A Chronology of the Northern Ireland Conflict
ISSUE 40
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t can often be a contentious issue of debate of when and how Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ began, who and what is to blame, and even which event in case led us to where we are now. You can go back 30 years, or even 300 years and beyond for in reality Ireland has been engaged in conflict with England for centuries. Therefore, in order to compile a chronological record of the modern Troubles - the term usually given to the most recent conflict, we must mark a defining point of start, which we have taken as partition itself and from which we began in. In turn again, we feel it is equally important to give you the reader some understanding why events spiralled as they did into a bloody civil war. This is not another view of the Troubles, this has been done and redone. This is the historical recording of events compiled by people from different parts of Belfast who lived through them. Our objective as local historians is to compile what we hope will be as near as possible a definitive reference to events as they unfolded through the last three decades. In terms of research we have used as much material as possible and from diverse perspectives. We are confident that we have covered events as they were reported at the time. If however you feel that we have either left something out or indeed got something wrong we are more than happy to hear from you. As mentioned above this series of publications is the historical recording of the Troubles and all corrections are more than welcome. GLENRAVEL LOCAL HISTORY PROJECT Ashton Centre Churchill Street Belfast BT15 2BP Tel: (028) 9020 2100 • Fax: (028) 9020 2227 E-Mail: glenravel@ashtoncentre.com This is designed to create a better historical understanding of what has become known as ‘The Troubles.’ Therefore for educational purposes you are more than welcome to use any material from them. All that we ask is that the source is acknowledged and a copy of the material sent to us after publication. We use material that has been placed in the public domain. We try to acknowledge all the copyright holders but sometimes this is not possible. If you claim credit for something that has appeared in this publication then we will be happy to know about it so that we can make the appropriate acknowledgements.
SOURCE MATERIAL USED FOR THIS PUBLICATION
www.wikipedia.org
IRISH NEWS Numerous issues for period covered
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NEWS LETTER Numerous issues for period covered
BELFAST TELEGRAPH Numerous issues for period covered
LOST LIVES A record of all those killed during The Troubles
We use this site to cover major events during the Northern Ireland conflict. We recommend its use not only for local material but also for any general educational or research subject.
Monday 3rd January 1977 Fifteen month-old baby Graham Dougan was killed instantly when he was caught by debris from a 100lb car bomb as his mother tried to rush him to safety from their Harmin Park home. His 32-year-old mother suffered cuts and bruises and a fractured shoulder. The blast caused damage to many houses and fragments of the car were strewn along pavements and front gardens. The car had been hijacked in Ardilea Street, off the Oldpark Road and although a 40-minute warning had been given the bomb exploded after only 25 minutes. (Pictured below).
In Crossmaglen a soldier shot dead was named as Lance Corporal David Hind aged 23 and from Kilmarnock; a member of the Royal Highland Fusiliers. He was leading a four-man patrol on the Dundalk Road when gunmen opened up with automatic fire. Lance Corporal Hind was fatally injured and two other soldiers were hurt. Up to 70 shots were exchanged between soldiers and four gunmen and local churchgoers were forced to take cover. The gunmen escaped across fields to a van. In Cookstown 20 families had to be
evacuated from their homes when a suspect car bomb was reported at Dungannon Road, Cookstown. The car had been hijacked at Ardboe by masked men. The area was cleared and after six hours a controlled explosion was carried out. The car did not contain any explosives, but shortly afterwards an explosion went off 200 yards away.
exploded in a motorcycle parked outside his father pub, at Merchants Quay. The youth lost part of his hand and a toe. The army removed an incendiary device from the Talk of the Town lounge bar at St Mary’s Street. It was believed by the RUC that the device had been planted over two weeks previously and was overlooked in a previous search.
In Belfast a car was stoned by youths at Joy Street in the markets area. None of the occupants was injured and the vehicle was slightly damaged.
In Armagh a 20-yearold man was admitted to Craigavon Hospital with a bullet wound to the right knee after a shooting incident at In Newry an 18 year old playing fields at was injured when a Cathedral Road. booby trap bomb A 20lb bomb was spotted underneath a centre at Nelson Drive in Derry where a number of army families live. 100 people in the centre and surrounding houses were evacuated while the bomb was neutralised.
At Heron Way in Derry six shots were fired at a group of men leaving a community centre after a dance.
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Tuesday 4th January 1977 A bomb was found in a store at Doggarts in James Street South. It contained 10lb of explosives and was made safe after the premises and surrounding area was cleared. At the Riverdale Heating Co at Stranmillis in Belfast a small bomb was left by three youths who
in the Rathcoole area of escaped in a car. A short Newtownabbey. No time later it was one was in the lorry at the time of the blast but declared safe. extensive damage was A small incendiary caused to the vehicle, device type device was which was parked at pushed into a letterbox Ballyronan Park. A of a firm in College haulage firm based in Street, Square South and was Channing made safe by the army. Belfast, owned the It contained only one lorry. A bomb was also found in the cab of a ounce of chemicals. lorry near the A device exploded in company’s premises the cab of a parked lorry and it was defused.
The army carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect car at Mallusk Road, Glengormley. No explosives were found in the vehicle. The army discovered a 9mm pistol and 113 rounds of assorted ammunition following a search of a house in Joy Street Belfast. A small bomb caused an explosion at F B McKees, Carrickfergus.
Wednesday 5th January 1977 Two black plastic bags containing bombs were placed at the Crazy Prices supermarket in Dunmurry. The area was cleared but before the army arrived the devices exploded. The explosions caused blast damage to the premises and there was severe fire and blast damage to Kingsway Carpets and Jones’s sweet shop.
Welsh Street in the Markets area of Belfast. It contained two pounds of commercial explosives. An army patrol came under fire at Lavinia Street in Belfast. No one was hurt and fire was not returned.
The army were called to examine a stolen car parked at Harmin Park At Northern Ireland in Glengormley but no Carriers premises in explosives were found Grosvenor Road, in the car. Belfast, an oil line with a detonator and wires The army and RUC attached was refused to comment on discovered. The army reports that the UVF dealt with the device, had called off its which contained no ceasefire and that it has was responsible for explosives. The army defused a recent bomb attacks. device in a parked car at The UVF had claimed
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that it had been observing a ceasefire for one year. There was also no comment from the UVF but it was
claimed that the ceasefire had ended because of the row over the political prisoner issue.
