1992 Coalisland riots

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Coordinates: 54°32′23.92″N 6°42′01.82″W / 54.5399778°N 6.7005056°W / 54.5399778; -6.7005056
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1992 Coalisland riots
Part of
Provisional IRA attack on British army patrol near the village of Cappagh
, County Tyrone
Resulted in
  • Parachute Regiment patrols in Northern Ireland cancelled before official tour's end
  • Commanding officer of Northern Ireland's Third Brigade removed
Parties
Coalisland residents
Casualties and losses
3 hospitalised
At least 4 others injured
2 soldiers hospitalised
7 others wounded[1]
1992 Coalisland riots is located in Northern Ireland
1992 Coalisland riots
Another soldier lost his legs during the previous IRA bomb attack at Cappagh

The 1992 Coalisland riots were a series of clashes on 12 and 17 May 1992 between local

Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment[2] and the King's Own Scottish Borderers) in the town of Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Third Battalion 1992 tour's codename was "Operation Gypsy".[3]

Provisional IRA attack

On 12 May 1992, a unit of the

Irish nationalist town of Coalisland, some ten miles to the east.[7][9][10] The IRA attack was described as a "provocation" tactic, devised to produce an over-reaction by troops to make them even more unpopular among local nationalists.[11]

The deployment of the paratroopers, which began in April

Ken Maginnis, then-Member of Parliament for the area, called for the withdrawal of the regiment after receiving a large number of complaints about their behaviour.[7][16]

The confrontation

12 May

Two hours after the IRA ambush at Cappagh, members of the regiment sealed off the town of Coalisland, ten miles east of Cappagh. According to a Social Democratic and Labour Party politician,[7] the soldiers fabricated a bogus bomb warning, while the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) stated that the operation began when a joint police/military patrol was stoned by a crowd.[7][17] Two pubs were ransacked by the troops[18] and a number of civilian cars were damaged. Several people were allegedly hit with sticks. Following this, a lieutenant was suspended from duty[7] and the regiment was removed from patrol duties in Coalisland.[19]

17 May

On the evening of 17 May, a fist-fight began at Lineside Road, where a group of young men were having a drink. A passing four-man patrol of the

light machine gun were stolen. The rifle was later recovered nearby.[19] The youths smashed a backpack radio which had been left behind by the troops.[21] Two KOSB soldiers were hospitalised,[7] while in the end seven other soldiers, including paratroopers, received lesser injuries, one of them hit by a car that crashed through two roadblocks set up by the British Army.[1]

The Parachute Regiment was called to the scene again, and at 8:30 p.m., a major riot started outside The Rossmore pub[19] between local people and about 20 to 25 paratroopers.[13] The soldiers claimed one of their colleagues was isolated and dragged by the crowd. Some witnesses claimed paratroopers were in a frenzy, showing their guns and inviting civilians to try to take them. Suddenly, shots were fired by the troops —first into the air and then towards the people outside the pub. Three civilians were rushed to hospital in Dungannon with gunshot wounds, while the soldiers returned to their barracks.[19] Another four civilians suffered minor injuries.[18] The paratroopers claim that a "member of the growing crowd" attempted to fire the stolen machine gun at them, but the weapon jammed.[22] One of the wounded was the brother of IRA volunteer Kevin O'Donnell, who had been killed by the Special Air Service (SAS) in February during an ambush at the nearby hamlet of Clonoe, shortly after carrying out a machine-gun attack on the local RUC base.[21]

Aftermath

One of the roads to Coalisland centre, which was blocked by British paratroopers on 12 May 1992

About 500 people attended a protest rally in Coalisland on 19 May, and the wisdom of deploying the troops to patrol the town was questioned by members of the Dáil in Dublin. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ireland, David Andrews, asked the British Government to withdraw the regiment. As a result, the paratroopers were redeployed outside the urban areas.[23][24] The RUC claimed that the stolen machine gun was found 11 days later at a farmhouse near Cappagh, along with another light machine gun and an AK-47 rifle.[25] Author Steven Taylor claims that the stolen GPMG and other weaponry was recovered following an aborted IRA attack against a Wessex helicopter.[26] The IRA had denied they had the machine gun in their possession.[27] Republicans questioned whether the weapon had really been stolen, suggesting this was merely an excuse for the soldiers' rampage in Coalisland.[13][21] Bernardette McAliskey went even further, suggesting that the recovery of the machine gun near Cappagh, where the initial IRA attack had taken place, was actually staged by the security forces as a publicity stunt.[21] British officials accused Sinn Féin of being the instigators of the riots,[17] while Michael Mates, then Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, stated that the incidents were due to "a gang of thugs motivated by the IRA".[28] Eventually the battalion's 1992 tour in Northern Ireland was scaled down, with the patrols suspended before the official end of the deployment. The Third Brigade's commander, Brigadier Tom Longland,[12] was replaced by Brigadier Jim Dutton.[18][24][29][30][31] This was the first occasion that a high-ranking officer was disciplined in such a way during the Troubles.[22]

