Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade
INLA Belfast Brigade | |
---|---|
Divis Flats, Belfast, Northern Ireland | |
Nickname(s) | Erps[2] |
Motto(s) | Saoirse Go Deo (Freedom Forever) |
Main actions |
|
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Ronnie Bunting Gerard Steenson Hugh Torney Gino Gallagher Tom McCartan Paul "Bonanza" McCann (Staff Officer)[3] Kevin Holland[4] |
The Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade was the main brigade area of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The other Brigade areas were in Derry which was split between two battalions, the first in Derry City, and the second battalion in south County Londonderry and County Armagh which was also split into two battalions, a south Armagh and a north Armagh battalion,[5] with smaller units in Newry, east and west County Tyrone and south County Fermanagh.[6]
Formation
The Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade or simply INLA Belfast Brigade was a unit of the
Activity and actions
The INLA Belfast Brigade's first actions were feuding with the
The OIRA hoped to do the same with the newly formed INLA which used the cover name People's Liberation Army (PLA) in its first few months. The OIRA met more stronger resistance from the INLA than they did with any other dissenters, this was mainly due to the support Costello had & how highly regarded he was among his followers & the size of the INLA.
The brigade's first action against a member of the British security forces occurred on the 9 August 1975 when Belfast INLA units injured two soldiers from the
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed into a modestly large
Also during the period as Steenson being Operations Officer the INLA for the first time in its history began targeting known members of Loyalist paramilitary groups. In March 1981 UDA member and Belfast city councillor Sammy Millar, a member of the Ulster Democratic Party (the UDA's political wing) was shot in his home on the Shankill Road, by a unit of the Belfast INLA, the attack left Millar with serious injuries. In October of the same year an INLA unit assassinated William McCullough a leading member of the UDA's West Belfast Brigade shooting him dead inside his Shankill Road home on Denmark Street. Three months later in January 1982 the INLA killed another prominent loyalist in Belfast, John McKeague, founder & former leader of the UVF-linked paramilitary group the Red Hand Commando, he was shot dead at his shop on Albertbridge Road, in east Belfast by an INLA gunman.[27]
Steenson was arrested and convicted along with several other members of the INLA in Belfast during the
On 15 June 1984 Paul "Bonanza" McCann, one of the INLA's most active members in Belfast, a Staff Officer and an opponent of Tom McCartan's leadership, was surrounded by an RUC unit in a Lenadoon flat in west Belfast along with three other INLA volunteers, one of whom was future INLA leader
The INLA Belfast lost direction in the mid '80s and a feud with the newly created
During the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the INLA barely existed as a coherent paramilitary force. It wasn't until the early-mid 90s that the Belfast INLA began carrying out paramilitary attacks again. It is believed
In February 1994 the INLA shot dead a Protestant doorman Jack Smyth, at the entrance to Bob Cratchits Bar, Lisburn Road, Belfast. The INLA claimed he was linked to the UDA/UFF, but this was denied. In April 1994 the INLA shot dead a member of the UDA, Gerald Evans, at his fishing tackle shop in
Another internal INLA feud broke out in 1996. Both Hugh Torney and Gino Gallagher claimed to be the legitimate leaders of the INLA. The Torney faction was known as INLA-GHQ and the Gallagher faction as the INLA Army Council. During 1996 the feud claimed the lives of six people, including a nine-year-old girl who was shot by mistake by the Army Council faction in north Belfast.[41] The first victim in the feud was Gino Gallagher who was shot dead in a Social Security Office on the Falls Road in January.[42][43] The last victim was Hugh Torney shot dead in Lurgan on the 3 September 1996, this killing brought the feud to an end and the Torney GHQ faction disbanded on the 9 September 1996.[44][45]
Around this time the INLA adopted a "no first strike" policy. This meant in theory that the INLA would not attack anybody unless they were attacked first in which case the INLA would hit back to defend itself from a threat. It claimed it was now only involved in a defensive campaign and to defend Nationalists from loyalist attacks.[46][47]
In 1997 the INLA Belfast Brigade became active once again. In May of that year, they shot dead an off-duty RUC officer Darren Bradshaw as he drank in a gay bar in Belfast's Docks area.[48] During the large-scale rioting in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland following the 1997 Drumcree march an INLA unit opened fire on British soldiers on patrol in Ardoyne, north Belfast.[49] On 25 September 1997 two INLA units one in south Belfast and the other in west Belfast threw grenades at RUC stations, both of the devices failed to explode.[50] On 27 December 1997 in one of the INLA's most infamous actions, INLA Belfast man
See also
Sources
- Jack Holland (writer), Henry McDonald (writer) (1994) INLA – Deadly Divisions
- Aaron Edwards - UVF: Behind The Mask - Foreword by Martin Dillon
References
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry Mcdonad - INLA: Deadly Divisions
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry Mcdonad - INLA: Deadly Divisions p.65
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994) pg.256
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994) pg.80,121
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994) pg.76-80
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry Mcdonad - INLA: Deadly Divisions p.62
- ^ "Perspectives on the future of Republican Socialism in Ireland" (PDF). irsp.ie. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2017.
- ^ "The Starry Plough, Vol. 1, No. 1". Irish Republican Socialist Party. 17 July 1975.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pg.68
- ISBN 189814205X.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pg.52, 68
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pg.82
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pg.82, pg.359
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1976". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ISBN 1-84488-120-2p. 290
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pg.130,360
- ^ Beresford, David (16 October 1980). "Leading Republicans Killed in Belfast". The Guardian. London. p. 1.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (Updated edition) pg.259
- ^ "Left Archive: Socialist Republican, Quarterly Publication of the Socialist Republican Collective, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Irish Peoples Liberation Organisation, IPLO), c. 1988". 3 September 2012.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1982". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (Updated edition) pg.259, 260
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (Updated edition) pg.261
- ISBN 189814205X. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ^ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl[permanent dead link]? querytype=date&day=15&month=06&year=1984
- ^ Irish News, 19 June 1984
- ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994) pg.256,363
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
- Fortnight Magazine, Issue 306, p. 28-29. Fortnight Publications, 1992.
- ^ Sunday Tribune, 4 October 1992.
- ^ https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm#101292 CAIN: A Chronology of the Conflict - 1992 - Thursday 10 December 1992: The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) carried out a gun attack and wounded a man who worked for Belfast City Council.
- ^ Sunday Life 27 December 1992.
- ^ Liverpool Echo, 24 August 1993.
- ^ Irish Independent, 21 July 1993.
- ^ Irish Independent, 22 October 1993.
- ^ Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 1993. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- ^ Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 1994. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- ^ Cusack, Jim. "Killing of young Belfast girl is typical of the INLA's wanton brutality". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1996".
- ^ Breen, Susanne. "Gallagher murder 'an unbelievably clean killing'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1996".
- ^ "Torney's death ends present INLA feud". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "INLA adopts policy of "no first strike"". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Breen, Suzanne. "Loyalists will pay ultimate price for attacks on nationalists, warns INLA". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "RUC man killed by INLA | An Phoblacht". www.anphoblacht.com. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes - Search Page". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "Grenades fail to explode at RUC stations". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1997". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1998". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Judge, Theresa. "Funeral in Belfast of shot taxi-driver". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Judge, Theresa. "Orangemen pass peacefully down Ormeau". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1998". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ "CAIN: Events: Peace: Ceasefire Statement issued by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), Saturday 22 August 1998". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2019.