Thursday 6th January 1977 An old age pensioners home in Portadown was hit by bullets because of a serious defect in protective barriers at an army firing range nearby. 18 bullets from high-powered 7.62 calibre calibre selfloading rifles tore into the home at Ripley Terrace off the Armagh Road. Two bombs damaged the Electrical Equipment Wholesalers on the Stranmillis Embankment. Three men and a woman left two bombs both of which exploded at lunchtime. One had been carried outside where it went off and five minutes later the second bomb exploded. Two soldiers were taken to hospital after being
shot and seriously wounded on the Glen Road in Belfast. Fire was returned and in a follow up two men were apprehended in Norfolk Way. Three weapons, an armalite rifle, a highpowered Remington sporting rifle and a Walther automatic pistol were recovered. Three citybus buses, two lorries and a newspaper delivery van were hijacked and set on fire at Monagh roundabout. A man and his wife escaped injury when a small bomb was thrown into their flat at Upper Dunmurry Lane. The device caused extensive damage. The woman was taken to hospital suffering from shock.
The flat was above their fruit and vegetable shop. A man in his early 30s was admitted top Craigavon Area Hospital suffering from a gunshot wound in the thigh. The man told police that the shooing took place at his home two miles from Lurgan. He was wounded by a man who called at the house and asked for him. The gunman fired two shots. The army found 299
assorted bullets in a boiler room of a community centre at Pollock Road, Lurgan. A firebomb found in a hairdressing salon at the Melville Hotel, High Street, Omagh was defused by the army. The device, which had partially exploded, was found after a warning telephone call. An explosion blew a hole in a wall near a Customs Post at Belleek, Fermanagh. No one was injured.
Friday 7th January 1977 A 10lb bomb exploded inside a Wimpy bar in Castle Lane, inside Belfast’s security zone. The Wimpy was full of customers when the bomb was spotted in a plastic bag, sitting in the middle of the floor. Wires were coming
Firebomb attack on Dunmurray Golf Club
from the plastic bag and the area was cleared before the bomb exploded within 25 minutes of a warning being received. Windows were blown out and most of the ground floor was destroyed. There were no injuries and it was reported that the bomb had been left by two girls who ordered ice cream at the counter before leaving the premises without the plastic bag. The girls were spotted running from the scene. In Belfast four buses were destroyed by an armed gang in the Falls Road Citybus depot. A number of youths
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sprinkled petrol over the buses and set them on fire. Six other buses were damaged in the attack. A 15 year old boy was admitted to hospital in Belfast with a gunshot wound in the left arm. Another youth was wounded in the thigh. A hardware store at
Merville Garden Village on the outskirts of Belfast was destroyed by a bomb that started a fire. Several other premises and a number of homes opposite were damaged by the explosion. A reserve policeman received minor injuries when the 15lb bomb in
a shopping bag was discovered in the shop doorway after an anonymous telephone warning call. In south Armagh several shots were fired from a car at an army patrol in Crossmaglen by gunmen who made off in the direction of the border. Fire was
returned but no hits were claimed. There were no reports of injuries. In Belleek the army defused a bomb found at the rear of a customs post. It contained 10lb of explosives. Earlier another bomb had blasted a hole in the wall beside the post.
Dunmurry was sealed off after an anonymous warning that there were bombs in the area.
Shopkeepers were asked to return to check their premises but nothing was found.
Saturday 8th January 1977 A 13-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man were wounded in a shooting at Bawnmore, a housing estate off the Shore Road in Belfast. The boy was seriously injured with gunshot wounds to the head and the man was injured in the chest and side in an incident in which the army were involved. The army patrol became involved after they heard shooting in the estate but no soldiers were injured. The man was injured in the first shooting which brought the army to the scene and then the army opened fire after spotted a gunman running into a house in the estate. The boy was injured when a single shot was fired through the front door of his house. An army foot patrol came under fire in the Oldpark area of Belfast.
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One shot was fired at the patrol in Ballyclare Street. Fire was returned but no hits were claimed. A small bomb was planted underneath the bonnet of a car in Spamount Street in Belfast. The army carried out a controlled explosion and the blast blew out windows in a number of nearby houses. Several shots were fired at the Fort Monagh army post in Belfast. Fire was returned but no hits were claimed and no one was hurt. In Armagh an RUC mobile patrol came under attack at Drumarg Estate. A gunman fired four shots at the vehicle but no one was injured and fire was not returned.
Sunday 9th January 1977 A former UDR man was kidnapped and held in the South Armagh border area. He was forced to say his prayers and then asked to kneel on the ground and he was hit with a rifle butt. The kidnappers insisted
that he was still a member of the UDR and that his wife was also connected with the force. He was held for four hours and then released near the Tullyette Road.
Monday 10th January 1977 Sergeant Martin Eamon Walsh, a 28-year-old father of two from Hereford and an army explosives expert was killed while attempting to defuse a bomb at a
Fermanagh shop. The IRA claimed responsibility for the death. Sergeant Walsh was examining the bomb at an isolated shop near the border
IRA bomb attack on Savoy Motors on the Crumlin Road when it went of killing him instantly. The device, a milk churn packed with 100lb of explosives, ha been planted in the shop by an armed group. The alarm was raised and the area sealed off. In Belfast a 24-year-old man was stopped by two men as he walked along Downing Street in the Shankill Road area and shot by one of the men the leg. A 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old companion were each shot in the right leg at Summerhill Drive in the Twinbrook Estate. A man was wounded in the shoulder when a
Five people were treated for shock after a small bomb exploded without warning at the rear of the Blackstaff pub on the Springfield Road in Belfast. The device contained 5lb of explosives and caused slight damage to a store at the rear of the pub and also to surrounding buildings.
injuries at the scene of the attack. The most seriously affected shops were English’s grocery store at Kinelowen Street and Mone’s house furnishers in Divis Street. A device ignited in Boyd’s grocer’s shop but was kicked outside by the owner’s nephew. Only slight damage was caused. A fourth firebomb went off in the letterbox at the Post Office but damage was slight.
In Keady the IRA claimed responsibility for a firebomb attack, which badly damaged two shops in the town. A fireman was treated for facial and hand
An incendiary device caused a fire, which damaged the second floor of Austin’s drapers store in Derry. Two other incendiaries were found in the Playgirl
gunman opened fire on him as he walked along the Falls Road near Dunville Street.
outfitters on the Strand Road but were neutralised by the army. One was discovered in the pocket of an overcoat and the second in a changing room. Four shots were fired at Creggan army camp in Derry but no one was hurt and fire was not returned.
In County Down the army defused firebombs planted in four towns. The devices were found in the shops at Saintfield, Temple, Ballynahinch and Crossgar. Two devices had been placed in coat pockets and a third in a continental quilt.
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Tuesday 11th January 1977 A milk churn bomb was found by police during a routine search near the border at Carrickedmond, Co Louth. The police became suspicious of the milk churn, which was hidden, in a derelict car. The army were called in and found that it was packed with explosives and primed ready for planting but it was dismantled successfully. Also found nearby were about 150lb of explosives and a quantity of diesel oil.
