Loughgall ambush

1987 British ambush in Northern Ireland

East Tyrone Brigade
| combatant2 = United Kingdom
British Army
RUC
| commander1 = Patrick Joseph Kelly
| commander2 = Soldier A (Classified)4 in support
| strength2 = 24 SAS soldiers 1 RUC uniformed officer
| casualties1 = 8 killed
| casualties2 = 1 soldier injured

A civilian was also killed and another wounded by the SAS after unwittingly driving into the ambush zone and being mistaken for IRA attackers. It was the IRA's biggest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles.

The IRA's East Tyrone Brigade was active mainly in eastern County Tyrone and neighbouring parts of County Armagh. By the mid 1980s it had become one of the IRA's most aggressive formations. Members of the unit, such as Jim Lynagh and Pádraig McKearney, advocated a strategy of destroying bases and preventing them being rebuilt or repaired in an attempt to "deny ground" to British forces. In 1985, Patrick Joseph Kelly became its commander and began implementing the strategy. In 1985 and 1986, it carried out two major attacks on Royal Ulster Constabulary bases. The first was an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley on 7 December 1985, in which two police officers were shot dead. The second was an attack on an RUC base at The Birches on 11 August 1986. In both attacks, the bases were raked with machine gun fire and then severely damaged with homemade bombs. In the attack at The Birches, they had breached the base's perimeter fence with a digger that had a bomb in its bucket; it was planned to use the same tactic in an attack on the lightly manned Loughgall base. Other sources claim that the security forces had instead learned of the planned attack through other surveillance methods, such as a telephone tap. According to historian and former Professor of Politics at Queen's University Belfast Richard English, information of the attack had not come from within the unit, though one member, Tony Gormley, was known to security forces as a well paid Special Branch informant. Three local RUC officers worked at the station, which was only open part time, from 09:00 to 11:00, and from 17:00 to 19:00 daily. On the day of the attack, two RUC Headquarters Mobile Support Unit (HMSU) officers were placed in the station to accompany the local RUC officer who was to carry on the normal running of the station. Both teams would then leave the area in the van. The van and digger that would be used were hijacked in the hours leading up to the attack.

The IRA unit arrived in Loughgall from the north east shortly after 19:00, Not seeing any activity in the station in their two slow passes of it, members of the IRA unit felt that something was amiss, According to author Jonathan Trigg, the bomb in the bucket of the digger detonated several seconds after the SAS had opened fire. An ex RUC Special Branch officer, John Shackles, described how the SAS had strung detonating cord along a line of fir trees opposite the police station, beyond a playing field. The detonating cord was exploded immediately prior to the SAS initiating the ambush, distracting the IRA team as the SAS members inside the station began firing. Within seconds the SAS opened fire on the IRA attackers from the station and from hidden positions outside with M16 and H&K G3 rifles and two L7A2 general purpose machine guns. Declan Arthurs was shot in a lane way opposite Loughgall F. C. premises; he was unarmed and holding a cigarette lighter in his right hand. Three other IRA members in the scout cars escaped from the scene, managing to pass through British Army and RUC check points set up after the ambush had been sprung. An SAS soldier received a facial injury from glass after a window was broken by gunfire. Oliver denies that it reversed away at high speed. Oliver managed to get out of the car despite being warned not to move and was shot resulting in him falling to the ground. Two soldiers later gave him first aid. The Citroën had approximately 34 bullet holes. The security forces recovered eight IRA firearms from the scene: three H&K G3 rifles, one FN FAL rifle, two FN FNC rifles, a Franchi SPAS 12 shotgun and a Ruger Security Six revolver. The RUC linked the weapons to seven known murders and twelve attempted murders in the Mid Ulster region. It was found that another of the guns had been used in the murder of Harold Henry, a builder employed by the British Army and RUC in facilities construction in Northern Ireland. In 2017 declassified documents from the National Archives of Ireland revealed that the British government had ballistic tests which showed that the weapons recovered from the deceased IRA members had actually been used in as many as forty to fifty killings in total, including every fatality in IRA attacks in the counties Fermanagh and Tyrone in 1987 before the ambush at Loughgall. The IRA members killed in the ambush became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" among IRA supporters. The men's relatives considered their deaths to be part of a deliberate shoot to kill policy by the security forces. Thousands of people attended their funerals, the biggest republican funerals in Northern Ireland since those of the IRA hunger strikers of 1981. Gerry Adams, in his graveside oration, gave a speech stating the British Government understood that it could buy off the government of the Republic of Ireland, which he described as the "shoneen clan" (that is, Anglophile), but added "it does not understand the Jim Lynaghs, the Pádraig McKearneys or the Séamus McElwaines. It thinks it can defeat them. It never will." The East Tyrone Brigade continued to be active until the last Provisional IRA ceasefire ten years later. SAS operations against the IRA also continued. The IRA set out to find the informer it believed to be among them, although it has been suggested that the informer, if there ever was one, had been killed in the ambush. Breen had given a media briefing on the day of the Loughgall ambush at the scene and the following morning displayed the recovered IRA firearms to the media appearing on television and in newspapers. attacked the Loughgall RUC station again around 01:00 on 5 September 1990 with a 1000 lb van bomb outside the station. The unmanned station suffered extensive damage with no one injured as a warning was given. The station was in use until its administrative closure in August 2009. In April 2011, it was sold for private development.

In September 1988, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland concluded "that the evidence did not warrant the prosecution of any person involved in the shootings". Six families of the IRA members and the family of Anthony Hughes commenced civil proceedings against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In May 1995, an inquest commenced that was held over four days which concluded that all nine men had died from serious and multiple gunshot wounds. In December 2011, Northern Ireland's Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA team fire first but that they could not have been safely arrested. They concluded that the British Army was justified in opening fire. In January 2014, the High Court ordered that the families of the IRA members suing the MoD could widen their claim to include the RUC Chief Constable. The police later disclosed documents for the court case revealing that IRA members had been under military surveillance for weeks prior to the ambush. In March 2014, the Hughes family received an apology from the MoD for the death of Anthony and for injuring Oliver that both men were "wholly innocent of any wrongdoing". In September 2015, the Advocate General for Northern Ireland announced that a new inquest would be held. In September 2019, at a preliminary hearing the presiding coroner was told that the inquest may run for three to six months. In April 2020, lawyers acting on behalf of the families lodged a submission with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe requesting an infringement proceeding in the ECHR for the 2001 judgement as the coroner had not fixed a hearing date for the inquest.

"Loughgall Ambush" is the name of a republican ballad about the attack, recorded by Charlie and the Bhoys amongst others. The event was also mentioned in the song "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" by London Irish band The Pogues "While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead/ Kicked down and shot in the back of the head".