Glenanne barracks bombing

The Glenanne barracks bombing was a large truck bomb attack carried out by the Provisional IRA against a British Army (Ulster Defence Regiment) base at Glenanne, near Mountnorris, County Armagh. The driverless lorry was rolled down a hill at the rear of the barracks and crashed through the perimeter fence. The bombing took place on 31 May 1991 and left three soldiers killed and 14 people wounded, four of them civilians.

Background

The bombing took place at a time when the Northern Ireland Office arranged multi-party talks (known as the Brooke/Mayhew talks) on the future of Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin members were not invited to attend because of their links with the IRA, which prevented them from being recognised as a 'constitutional' party. The talks ended in failure soon after.

Built in 1972, the barracks housed two companies of the 2nd Battalion of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). Seen as an outpost, it sat on the dividing line between a Protestant area and a Catholic area. Although the military barracks itself had not been attacked by the IRA before, seven UDR soldiers from the base had already been killed during The Troubles.

The bombing

At 11:30 PM, a driverless truck loaded with of a new type of home made explosive was rolled down a hill at the rear of the barracks and crashed through the perimeter fence.Whitney, Craig
"I.R.A. Says It Planted Truck Bomb That Killed 3"
''The New York Times'', 2 June 1991. According to a witness, a UDR lance corporal who alerted the base, the truck was a Mercedes, and a Toyota Hiace van carrying at least two men acted as a support vehicle. The men were seen outside the parked van, masked and armed one with a handgun, the other with a submachine gun. This same witness alerted the base believing the IRA team were about to carry out a mortar attack, and debris thrown up on the roof by the lorry as it plunged down the hill was misinterpreted by some inside the base as a mortar projectile.Ryder, Chris (2005). A special kind of courage: 321 EOD Squadron – battling the bombers. Methuen, p. 249; Automatic fire was heard by other witnesses just before the main blast. A Reuters report claims that IRA members triggered the bomb by firing upon the driverless vehicle. It was later determined that the lorry had been stolen the day before in Kingscourt, County Cavan, in the Republic of Ireland.

The blast left a crater deep and threw debris and shrapnel as far as . The explosion could be heard over away, as far as Dundalk. This was the biggest bomb detonated by the IRA until then. Most of the UDR base was destroyed by the blast and the fire that followed. At first, a massive mortar attack was suspected."Another three dead"
, ''The Irish Emigrant'', Issue No. 277, June 3 1991. Some livestock were killed and windows broken around the nearby Mossfield housing as a result of the explosion. The cars parked outside the base were obliterated. Ceilings were brought down and the local primary school was also damaged.Potter, p. 354 A UDR sergeant present, who was duty officer (and whose wife was also a member of the UDR attending a social event on base) recalled the immediate aftermath of the explosion:

The barracks was usually manned by eight soldiers, but at the time there were 40 people in the complex, attending a social event. Three UDR soldiers – Lance corporal Robert Crozier (46), Private Sydney Hamilton (44) and Private Paul Blakely (30) – were killed and ten were wounded. Two of them were caught by the explosion when they came out to investigate after a sentry gave the alarm; a third died inside the base. Four civilians were also wounded. The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility two days later.

Author Kevin Toolis lists the destruction of Glenanne UDR barracks in County Armagh as part of the cycle of violence and tit-for-tat killings in neighbouring County Tyrone.Toolis, Kevin (1995). Rebel Hearts: journeys within the IRA's soul. Picador, p. 73. The IRA would later claim that the death of three of its men in the town of Coagh was an SAS retaliation for the Glenanne bombing.'The SAS broke the rules of war'
by Chris Summers. BBC news, 28 January 2009

The base was never rebuilt. It had outlived its operational usefulness and a decision had already been taken to close it down.Potter, p. 351 The decision not to rebuild the compound raised some controversy among unionists. A memorial stone was erected by the main entrance road with the names of the UDR soldiers killed over the years while serving in Glenanne.

Bibliography

* Geraghty, Tony: ''The Irish War''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
*Potter, John: ''A Testimony to Courage – The Regimental History of the Ulster Defence Regiment 1969 – 1992''. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2001.

References

External links

CAIN site

{{PIRA
Explosions in 1991
The Troubles in County Armagh
Provisional Irish Republican Army actions
1991 in Northern Ireland
Conflicts in 1991
British Army in Operation Banner
Ulster Defence Regiment
Car and truck bombings in Northern Ireland
Military history of County Armagh
Military actions and engagements during the Troubles (Northern Ireland)
20th century in County Armagh
1991 crimes in the United Kingdom
May 1991 events in the United Kingdom
Attacks on military installations in the 1990s
Building bombings in Northern Ireland