All the explosives were destroyed. In Lisnaskea a bomb exploded at Bryson’s chemist shop 30 minutes after a warning had been phoned to the Samaritans and a local pub. The owner and his wife were able to get out before the device went off in the doorway. The building was badly damaged. A short time later an incendiary device started a fire, which destroyed Dowlers timber store at the Newtownbutler end of the town.
The main Belfast to Dublin road was blocked close to Newry by a suspect car bomb. The army examined the vehicle and found a hand grenade in the back seat. The device was defused. Shots were fired in Elmfield Park in Belfast. One shot was fired through the door when a girl went to answer a knock. The gunman fired three rounds through the front window when she refused to open the door. No one was
injured. The car used in the attack was found burning at West Crescent in Newtownabbey. The army made an arms find in a house at Moyard Crescent in Belfast. A shotgun, two telescopic sights, four rifles and 75 shotgun cartridges were discovered. In Derry soldiers found a number of cassette type incendiaries and bomb making equipment in an outhouse in the Meenan Square area of the Bogside.
Wednesday 12th January 1977 The army found bombmaking equipment in the Markets area of Belfast. The find consisted of detonators, a timing device and three bags contained explosives.
area of the Oldpark. He was named as 18 year old Gunner Edmund Frank Muller, a single man from Doncaster in England who served with 49 Field Regiment Royal Artillery.
Fog and snow and frost held up an army operation to deal with suspect bomb in Belfast. The device was noticed when a soldier disturbed earth on a piece of waste ground.
An armed group made up of two youths and a girl held up staff at Christies shop near Snugville Street on the Crumlin Road. They planted a duffle bag bomb and gave a 5 minute warning before making off in a car. The bomb with a can of petrol attached exploded 10 minutes
A teenage solder was shot dead by a sniper as he set up a vehicle checkpoint in the Bone
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Firebomb attack on Christies Paint and Wallpaper shop, Crumlin Road
later, but the area had been cleared and no one as hurt. The blast started a massive fire that destroyed the shop. A woman was treated for shock. A 17 year old youth was admitted to hospital with a gunshot wound in the left knee. The shooting happened at Norglen Parade in the Turf Lodge area. In Omagh the army
defused a bomb left at the Knocknamoe Hotel. 20 guests were evacuated from the hotel for more than an hour during the incident. The alarm was raised after an anonymous phone warning to the Samaritans. The bomb consisted of 5lbs of explosives with a can of petrol attach and was found at an outside door leading to the managers
office. In Derry soldiers found a high velocity rifle in a house in the Bishop Street area following a sniper attack on a foot patrol. One shot was fired at the patrol but no one was hurt. Four shots were fired at the home of an RUC officer on the outskirts of Lurgan. A gunman fired the bullets through a living room window, but the RUC man and
his family escaped injury. After the incident a number of men were seen speeding off in a car. The shooting followed an IRA threat on the wives and families of RUC officers in the north Armagh area. An incendiary device found in a shop in Market Street, Downpatrick was defused by the army.
Thursday 13th January 1977 Friday 14th January 1977 Families in Derry and near Strabane were evacuated after bomb warnings were received. The bombs were reported to be at central Drive in the Creggan and at Inisclan on Strabane where three families were evacuated because of a suspect device in a shop. After a telephone warning to the Samaritans that two bombs were planted in a store on the Stewartstown Road in Belfast the area was
cleared. A bomb went off in the building 30 minutes later which started a fire that destroyed the store. An explosion in Waterloo Street, Derry, destroyed Cagney's boutique. Three men, one of them armed, left a parcel and there was a blast 30 minutes later.
A part time policeman who was married was killed when a bomb near his home blew up his car. He was named as Mr James Greer of Innisrush near Portglenone, Co Antrim. Mr Greer was on his way to work at a bacon factory in Ahoghill. He had travelled 50 yards down a lane from his home and was about to turn
An explosion rocked a derelict shop on the Crumlin Road in Monday 17th Belfast. A 10lb bomb A bomb scare disrupted caused slight damage to the Ulster Motor Show, the front of the building. as it was about to open to the public. The alarm was raised after an army sniffer dog discovered a package during a routine search. The area was sealed off but the package did not contain any explosives.
onto the main Portglenone to Maghera Road when the device exploded. The blast blew his car apart. His body was found by his father who rushed to the scene when he heard the explosion. Soldiers found a revolver and 8 rounds of ammunition hidden in a hedge on Cathedral Road, Armagh.
January 1977 A young South Armagh man was shot dead by a Special Air Services patrol. A pump action shotgun was found at the scene and was loaded with a strong charge of buckshot. It was recovered after the SAS patrol engaged in a gun battle near the
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border. The SAS fired 28 shots and the 20year-old man was killed. He was named as Mr Seamus Harvey who was a construction worker. An off duty RUC man was shot three times as he left his car in the car park of a supermarket at Derriaghy. The gunmen escaped in a car later found in the Twinbrook estate. Another off duty policeman fired at the car as it sped off but no hits were claimed. An RUC officer was stabbed in the stomach by a group of youths on the Harryville estate in
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Ballymena. He was A shot was fired into the bedroom of a house in seriously hurt. the Belmont area of Two youths were shot in Belfast. the legs in the Brompton Park area of Two youths caused a bomb scare and set fire Ardoyne in Belfast. to two buses at the A 45-year-old man was Ulsterbus depot in injured when a bomb Derry. Only minor exploded at his farm at damage was caused. Brigh near Stewartstown. The man Two bombs destroyed a was moving a bale of supermarket and a hay when the explosion filling station near Enniskillen and a short occurred. time later another explosion damaged a A part time police drapery shop in reservist discovered a B r o o k e b o r o u g h . booby trap bomb in his Warnings had been car has he was about to given and no one was drive away form his injured in any of the blasts. The first two Garvagh home.
bombs went off in the Forest Green Supermarket and the McCutcheons filling station on the Sligo Road, one mile from Enniskillen. The devices were planted by two men who shouted a warning and ran off. They exploded within 15 minutes of each other and the thrid bomb exploded at Morton Dunns drapery store in Main Street, Brookeborough. There were no casualties. Two incendiary devices were found in a hardware shop in Ardglass and were later defused by the army.