The last patrol took place on 27 June, when two paratroopers drowned while crossing the

River Blackwater.[32][33] The same day there were further clashes with local residents, this time in the town of Cookstown,[34] when a group of people that the Belfast News-Letter called "drunken hooligans" assaulted a number of paratroopers trying to help an ederly man who was suffering a heart attack.[35]

The 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment was replaced by the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards.[36]

Six soldiers faced criminal charges for their roles in the May riots,

conspiracy.[10] The Ulster Television documentary Counterpoint of June 1993 claimed that Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Alisdair Fraser returned the case file to the RUC recommending no prosecution. The programme also interviewed Alistair Hodgson, the soldier maimed at Cappagh, who said that "had another member of my unit been injured in the way that I was, I would have been with the rest of the lads attacking the locals".[39] Authors Andrew Sanders and Ian S. Wood[22] suggested that the deployment of the battalion in Coalisland and elsewhere hindered the British policy of police primacy in Northern Ireland.[22]

Fresh clashes between local residents and troops were reported at Coalisland on 6 March 1994, a few months before the first IRA ceasefire,[40] when a crowd assaulted two soldiers after the RUC searched a car. Plastic bullets were fired, and three civilians and two soldiers were slightly injured.[41]

See also

Online references

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Focal point for trouble". Belfast Newsletter. 19 May 1992. p. 6.
  2. ^ a b The Economist, Volume 323, Issues 7761-4
  3. ^ British Army 1945 on locations and dates
  4. ^ Alistair Hogdson profile, mirror.co.uk; accessed 3 December 2015.
  5. ^ Cumbrian amputee claims skydiving honour BBC News, 14 January 2010
  6. ISBN 0750917237
  7. ^ a b c d e f g The Irish Emigrant: "New Paratroop controversy", issue Nº 276, 18 May 1992. Archived 12 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, emigrant.ie.
  8. ^ "British Soldier Wounded in Tyrone Landmine Attack". ulib.iupuidigital.org. The Irish People. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  9. ^ "British troops launch charm attack in Belfast", by Peter Millership, Reuters, 8 August 1993.
  10. ^ a b McKittrick, David. "Coalisland 'soldiers not entirely innocent': Five paratroopers bound over by court", independent.co.uk, 18 May 1993; accessed 17 January 2015.
  11. ISBN 0-312-21197-X
  12. ^ a b Irish America (1992), Irish Voice, Inc., volume 8
  13. ^ a b c d e "British army terrorises Irish town", Greenleft.org, 1 July 1992.
  14. ^ "Man claims troops went 'herserk' in Stewartstown". Mid-Ulster Mail. 28 April 1992. p. 9.
  15. ^ "Three hurt at checkpoint". Belfast News-Letter. 23 April 1992. p. 4.
  16. ISBN 0-582-10073-9
  17. ^
    ISBN 1-873644-19-1
  18. ^ a b c d CAIN −1992 chronology
  19. ^ a b c d e Fortnight issues 302-12, Fortnight Publications, 1992, p. 6
  20. ISBN 8700106984
  21. ^ a b c d McAliskey, Bernardette (1992). The Moral of Coalisland. Spare Rib (issues 231–39), p. 47
  22. ^
    ISBN 978-0748646562
    .
  23. ^ The Irish Emigrant, "Paratroopers remain in North". Issue No. 277, 25 May 1992
  24. ^
    ISBN 1-873644-19-1
  25. ^ Fortnight, issues 302-12, Fortnight Publications, 1992, p. 24
  26. ISBN 978-1-5267-2155-6
    .
  27. ^ "Exclusive". Scotland on Sunday. 24 July 1992. p. 3.
  28. ^ House of Commons, Thursday, 21 May 1992
  29. ^ Brigadier Longland replaced by Brigadier Dutton, standard.co.uk; accessed 17 January 2015.
  30. ISBN 0-7171-2926-8
  31. ^ McLeod, Alexander."British Take Paratroopers Off Ulster Security Detail", The Christian Science Monitor, 28 May 1992
  32. ^ Operation Banner Deaths: Roll of Honour Archived 30 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, operationbanner.com; accessed 17 January 2015.
  33. ^ Fortnight, issues 302-12, Fortnight Publications, 1992, p. 22
  34. ^ CAIN – Listing of Programmes for the Year: 1992 – UTV news, 27 June 1992, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 17 January 2015.
  35. ^ "Hooligans attacked paras". Belfast News-Letter. 29 June 1992. p. 2.
  36. ISBN 978-1-78337-939-2
    .
  37. ^ The Independent, 29 September 1992
  38. ^ Fortnight, Issues 324-34, Fortnight Publications, 1994
  39. ^ "Paras Who Shot Civilians Walk Free". Saoirse. 75. Sinn Féin Poblachtach. July 1993.
  40. ^ Fortnight No. 327 (Apr., 1994), "Troubles Chronology" pp. 30-32
  41. ^ "Five hurt in North clashes". Irish Independent. 7 March 1994. p. 6.
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