On This Day PIRA

The nature of the PIRA campaign was such that often times those they murdered didn’t have a chance to display what would be described as heroism. Shooting an unarmed teacher in the back in a school, a farmer on his tractor or a man making his way to work repeatedly in the back of the head are probably best described as dirty. I am aware that the act of serving in the security forces during the years of terror took tremendous courage. That said, when you make your way through the catalog of PIRA murders every so often you encounter someone whose bravery stands out. People like RUC man James Hazlett   whose story I may return to in a later post.  On my twitter account and on the blog I try to focus on the many forgotten cases rather than those which many have heard about before. I’m aware that there will be lots of readers who know something of this story but I’m also conscious that it is probably better misremembered than remembered due to the song referenced in the title.

The IRA were not Wild West style gunslingers who challenged the local lawman to a shootout at high noon. Their modus operandi was to engage them while off duty and effectively defenceless or, particularly when it came to the RUC, to murder them while on duty but unable to defend themselves (like David Ead - shot in the back of the head on a seaside promenade on a sunny day before the murderers made off through the crowds). You can review the cases of off duty murders we have covered to date on the twitter account here . When Republicans point out that a relatively small percentage of murders by the PIRA in border areas had no security force connections they ignore the fact that Protestants had a strong tradition of serving in the security forces along the border and indeed in the regular armed forces. The Fermanagh based Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers had a history dating back to the 17th century for example. They also ignore the fact that most of those mur

Those of you who follow the twitter feed faithfully will have noticed that I paid tribute to the contribution of Thomas Cooke’s son in helping me with this project. When I started this blog I always intended to write one of the early posts about the case of Thomas Cooke as a case study in how the IRA operated. In one sense the story of Thomas Cooke’s murder as far as documented history goes begins on 23rd March 1987. IRA murder victim Leslie Jarvis IRA murder victim Austin Wilson IRA murder victim John Bennison Around  9pm  that evening 61 year old Leslie Jarvis , a prison lecturer in Magilligan, was sitting in his car outside Magee College where he was attending night classes when three masked men approached. Six shots were fired through the windscreen, hitting Jarvis in the head. The gunmen were then seen casually walking away. Just under an hour later students were leaving the college when a boobytrap bomb on the back seat of the car exploded, resulting i