Tuesday 18th January 1977
single shot fired at him with by the army and as he left a friends the controlled explosion Thirty children were The army defused a caused only slight house. caught up in a bomb device left at the front damage. drama at the home of an door of a part time A youth was shot in RUC man in Derry. The reservist at Aghadowey both knees in the children were at a bus and also a bomb Creggan area of Derry. stop opposite the RUC attached to the car of a In Belfast a shot was mans home when he reservist at Garvagh. In Newry a bomb left in fired at an army foot found a booby trap a café in Monaghnan patrol in the New Lodge device attached to the In Coalisland 20 shots Street was made Road area. No one was front door. Inside the were fired at a police harmless when the army hit and fire was not house were the patrol at Derrytresk. carried out a controlled returned. policeman’s wife and The patrol fired back explosion. Two men two children. The area but no hits were walked into the café and A petrol bomb was was evacuated and the claimed. placed the bomb on the thrown at vacant bomb was neutralised floor at the rear of the premises in Belfast’s by the army. The 5lb The army fired three premises. A customer Clifton Street. No one bomb had been attached shots at a gunman at struggled with one of was injured and no to the front door by Cavanmore Gardens in the men and in the damage was caused. fishing line and would A n d e r s o n s t o w n , scuffle a shot was have exploded when the Belfast, but no hits were discharged. No one was Three youths burst into claimed. door was opened. hit by the shot but the a filling station on the Wednesday 19th January 1977 customer was struck on Crumlin Road in the head. The bombers Belfast and left a box A bomb exploded at the Street and was taken escaped on foot. The that they said contained Mace Supermarket on outside where it was 3lb device was dealt a bomb. the Ballysillan Road in dealt with by the army. Belfast. There were no Thursday 20th January 1977 injuries but a small fire A booby trap device The Co op store in ripping two gaping followed the blast. Two found at the home of a Belfast’s York Street holes in the distinctive armed youths planted Derry RUC man turned was hit by a blast one façade of the building. the suspect box in the out to be a false alarm. week before it was due Two people were premises and the area The policeman who to reopen. Firemen and injured but not was cleared. The bomb lived neat Fallahogy, a sophisticated sprinkler seriously. The IRA had exploded 30 minutes Kilrea, raised the alarm system prevented the phoned a warning to the later. when he thought there blaze spreading. The BBC and also claimed was something wrong most serious damage responsibility for the An incendiary device with his car. was confined to attack. found in a shop in stockrooms on the third Ballynahinch was made A 33-year-old Derry floor. Three bombs The army defused a safe by the army and no man was shot as he got went off within five bomb in Keady and as damage was caused. into his car in minutes, showering the bombers ran from The package was Dungiven. It happened huge chunks of the scene two high discovered in Stewart’s in Maghermore Road. masonry across velocity shots were clothes shop in High The man was hit by a Frederick Street and fired at the army base,
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which was close by. Fire was not returned and there were no casualties. The North Armagh brigade of the IRA claimed responsibility for the bomb and attack
on a police station and Two hundred teenagers had to be evacuated army base. from a disco in the Glen A 33-year-old man was Road area after an IRA admitted to hospital mortar bomb attack on after being shot in the a local army base. Woodvale area of Three mortar bombs exploded within 50 Belfast. yards of St Teresa’s youth club where the disco was being held. The target was Fort Monagh army base. The attack was launched from Bingnian Drive and in total five mortars were fired from a lorry.
Bomb attacks on the new Co-Op store on York Street
Friday 21st January 1977 A lorry driver was shot dead near his home in Tyrone. The shooting happened in the remote Corgary area between Castlederg and the Donegal border. The man was driving to work in Killeter forest. A short time later the UFF claimed responsibility. The dead man was 35-yearold Mr Michael McHugh who was a father of two and lived in a farmhouse. Buses in west Belfast were withdrawn after a spate of hijacking and burning of vehicles. Traffic was brought to
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a standstill by bomb scares near the Queens Bridge. Five buses were hijacked and set on fire in the Falls area and the army blew up a suspect package in Andersonstown bus depot. It turned out to be a bundle of straw. An incendiary bomb at Frazer’s shop in Castle Street started a fire, which killed a security man. He was James McColgan of Killeaton Park in Derriaghy. The fire was spotted by the police and the man was found lying on the stairs. Fumes had overcome him.
On the Crumlin Road in Belfast gunmen tried to kill a prison officer. The 38-year-old man spotted a suspect bomb under his car as he was going off duty at the Belfast prison. The army were called but the bomb exploded just as it was about to be examined. No one was hurt. A Portadown man was forced to leave his home after he was attacked by two gunmen. One of
the gunmen burst into the house at Churchill Park and one shot was fired. A pub near Downpatrick was damaged in a bomb attack but no one was hurt. A plastic bag had
Saturday 22nd A single shot was fired at an army foot patrol at the Ramoan Gardens and the Glen Road in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. There were no injuries and fire was not returned. The Tyrone forestry worker killed by an armed gang was the chairman of the local Sinn Fein branch. He was named as Mr Michael McHugh for Corgary, Castlederg.
been spotted at the entrance to the pub, the Lakeside Inn, and the area was cleared. The explosion started a fire, which damaged the bar and living accommodation upstairs.
Monday 24th January 1977
A soldier on foot patrol in the markets area was shot dead. He was named as 19-year-old Gunner George Muncaster, single and from Liverpool. He was killed by a single January 1977 high velocity shot while on foot patrol at the bullets had been fired junction of Eliza Street by the army since July and New Bond Street. 1970. Nine buses were burnt in Belfast and another A full time member of bus was hijacked at the the UDR was wounded Ligoniel terminus in by gunfire when he was north Belfast, but was ambushed as he later recovered after the returned to his home at army defused a 10lb Maghera with his wife bomb found on board. after an evening out.
A fishing line car bomb was planted under the car of a prison officer outside Crumlin Road jail. The car exploded after an army bomb Soldiers uncovered a disposal expert fired a rifle, a pistol and 130 shot at it. bullets in a search of a house in the St James A booby trap device area of Belfast. Two planted near the home men were arrested at the of a reserve RUC constable two miles for scene. Kilrea in Co Derry was The Ministry of triggered off when an Defence disclosed that army land rover passed more than 63,000 over it. The explosion rubber and plastic caused minor damage.
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The mans wife had just entered the front door of the house and he was about to follow when a number of shots were fired. He was hit in the right thigh and wrists by a shotgun. In Newry a 12-year-old girl was shot when gunmen opened fire on a police patrol car. She was hit when two gunmen, one of then using a shotgun, opened fire from the direction of Market Street on a police car travelling along Hill Street. The car was hit several times, but none of the occupants was injured.
The police officers chased the gunmen through a pedestrian precinct into Eater Street, but the men escaped. A man was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds to the right leg. He was shot as he walked along Sheridan Street in the New Lodge area of Belfast. A bomb left at a filling station on the Dungannon Road, Coalisland was defused by the army. The bomb was planted by three youths; on of them armed, at Oliver’s petrol station and a 15minute warning was given. No one was injured.
A number of shots were fired at a house at Seymour Hull, Dunmurry. The shots hit the window but police believe that the house was not the intended target. Two women were treated for shock after shots were fired at Unity Flats. The gunfire hit a shop door and windows.
