Teebane attack in 1992

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The Teebane attack took place on the main road between Omagh and Cookstown in County Tyrone on 17 January 1992 during the Northern Ireland conflict . A bomb attack by the Provisional IRA killed eight Protestant construction workers and wounded six others.

background

In 1985, the IRA declared civilians who worked for the British security forces to be collaborators and thus " legitimate targets". As a result, by 1990 at least 15 people who had worked for the British troops in any way were killed.

On 24 October 1990 the IRA carried out three simultaneous car bombings against British military installations near Derry , Newry and Omagh. Three civilians who had been declared collaborators were forced to direct the explosive devices to the targets while their families were taken hostage. While the Omagh bomb failed to detonate due to a faulty detonator, the other two bombs killed six soldiers and one of the drivers. This new form of attack became known as the "proxy bomb", but did not garner the hoped-for support from the nationalist population.

From the late 1980s, British military installations and outposts in Northern Ireland were increasingly expanded to protect against bombings and mortar attacks, which civil construction companies were commissioned to do.

Teebane attack

On 17 January 1992, 14 Protestant construction workers from Karl Construction of Antrim were returning from work at the British Army 's Lisanelly Barracks in Omagh when their pickup truck was struck by a roadside booby trap at around 5:30pm local time was hit. The attack occurred in the townland of Killucan at the Teebane Crossroads junction of the A505, the main link between Omagh and Cookstown, with the Teebane Road, which leads to the neighboring townland of Teebane ( An Taobh Bán in Irish ) to the north. Eight of the workers were killed and six others injured.

investigations

Detective Chief Inspector Kenneth McFarland took over the investigation with his deputy Detective Inspector Millar Farr. The team was supported by another Detective Inspector, four Detective Sergeants, 21 Detective Constables and three Police Constables. According to investigations, the remote-controlled explosive device had been deposited overnight and was supposed to hit the workers on their morning journey to Omagh, but the perpetrators are said to have rejected this because of the foggy visibility. The IRA East Tyrone Brigade had meanwhile confessed to the fact .

Despite numerous testimonies, the special investigators identified only nine suspects who could not be proven to have participated in the crime. In 2002, the PSNI 's Historical Inquiries Team (HET) re-examined the case and subsequently tried to secure fingerprints or DNA traces, but this was unsuccessful.

reaction

Sinn Féin chairman Gerry Adams criticized the attack, but also the British actions in Northern Ireland, and called for dialogue . British Prime Minister John Major condemned the attack and confirmed that the policy would be continued.

On February 5, 1992, protestant paramilitaries attacked a betting shop in south Belfast and shot dead five Catholics in retaliation for the attack. On August 7, 1994, near Omagh, paramilitaries broke into the home of IRA member Patrick O'Hagan and murdered his pregnant wife. Patrick O'Hagan was seen by an eyewitness at the Teebane Crossroads about an hour before the blast on the day of the attack, but there was no hard evidence against him. O'Hagan was not home at the time of the robbery. He died of natural causes in 2002. The two attacks are attributed to the UDA and UVF .

A memorial stone in Cookstown commemorates the Teebane attack and victims. In 2017 there was a 25th anniversary celebration attended by DUP Member of Parliament for South Antrim Trevor Clarke and his wife Linda , who lost her brother in the attack.

web links

literature

  • Chronologies of Modern Terrorism by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin
  • The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Fein by Brendan O'Brien
  • The IRA: The Irish Republican Army by James C Dingley
  • Making Sense of Proxy Wars: States, Surrogates & the Use of Force by Michael A. Innes
  • UVF - The Endgame by Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack