The Castlerock killings took place on 25 March 1993 in the village of

Castlerock Castlerock is a seaside village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is five miles west of Coleraine, and part of Causeway Coast and Glens district. It is very popular with summer tourists, with numerous apartment blocks and two caravan ...

, County Londonderry,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Members of the

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

(UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, shot dead three

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

civilians and a

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

(IRA) member as they arrived for work in a van. Another was wounded. The "Ulster Freedom Fighters" (UFF) claimed it had targeted an IRA member and his "accomplices". A UDA member was later imprisoned for his part in the attack and in the

Greysteel massacre The Greysteel massacreCrawford, Colin. ''Inside the UDA''. Pluto Press, 2003. p. 193 was a mass shooting that took place on the evening of 30 October 1993 in Greysteel, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Defence Associa ...

several months later, but was released in 2000 under the terms of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

Shooting

The five men were builders and had been renovating houses in the Gortree Park

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

for some months. As they parked their van on Freehall Road, another van pulled up alongside it. Two gunmen, wearing black balaclavas and combat jackets, got out and opened fire on the workers with handguns. One stood in front of the workers' van and shot through the windscreen. One of the workers fell out of the passenger door and the gunman continued to shoot at him. The other gunman opened the side door and fired on the workers in the back. Witnesses stated that one of the gunmen was firing two handguns at the same time. Those killed were Catholic civilians James McKenna (52), Gerard Dalrymple (58) and Noel O'Kane (20), and Provisional IRA member James Kelly (25). The only survivor, Gerard McEldowney (36), had climbed over the front seat into the back of the van when the shooting started, but was shot in the thigh. He wedged himself between two metal tool boxes, shielding him from further gunfire. The gunmen drove off toward Castlerock before doing a U-turn and passing their victims again. Witnesses said the driver leaned out the window and shouted "Up the UFF!" as he drove past. The van used by the gunmen was found burnt-out two miles from the attack.

Aftermath

The UDA claimed responsibility for the attack using the covername "Ulster Freedom Fighters" (UFF). They stated they had "executed" IRA member James Kelly and his "accomplices". The IRA later confirmed that Kelly was one of its members, but none of the other victims had any paramilitary links.

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

councillor Patsy Groogan said the men were regularly stopped and harassed by the security forces and that he had "no doubt that this behaviour played a part in targeting these men for assassination". Later in the day, the UDA shot dead a Catholic civilian and wounded another at Dairy Farm Shopping Centre in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. The weapons were later used by the same gang in carrying out the Halloween

at the Rising Sun pub on 31 October 1993. It has been claimed that one of the gang was an

informer An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

and protected by

RUC Special Branch RUC Special Branch was the Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constab ...

Torrens Knight use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

received eight life sentences for the Greysteel massacre, together with four more for the Castlerock killings. He served seven years in the

Maze Prison Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sep ...

, until 2000, before paramilitary prisoners were granted a general release under the

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castlerock killings, 1993 Mass murder in 1993 1993 crimes in the United Kingdom 1993 in Northern Ireland The Troubles in County Londonderry Ulster Defence Association actions Terrorism in Northern Ireland Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1993 1990s murders in Northern Ireland 1993 crimes in Ireland Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland March 1993 events in the United Kingdom 1990s in County Londonderry

Shooting

Aftermath

See also

References