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Police identified the two bodies discovered in a burning car in the Shankill area of West Belfast as 45 year old Thomas Boston and 40 year old John Lowther. They had been stabbed and shot by members of the UDA who believed
them both to be catholic. Mr Boston was protestant and a member of the Orange Order and the Royal Black Preceptory. Both men were last seen alive in a loyalist club on the Shankill Road
Tuesday 25th January 1977 A booby trap bomb almost killed a policeman’s wife as she opened the kitchen door of her home near Coagh. She triggered a 5lb bomb and the door was blown in and windows shattered but the woman only received a cut to the back of her hand. She was treated for shock. The army found a timing device behind the house. The army dealt with a small device found on Wolff Road, east Belfast, by dockers on
Thomas Boston pictured on his wedding day
The car in which the bodies were found 14
their way to work. The bomb containing propellant and a small explosive charge was neutralised after the army carried out a controlled explosion. A soldier home on leave was shot in the knee in the Sandy Row area of Belfast. The off duty soldier from Taughmonagh was walking along Sandy Row when two youths came out of Maxwell Court and shot him in the knee. The 24-yearold soldier was taken to hospital.
A soldier and a 13-year- shot shattered the rear old schoolboy were window and hit a boy in injured when a sniper the shoulder. opened fire on an army post in the Antrim Road A shoe shop on the area of Belfast. Ten Crumlin Road, Belfast shots were fired and the was damaged by an soldier was hit in the explosion. Two young leg. A busload of men, one carrying a children was passing firearm, planted a 10lb Burning buses on the Donegall Road the post at the Antrim bomb. The area was Road, new Lodge Road cleared and no one was Several shots were fired derelict house in Irish junction at the time. A injured. at a mobile army patrol Street off the at the junction of Springfield Road. Finaghy Road North There was a large and Riverdale Road. ammunition find in the None of the soldiers Lenadoon area of was injured. Fire was Belfast. The army not returned. revealed that the troops Bomb attack on a cleaners shop in found 236 rounds of .55 Soldiers found three ammunition and 50 Castle Street armalite rifles and 19 rounds of .50 Browning rounds of armalite ammunition in a car at ammunition in a Lenadoon Avenue.
Wednesday 26th January 1977 Frank Moyna, aged 68, died of a heart attack while paratroopers searched his Bombay Street home after the nearby Co op store was bombed. The soldiers, members of the 2nd Para Battalion obstructed Mrs Moyna from getting help for her husband it was claimed. A number of people, including a soldier, and three civilian searchers were injured when a bomb went off without warning near the
Belfast city centre. The bomb exploded inside Speedy Cleaners in Castle Street and the front of the premises were blown out. Eighteen weapons were found in a raid on an unoccupied house at Swords, Co Dublin. The haul included sawn off shotguns and rifles, all in working condition. An anonymous tip off led to the discovery of the arms and no arrests were made.
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Thursday 27th January 1977 Friday 28th January 1977 A Derry RUC detective was shot dead as he left his car at his local garage for a service. The 30-year-old CID man was Detective Constable Patrick Liam McNulty, a married man with two young sons, died in a hail of machinegun fire from point blank range. Two men were waiting as he drove his car to the side entrance of Desmonds garage on the Strand Road in Derry. A shot was fired at a solder on sentry duty at Berry Street in Belfast. The sentry returned fire but no hits were claimed. Six shots were fired at a police vehicle near the Duncairn Gardens and North Queen Street
junction. No one was The RUC detained three hit and fire was not men and recovered two returned. guns after a high-speed chase in the Finaghy A petrol bomb thrown Road North area of at a police vehicle at the Belfast. During the Twinbrook estate in chase the RUC fired west Belfast failed to one warning shot in the explode. air. Four shots hit a police car at Innisrush near Portglenone. No one was injured and fire was not returned. A man, his wife and two young children were treated for shock and cuts after a blast bomb was thrown at their home in the Short Strand area. A 5lb bomb thrown over the rear wall of the house in Madrid Street caused extensive damage when it exploded. No one was seriously hurt.
Liam McNulty
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Road in the east of the city. Two youths were involved and they made off in a waiting car.
A foot patrol of soldiers came under fire at Annadale Street off the Antrim Road in Belfast but nobody was hurt. Gunmen attempted to They did not return fire. kill a man as he left his work in the Ravenhill A postman was shot in area of Belfast. One the face and back by a bullet grazed the mans gunman as he delivered ear as he left his firms letters near Kilrea in Co premises at London Derry.
Saturday 29th January 1977 Several people were injured when a bomb ripped through a paint and wallpaper shop in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. The bomb was left in Lynchs shop at the top of the Crumlin Road. A woman and child were rushed to hospital and many others were taken to hospital by locals in their cars.
station. The burst of gunfire shattered the car windscreen as the sergeant drove out of Stewartstown RUC station. He fired back at the gunman but did not hit him.
A single shot was fired at a UDR man in Portadown as he returned home from walking his dog. The A man was shot in the bullet hit a wall beside knee in an entry in the the man who then ran Shankill Road area. into this home. The 35-year-old man was in an alleyway off In Dungiven a shot was fired at a UDR man as Klondyke Street. he got into his car A police officer was outside his home at slightly injured when Largy Road. The bullet his car was shot at missed and the mans outside a Tyrone RUC escaped into his home.
Shots were fired at the army at Devonshire Street and at Moyard Park. Soldiers returned fire and no one was injured. A man and woman were
recharged with possessing a bomb in Belfast city centre under suspicious circumstances. The couple from the east of the city were remanded.
Monday 31st January 1977 A man was found dead on waste ground near Carlisle Circus and it was claimed that he as an officer in the west Belfast brigade of the UDA. The body had severe head injuries and was discovered lying beside a parked lorry on waste ground at Adela Street. Two 16-year-old youths from Bangor were charged with possessing a double-barrelled shotgun and two shotgun cartridges under suspicious circumstances. A 39-year-old man was injured after being caught in a booby trap bomb blast at his home at Fairyknowe Gardens in Newtownabbey. The blast from the 5lb device caused structural damage to the house. The army defused four incendiary bombs in shops in Mill Street, Newry. A search of the premises in the street was carried out after a customer in a clothes shop heard a hidden
device ticking. The army also found a M1 carbine, a magazine and a quantity of bullets. In Limavady four fire bombs found in the town were defused. In Portadown four incendiaries uncovered in shops in High Street and one in Edward Street were made safe by the army. Six devices were planted in five shops in Fivemiletown, but all were discovered before they exploded and were defused. In Lurgan a hardware shop in High Street was destroyed by fire started by an incendiary device. In Carrickmore the cabs of four lorries at Haddens at Quarry Road were destroyed by fires started by incendiaries. Two other devices also exploded in an office and a shed but caused only minor damage. A 5lb bomb on a hijacked bus at Tandragee was defused by the army.
