicted for involvement in the bombing and sentenced to ten years in jail before being released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Gareth was the cousin of Tony Doris, an IRA member killed in an SAS ambush in the nearby village of Coagh
on 3 June 1991. According to Sinn Féin councillor Brendan Doris, another cousin of Gareth, "He absolutely denies being involved in terrorist activity of any description". Amnesty International
raised its concerns over the shooting and the fact that no warning was given beforehand.
The British Army/RUC base at Coalisland was shut in 2006 and sold for private development in 2010.
Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade
The East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army , also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles"...
launched an improvised grenade attack on the fortified RUC
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
/British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
base in Coalisland
Coalisland
Coalisland is a small town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with a population of 4,917 people . As its name suggests, it was formerly a centre for coal mining.-History:...
, County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. The blast sparked an immediate reaction by an SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
unit, who shot and wounded alleged IRA volunteer Gareth Doris. The SAS unit was then surrounded by a crowd of protestors. RUC officers arrived and fired plastic bullet
Plastic bullet
A plastic bullet or plastic baton round is a non-lethal projectile fired from a specialised gun. Although designed as a non-lethal weapon they have still caused several deaths. They are generally used for riot control...
s at the crowd, allowing the special forces to leave the area.
Previous incidents
Coalisland is a village in County Tyrone reputed as being a republican stronghold; five residents had been killed by British security forces before the first IRA ceasefire in 1994. In February 1992, four IRA volunteers were killed in a gun battle with the SAS during their escape after a machine gun attack on the RUC/Army station there. Three months later a bomb attack on a British Army patrol at CappaghCappagh
Cappagh is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is between Pomeroy, Ballygawley, Galbally and Carrickmore, with the hamlet of Galbally about one mile to the east...
, in which a paratrooper lost his legs, triggered a series of clashes between local residents and British troops on 12 and 17 May. A number of civilians and soldiers were injured and two army weapons stolen. The meleé was followed by a 500 people protest in the village and bitter exchanges between Irish and British officials.
Bomb attack
At 9:40 pm on Wednesday 26 March 1997, a grenade was thrown at the joint British Army/RUC base at Coalisland, blowing a hole in the perimeter fence. The RUC reported that a 1 kg device hit the fence 10 feet (3 m) off the ground. Another source claimed that the device was a coffee-jar bomb filled with semtexSemtex
Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex became notoriously popular with terrorists because it was, until recently, extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am...
. The grenade was dropped or fired by two unidentified men. At the time of the attack, there was an art exhibition at Coalisland Heritage Hall, also known as The Mill, from where the explosion and the gunshots that followed were clearly heard. The incident lasted one to two minutes.
Undercover operation
Just one minute after the IRA attack, bypassers heard high-velocity rounds buzzing around them. A number of men, apparently SAS soldiers, got out of civilian vehicles wearing baseball caps with "Army" stamped on the front. A first-hand source initially described them as members of the 14 Intelligence Company14 Intelligence Company
14 Field Security and Intelligence Company is alleged to have been an element of the British Army Intelligence Corps which operated in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onwards. The unit conducted undercover surveillance operations against suspected members of Irish republican and loyalist...
. The men were firing Browning pistol
Browning Hi-Power
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized...
s and Heckler & Koch sub- machine guns
Heckler & Koch MP5
The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....
. Witnesses said there were eight to ten gunshots, while a republican source claimed that up to 18 rounds were fired. Nineteen-year-old Gareth Dorris was shot in the stomach and fell to the ground. Doris was allegedly returning from the local church and was in company of a priest when he was shot.
Three minutes after the blast, hundreds of angry residents gathered at the scene and confronted the undercover soldiers. The soldiers fired live rounds at the ground and into the air to keep people back. The crowd kept drawing back and moving forward again until 9:50, when the RUC arrived and began firing plastic bullets at the protesters. Two women were wounded by plastic bullets and the car of local priest Seamus Rice was hit by bullets fired by the undercover team. The undercover soldiers then fled in unmarked cars; setting off crackers or fireworks at the same time. Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
councillor Francie Molloy
Francie Molloy
Francie Molloy MLA is a Sinn Féin politician and a deputy speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly.He first stood for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 1982 Assembly Elections finishing as runner-up 542 votes behind the DUP candidate with over 1400 SDLP votes non-transferable...
claimed that the protesters forced the SAS to withdraw, saving Doris's life in the process. Witnesses feared that one undercover soldier, who was brandishing a pistol, would have killed the wounded Doris with a shot to his head.
Afterward, hundreds of residents were forced to leave their homes as security forces searched the area near the base. This kept tensions high according to local republican activist Bernadette McAliskey. Two men were later questioned by the RUC about the attack.
Aftermath
The attack—along with two large bombings the same day in WilmslowWilmslow
-Economy:Wilmslow is well known, like Alderley Edge, for having many famous residents, notably footballers, stars of Coronation Street and rich North West businessmen. The town is part of the so-called Golden Triangle in the north west together with Alderley Edge and Prestbury...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
—raised concerns that the IRA was trying to mar the upcoming UK general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
. Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
dubbed the shooting "murderous", while independent councillor Jim Canning said that more than a dozen soldiers "were threatening to shoot anybody who moved [...] while a young man lay shot on the ground". Republican sources claimed that this was another case of shoot-to-kill policy
Shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland
During the period known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland, the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary were accused of operating a shoot-to-kill policy, under which suspects were alleged to have been deliberately killed without any attempt to arrest them...
by the security forces; Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Ken Maginnis
Ken Maginnis, Baron Maginnis of Drumglass
Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass is a Northern Irish Ulster Unionist politician who sits in the House of Lords...
, however, acknowledged the SAS for their actions.
Gareth Doris was admitted to South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon
Dungannon
Dungannon is a medium-sized town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the third-largest town in the county and a population of 11,139 people was recorded in the 2001 Census. In August 2006, Dungannon won Ulster In Bloom's Best Kept Town Award for the fifth time...
, where he was arrested after undergoing surgery. He was later transferred to Musgrave Park military hospital
Musgrave Park Hospital
Musgrave Park Hospital is a regional specialist hospital, managed by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation of patients of all ages. These specialties are spread out across a large site in...
in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. Doris was later convicted for involvement in the bombing and sentenced to ten years in jail before being released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Gareth was the cousin of Tony Doris, an IRA member killed in an SAS ambush in the nearby village of Coagh
Coagh
Coagh is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, situated five miles east of Cookstown. Part of the village also extends into County Londonderry. It had a population of 545 people in the 2001 Census...
on 3 June 1991. According to Sinn Féin councillor Brendan Doris, another cousin of Gareth, "He absolutely denies being involved in terrorist activity of any description". Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
raised its concerns over the shooting and the fact that no warning was given beforehand.
The British Army/RUC base at Coalisland was shut in 2006 and sold for private development in 2010.
See also
- Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1990-1999)Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1990-1999)This is a chronology of activities by the Provisional Irish Republican Army , from 1990 to 1999. For actions before and after this period see Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions....
- Provisional IRA East Tyrone BrigadeProvisional IRA East Tyrone BrigadeThe East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army , also known as the Tyrone/Monaghan Brigade was one of the most active republican paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland during "the Troubles"...