VICIOUS PAST OF RUTHLES KILLERS
VICIOUS past of ruthless killers
BORN out of a feud, the history of the INLA is pock-marked with vicious infighting and sustained ruthlessness.it evolved principally to protect members of the IRSP, which split from the Official IRA in 1972. But it soon went on the offensive, and attracted the most ruthless type of republican. Its first spectacular was the murder, in March 1979, of the then Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Airey Neave, in a car bomb attack at the House of Commons. Three of its members -Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch and Michael Devine - died in the 1981 hunger strike.
The following year, the group carried out one of only a handful of major bombing attacks, when 17 people died in after an explosion in the Droppin' Well inn. Two of its more notorious members were Dominic McGlinchey and Dessie O'Hare, who both died in internal feuds.
Faction fighting was what the INLA was best known for throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The most serious incidents were in 1987, when 12 people died; and as late as 1996, when six people were killed, including leader Gino Gallagher and Barbara McAlorum, aged nine. Over the last year, the organisation has carried out a number of murders, including that of the LVF leader, Billy Wright; loyalist Jim Guiney, former RUC man, Cyril Stewart, and Trevor Deeney in Derry.
Claims that they carried out a bomb attack at Newtownhamilton have been treated with scepticism.
BORN out of a feud, the history of the INLA is pock-marked with vicious infighting and sustained ruthlessness.it evolved principally to protect members of the IRSP, which split from the Official IRA in 1972. But it soon went on the offensive, and attracted the most ruthless type of republican. Its first spectacular was the murder, in March 1979, of the then Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Airey Neave, in a car bomb attack at the House of Commons. Three of its members -Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch and Michael Devine - died in the 1981 hunger strike.
The following year, the group carried out one of only a handful of major bombing attacks, when 17 people died in after an explosion in the Droppin' Well inn. Two of its more notorious members were Dominic McGlinchey and Dessie O'Hare, who both died in internal feuds.
Faction fighting was what the INLA was best known for throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The most serious incidents were in 1987, when 12 people died; and as late as 1996, when six people were killed, including leader Gino Gallagher and Barbara McAlorum, aged nine. Over the last year, the organisation has carried out a number of murders, including that of the LVF leader, Billy Wright; loyalist Jim Guiney, former RUC man, Cyril Stewart, and Trevor Deeney in Derry.
Claims that they carried out a bomb attack at Newtownhamilton have been treated with scepticism.
Further Information
Publisher: SUNDAY LIFE
Ref: SL/054
Published Date: 23-Aug-98
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