Firebomb attack on Uprichards hardware shop in Lurgan Train services on the Belfast to Dublin line were disrupted for a time by a hoax bomb on the Antrim Road Bridge in Lurgan. In Dungannon a shop in Irish Street was
damaged when a small bomb exploded inside. Two shots were fired at an army checkpoint on Mourne Bridge in Strabane. Soldiers fired back but no hits were claimed.
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The Troubles in Pictures Patroling the South Armagh border
An IRA carbomb explodes in Belfast’s High Street
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Loyalist and Republician youths taunt each other in the Lower Ormeau Road
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An IRA attack on a British patrol on the Dublin Road
Rioting in Castle Street, Belfast
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Tuesday 1st February 1977 A reserve policeman’s life was saved by the alertness of his wife. When she returned by car to her home in the Whitecross area of South Armagh she noticed something suspicious under her husbands van in the garage. The army were alerted and the house was evacuated. The army found a booby trap device taped to the wheel arch of the van. The bomb that was designed to explode if the vehicle was moved or if someone sat in the driving seat was neutralised. The bomb was made up of 12 eight-ounce sticks of explosive, which could have gone off even as someone walked past it.
body was found lying on waste ground at Adela Street near Carlisle Circus was an officer in their organisation. He was named as James Curtis Bank Morehead, aged
30, a ships engineer of Springmartin Road, Belfast. In Portadown an incendiary device found in Burtons drapery shop at High Street was made safe.
director of the Du Pont The UDA claimed that factory in Derry was the man whose battered shot dead outside his home in Talbot Park, Derry. Gunmen lay in wait close to the entrance of the driveway of his home and when Mr Agate got out of his car to close the gates they opened fire. Mr Agate was originally from Calcutta and had moved to Derry
Hillman Street in the New Lodge was jailed for 2 years after he pleaded guilty to membership of the IRA.
In Belfast the army carried out a controlled explosion on a hoax bomb found at Victoria Road, Sydenham, near the railway line. There was a short delay in the train services between Wednesday 2nd February 1977 Belfast and Bangor as A 23-year-old girl Castle Street, Belfast the device was defused. charged with possessing was refused bail. The a bomb, which blew up girl was from the Short In West Belfast an 18- injuring eight people in Strand area. year-old youth was taken to hospital with a Thursday 3rd February 1977 gunshot wound to his left leg following a shooting incident at Gardenmore Road, Twinbrook. A crowd of 80 youths threw bottles at the RUC in the estate. No one was injured and The gate at which Mr Agate was shot dead there was no damage to Mr Jeffrey Agate, aged in 1957. police vehicles. 58, the managing A 19-year-old man from
A 21-year-old housewife from Broom Park in Twinbrook was charged with possessing four rifles, 858 rounds of ammunition, four magazines and a silencer at her home.
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Friday 4th February 1977 Five soldiers from the Black Watch Regiment were jailed for planting evidence on innocent civilians during a tour of duty in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. All pleaded guilty to the charges relating to planting bullets in vehicles, wrongfully imprisoning the occupants and fabricating statements to support the allegations. Two men were arrested after an arms find at Lisadian on Cathedral Road, Armagh. The RUC found two .303
rifles along with 100 rounds of assorted ammunition. The arms were found buried underneath shrubbery. A 49-year-old woman was injured in a bomb attack on a south Armagh post office. The attack happened in Newtownhamilton, 10 minutes after the Newry RUC received an anonymous call that five bombs had been planted in the village. The bomb exploded in the doorway of the post office in Dundalk Street. The woman was
answering the phone in the hallway of the building when the bomb went off. A 14-year-old boy was also injured. 150 were evacuated from the village after the bomb as the army searched for the other bombs. A 45-year-old solicitor for the Department of Finance was treated for shock after a bomb went off as he reversed his car out of the driveway of his Lismoyne Park home on the Antrim Road in Belfast. His wife and children were treated for cuts from flying glass and hand injuries.
Mr Joseph Christopher Morrissey, aged 52 was found with his throat cut in a car park at Forthriver Road. He lived on the Antrim Road and the UFF clamed that they carried out the killing and warned of more killings. The army dealt with a 5lb bomb in a Dungannon electrical shop. An armed man walked into the shop in Georges Street and warned that the bomb would go off in five minutes. The army took two hours to defuse the device.
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Saturday 5th February 1977 Three youths planted three bombs in plastic bags at the Midland Hotel on Whitla Street, Belfast. The bombs were left in the reception area and 5 minutes later the detonator of one of the devices exploded, scorching the carpet. Two hours later the army made safe the other devices. The bombs contained 10lb of commercial
explosives and was hidden inside a explosives. There were hollowed out book. There were no injuries no injuries. An RUC man stationed and no damage. at Bessbrook police station received a post A duffle bag bomb was bomb. The parcel was defused in the Shankill delivered at his wife’s Road area of Belfast. It place of work but when was in Sydney Street she took it home she West in decorator’s became suspicious after premises. The device partly opening it. The contained 8lbs of army were called in and explosives. a shot was fired at the parcel that then In Limavady an exploded. It contained incendiary device was two ounces of discovered in Tramps
Monday 7th February 1977 Four Derry men held in connection with the killing of Mr Jeffrey Agate in Derry alleged that detectives had beaten them. Medical reports indicated that the men had been ill treated and local politicians sent a complaint to the NIO and the RUC. A telegram was also sent to the Irish Attorney General in Strasbourg. Reserve Constable Robert James Harrison, aged 50, who was an orderly in the Special care Hospital in Guilford, was shot dead. A colleague who was with him was injured in the gun attack. Mr Harrison
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was a father of two and had been on patrol when he was sent to check out a telephone warning of a firebomb in a drapers shop. Several high velocity shots were fire from point blank range at the RUC men and Mr Harrison died instantly. A 19-year-old man was admitted to Daisy Hill hospital with a bullet wound to his left knee. The shooting happened in Dominic Street; he was shot by a man who jumped out of a car that pulled up near him. Two shots were fired.
premises after a firebomb caused extensive damage to a shop in Spencer Road. The blaze was discovered by a passing police patrol and the premises suffered smoke and water damage. A cassette type incendiary device was discovered hidden in
boutique in Main Street. It was hidden among clothing and was defused by the army. Part of the Shore Road in Belfast was closed to traffic while the army searched derelict houses. The soldiers with sniffer dogs searched the area around the junction of the Whitewell Road. People were moved from their homes in the area to the Throne Hospital. clothing in Austin’s shop on the Diamond, Derry. The army defused it. The army exchanged fire with a gunman in the Lone Moore Road area of Derry. No one was hurt, four shots were fired at the foot patrol and soldiers returned one shot.
Tuesday 8th February 1977
Mothers from the Glencairn Estate area of Belfast marched to their local RUC station to protest that their area was being used as a graveyard for the victims of sadistic killings. They were better In Derry shopkeepers in promised the Waterside area were security. called out to search their
The army defused a 2000-gallon petrol tanker bomb outside a south Belfast RUC station. A 2lb bomb was suspended on a fishing line inside the tanker, which had been left outside Donegall Pass RUC station. The 2lb co-op device had been left in one of the tankers
compartments beside 2000 gallons of petrol. Shops, banks, office blocks and hundreds of terraced houses within a quarter mile of the police station were evacuated while the army worked on the device.
to stock. Dungannon courthouse was evacuated after three youths were spotted running away from a car parked outside. The stolen vehicle was examined by the army but no explosives were found.
An incendiary device planted in a shop at Finaghy Road South, Belfast caused damage
Shots were fired at two army patrols in Belfast and Dungannon but no one was hurt.
Wednesday 9th February 1977 The Castle Street security barrier in Belfast was moved to the junction of Queen Street where it stretched across Castle Street between Queen Street
and Chapel Lane. The Lisburn to Belfast railway line was closed after a bomb warning that three bombs were planted in a furniture factory alongside the
track at Dunmurry. Nothing was found. A bomb was left in a post office at Jonesboro in Co Armagh. The area around the post office was evacuated while the army dealt with the device.
New Lodge Road in Belfast but none of the soldiers was hit. Fire was not returned. A policeman was taken to hospital after stoning broke out at the junction of Townsend Street and Peters Hill. He was in the back of a police Forty shots were fired at vehicle hit by missiles. Draperstown RUC About 40 youths were station, as a police car involved. was about to leave. Bullets hit the vehicle The IRA in a statement and the station and a threatened to step up bombing number of rounds also their hit a car and a house campaign in England. nearby. The police fired In the statement in the back at the gunmen but Republican News the claimed did not claim any hits. IRA responsibility for the An army foot patrol explosions in central came under fire on the London.
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Thursday 10th February 1977 Saturday 12th February 1977 The IRA unit which the media called The Balcombe Street gang were sentenced to life imprisonment, 47 times over, in a London court. A former loyalist MP and his wife escaped injury when a shot was fired into their home as they watched TV. They were sitting in the lounge of their Carnan Street house in the Shankill area when the shooting happened in the early evening. Their front door was open and the inner door was on a chain and the gunman opened the inner door and fired one shot at the
couple. No one was injured in the attack. Three soldiers were injured when a large group of youths attacked their patrol in Turf Lodge. The soldiers had gone to Ardmonagh Parade to recover a stolen car. The youths threw stones and bottles and the soldiers fired plastic gullets to disperse the crowd.
A schoolboy was shot when gunmen called at his Dunlambert Drive home and shot at him, grazing his right arm.
the Westland Street area of the Bogside.
A 5lb bomb left at a Jonesboro post office was dealt with when the A small bomb went off army carried out a under the front wheel controlled explosion on arch of a car in the the bomb. Docks area of Belfast. The device was A 21-year-old Derry triggered by a piece of man was charged with fishing line and the car possessing unlawful with was destroyed. No one documents instructions relating to was injured. bomb and mortar In Derry a routine army equipment. The man patrol found 146 bullets from Malin gardens under a communal declined to speak in staircase of a house in court.
The army carried out a controlled explosion on a homemade hand grenade found on waste ground in Cupar Street Monday 14th February 1977 in the Springfield Road An incendiary device Gunmen who fired area. was found in a shop in shots into the Antrim Friday 11th February 1977 Cookstown. The device Road home of a also failed to go off in the businessman The army defused a been planted in Omagh, Turkingtons wallpaper planted a bomb on the small bomb found in a Pomeroy, Clogher, shop in James Street. doorstep, unnoticed by sub post office in Gortin and Caledon. the family. Police Gortin, Co Tyrone. The A part time RUC spotted the device and device was discovered Two leading Belfast reservist was shot dead the family were when the sub businessmen came outside his Co Antrim evacuated. Five postmistress went to under attack at their home. The man was Mr minutes later the bomb collect mail from a homes. One man was Samuel McKane, 33, went off. One of the letterbox. She found a injured when he was married with one child. gunmen fired three suspicious parcel and shot at his Wellington He was fired on from shots through the put it on a windowsill, Park home and the other automatic weapons as doorway of the house, before alerting the was uninjured when he he drove up to his home narrowly missing the police. Part of the was shot at his at Culcrum Road in owner’s son and a village was sealed off Deramore Park South Cloughmills. Mr friend. No one was for more than four hours home. McKane was the injured. The house was while the army dealt Ulsterbus vehicles were manager of a local shirt badly damaged in the with the 2lb bomb. A destroyed in attacked in factory and was hit in attack. telephone call to a priest Newry, Dungannon and the head and chest and The army investigating claimed that bombs had Belfast. reports of shots fired in died immediately.
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The front of Mr Abraham Herbert’s Antrim Road home following a bomb attack
the Turf Lodge area were attacked by a crowd of youths hurling bricks and bottles. The crowd were dispersed with plastic bullets.
Mr Herbert talking to police after the attack
the car owner who alerted the army. A mobile army patrol operating near the border at Tullydonnell on the Newtownhamilton, Dundalk Road, came under fire from two points. The gunmen fired 30 rounds and the patrol replied with ten. No one was injured.
A 23-year-old man was wounded in the neck by a gunman in the Shankill area of Belfast. One shot was fired at the man from a passing car as she stood at the doorway of a shop in Upper Meenan Street. 12 shots were fired at an armoured RUC vehicle The army defused a near Narrow Water booby trap bomb Castle in Warrenpoint. attached to a car. The Fire was returned but no device was spotted by hits were claimed.
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Tuesday 15th February 1977 Friday 18th February 1977 The army dealt with a 30lb bomb found outside a block of flats on the Magherfelt Road in Derry. The area was evacuated while the bomb, made up in a five gallon oil drum was
made safe. Firebombs discovered in a Cookstown shop in Molesworth Street were defused by the army. An incendiary in another shop was found burned out.
Wednesday 16th February 1977 A gunman fired a number of shots at two people in Derry. The bullets shattered a window in the vehicle but they escaped injury in the attack at Mountainview in the Waterside. A 20 year old youth was injured in a bomb
explosion in a vacant shirt factory in Derry He was passing the former Tillie and Henderson factory when the bomb exploded. A telephone warning had been received and the army were clearing the area at the time.
Thursday 17th February 1977 A reserve RUC man was shot in an ambush near the border in Fermanagh. One bullet shattered his wrist and he suffered flesh wounds in the neck and shoulder. A number of shots were fired by the gunmen at the Irish army who tried to stop several men crossing the border after the shooting. Shots were fired by the army and bullets hit one of the army vehicles but no one was hurt. A Belfast family narrowly escaped
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injury when a small bomb exploded without warning on the windowsill of their home. The house in Lower Windsor Avenue caused slight structure damage and blew in windows but there were no injuries. A suspect bomb, which forced workers to leave a scrap yard in the city, turned out to be a hoax. Three youths had driven a hijacked car and left it at Eastwoods Scrap Yard but the box contained two bricks.
Youths at Monagh Road and the Glen Road took vehicles and set them on fire, blocking roads in the city.
Duncairn Gardens area. Soldiers returned fire. At Edgar Street in the Short Strand area seven shots from a low velocity weapon were The army defused a fired at a police vehicle. bomb left in Glengall Fire was not returned. Street bus depot off Great Victoria Street. A small bomb planted in the Avoca Hotel, Twelve petrol bombs Central Promenade, were thrown over a wall Newcastle, was carried into the Ardoyne bus out of the building and depot but little damage exploded harmlessly. was caused. The blast broke some windows in the hotel. The M1 motorway was closed due to bomb A duffle bag bomb alerts from Lisburn to carried out of a fish and Belfast city but no shop in Lower Scotch devices were found. Street, Dungannon exploded causing little A bomb destroyed a bus damage. in the Falls Road depot. An explosion caused The RUC and army slight damage at a shop came under fire in on the Dungannon to Belfast but no one was Caledon Road. The hurt. A sniper using an area was cleared after armalite rifle fired four the device was spotted shots at an army vehicle at a side door. No one as it passed the was hurt.
Saturday 19th February 1977 Mr Brian Canavan, aged 35 and a father of four was shot dead when gunmen shot through the frosted
glass panels of his front door in north Belfast. A car used by the gunmen was found by the RUC on the Shankill Road
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with a number of spent shell cases in it. Mr Canavan lived at Clifton Crescent off the Cliftonville Road and was at home with his 14-year-old niece. His
three youngest children were also in the house. Mr Canavan was shot when he answered the door and five shots were fired hitting him in the head and arm.
Mr Brian Canavan pictured with his wife and children. LEFT - Mr Canavan’s home where he was gunned down on his doorstep
Monday 21st February 1977 1,143 rounds of .22 ammunition were found in a polythene bag under a hedge in the Shantallow area of Derry. A doubleIn Omagh an incendiary barrelled shotgun was device caused a fire, also found. which gutted a wholesale warehouse in During a search near James Street. Templemore Secondary School in Derry a A 20-year-old man was sniffer dog uncovered taken to hospital with four duffle bags gunshot wounds to the containing a total of legs after being shot on 60lb of home made the Springfield Road. explosives. Petrol bombs were thrown at Morton’s bottlers in Donegall Road but only slight damage was caused.
An ATO examines a package in Belfast city centre
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Tuesday 22nd February 1977 Two firebombs were found in J and J Foods in castle Street Belfast. Both were carried out into the street and later
defused by the army. An incendiary device was found in a Main Street grocery shop in Roslea, Fermanagh.
Wednesday 23rd February 1977 The Lurgan to Portadown railway line was closed for more than 11 hours after a bomb scare. The line was declared clear when no devices were found. A proxy car bomb exploded in Market Square, Antrim, causing widespread blast damage but no one was injured. A taxi was used to deliver the 25lb bomb to the centre of the town. The taxi driver was forced to bring the bomb to the town but he abandoned his vehicle and alerted the RUC.
The area was cleared and the bomb exploded 30 minutes later. The ballroom at the Barrel and Basket pub in Castle Street, Omagh, was badly damaged by an explosion and fire. A window in the ballroom was smashed and an explosive device with petrol attached was thrown in. It went off starting a fire. An incendiary device found in Jamison’s menswear shop in High Street Portadown was made safe by the army.
Thursday 24th February 1977 A 38 year old RUC Inspector as shot dead and two reserve constable seriously injured in Lurgan. The dead policeman was named as Mr Harry Cobb who lived at Hillsborough with his wife and three children. Three gunmen came from a derelict café near a security barrier and
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while two of them opened up with automatic fire the third gunmen provided cover. The IRA in north Armagh claimed responsibility. The IRA claimed reasonability for the shooting of Mr Peter Hill as he returned to his home on the Limavady
Harry Cobb Road in Derry. Mr Hill was a 43-year-old company directory who was shot by two gunmen in the driveway of his home. The gunmen were waiting
for him as he turned into the driveway, they got out of a waiting car and opened fire and Mr Hill died a short time later. Mr Hill had been a member of the UDR,
Friday 25th February 1977 The army in west Belfast dealt with a suspect van left outside Tennent Street RUC station. A pick up vehicle had been hijacked in Agnes Street by four men and driven to the station where a warning was shouted. The station was evacuated, 150 men
were moved into Sydney Street West. Families living in houses were evacuated, as were people in shops in the area. Cassidy’s sweet shop on the Crumlin Road in Belfast was badly damaged by a bomb in a gas cylinder.
Saturday 26th February 1977 An 18-year-old youth was injured after an attempt to hijack a police car in Belfast. The driver of the police car was shot in the stomach. A patrol car went to the Mountainview Tavern on the Shankill Road after a report that two men were acting suspiciously outside the bar. When the car stopped at the bar two men went to the passenger window and produced the guns. One of the policemen fired a shot hitting one of the men. As the second man ran off he shot the police car driver.
Sergeant Joe Campbell was shot dead outside Cushendall Police Station. The 49-yearold Catholic and father of 8 had been stationed in the village for 15 years. Mr Campbell’s body was found by local children, lying in a pool of blood.
Four buses were hijacked and burnt out in several areas of north Belfast. Youths boarded the buses and ordered off passengers on the Oldpark Road, Mill Road, Cliftonville Road, Whitehouse and held prisoners by the Limestone Road. One gunmen for some time. bus was not damaged. Mr Robert Mitchell aged 68 of Windsor Hill Monday 28th February 1977 had been a wholesale Mr Jackie Lee aged 35 Corporation Street in grocer at Merchants was shot seven times in Belfast. One of the men Quay until he retired. the head as he left the was named as James The RUC found 100lb Crumlin Star Social Cordiner aged 23 and of explosives hidden in hedge near Club in Balhom Drive was from East Bread a with his wife where Street in east Belfast. It Dungannon. they had been was believed that the A police land rover celebrating their 17th men were carrying the wedding anniversary. bomb when it went off Mr Lee had been a early. The men were member of the close to the engineers Paratroop Regiment club at Exchange Place and died at the scene of when the blast occurred. the shooting. He was a father of three and lived A Newry businessman in Mountainview was shot dead in the Gardens. hallway of his home in Two men died in an front of his two elderly explosion in sisters who had been
travelling along the Donegall Road towards the M1 was fired on by a gunman and a front seat passenger wounded in the thigh. In Derry, a pistol, which the army claimed was in poor condition, was found by a man in an outhouse on a farm at Letterkenny Road.
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