Battle of Lenadoon

Lenadoon Avenue Battle
Part of The Troubles
Date 9–14 July 1972 Location Lenadoon Avenue Belfast 54°34′30.72″N 6°0′45.70″W Result Indecisive Both sides take heavy losses. Heavy civilian casualties. Springhill Massacre 28 people killed in total including civilian, army & paramilitary
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Provisional IRA Official IRA
Commanders and leaders
unknown	Brendan Hughes Seamus Twomey
Units involved
British Army	Provisional Belfast Brigade Official Belfast Brigade
Strength
600+ soldiers	100+ volunteers
Casualties and losses
8 killed 30 wounded	Provisional IRA: 2 killed 12 wounded Official IRA: 3 (2 from Youth Wing) killed
1 UDA member killed 14 civilians killed
class=notpageimage| Where the battle started

The Battle of Lenadoon was a series of gun battles fought over six days between the Provisional IRA and the British Army, having started on Thursday, 9 July 1972 in and around the Lenadoon Avenue area and spreading to other places in Belfast. Loyalist paramilitaries and the Official Irish Republican Army were involved in some of the incidents. There was 28 people killed in total in Belfast according to the CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths (and four other killed in Armagh & the town of Londonderry) and dozens more were injured making it one of the deadliest weeks of 1972 during the conflict. With almost 500 people killed that year, 1972 was the deadliest year of the conflict in Ireland known as The Troubles. It was as bad as any year since political violence broke out in Ulster during the Anglo-Irish War in the 1920s. These gun battles started after a two-week truce between the British Army and the IRA ended.

Background

In 1972 the Troubles had been raging in Ireland for three years since 1969 with the Battle of the Bogside and the August 1969 riots starting the conflict. The IRA were fighting to bring about a United Ireland and the British wanted the status-quo to remain but with meaningful reforms for the Nationalist minority who had been discriminated against by successive Unionist governments. Almost immediately after Internment without trial was introduced in August 1971 two years after the conflict started violence soared to new heights not seen in Ireland since the 1920s (with the ending of the Irish Civil War in 1923) with shootings, bombings and riots becoming a daily theme of life in Northern Ireland. Between August 1971 - up until February 1975 when the IRA called a long term ceasefire fierce gun battles between Republican paramilitaries the British Army & Loyalist paramilitarieswhere almost a daily occurrence in Belfast especially in West & North Belfast.

After Bloody Sunday when the British Army killed fourteen unarmed civilians in what Nationalists & Republicans seen as cold blooded murder by an alien occupying force, so the IRA gained large support in the areas they operated in and recruits flooded in to join the IRA both the Provisional (PIRA) & Official (OIRA) wings and bombings and gun battles between the PIRA & OIRA against the British Army and between Republicans and Loyalists became a regular occurrence in Belfast, Derry and other parts of Northern Ireland like large parts of South Armagh, South Down, West Fermanagh, West and East Tyrone. By the spring of 1972 the IRA believed they were winning and were using the slogan "Victory 72".

In June 1972 the IRA's Army Council called a ceasefire to accommodate talks between an IRA delegation and representatives of the British government. The truce lasted barely two weeks with hardline IRA leaders eager to get back to action believing they had the upper hand against the British and victory was in sight..

The Battle

9 July

Two days after secret talks between the British and IRA broke down, the IRA was trying to help Catholics who had been made homeless from the conflict elsewhere in Belfast move into houses in the mainly Protestant Lenadoon Avenue estate which were empty. This attracted a crowd of UDA members and supporters who attacked the houses and before long the British Army arrived on the scene. A stand-off followed for several days until the IRA decided to accompany another removal lorry with another Catholic family into the street but at the last moment the army, fearing a riot, rammed the vehicle with an armoured car. The republican supporters erupted in an angry display, resulting in the soldiers firing rubber bullets, CS gas and water cannons. The Provisionals accused the army and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw of going back on earlier negotiations and favouring the loyalists. By the evening of the event the IRA announced an end to its ceasefire as a direct response to events at Lenadoon and IRA Army Council member Seamus Twomey who was negotiating with senior British Officers in the area gave a signal to Brendan Hughes who was in command of an IRA unit to open fire on the British Army and a gun battle broke out.

Riots and other violence occurred in other areas in Belfast that night. In what became known as the Springhill massacre British Army snipers shot dead five Catholic civilians and injured two others, including a 13-year-old girl, two teenage boys and a Catholic priest. Elsewhere in Belfast three Protestants were found shot dead in a semi burnt out car in Little Distillery Street just of the Grosvenor Road; it's believed Republican paramilitaries were responsible for these killings although no specific group claimed responsibility for the killings. Another Protestant civilian was found shot dead near the waterworks of Cavehill Road also killed by Republicans. Also in Belfast a 60 year old Catholic civilian was shot dead by the British Army while driving his car near the Falls Road. And the IRA shot dead a UDA member in the Markets Area of Belfast. In total eleven people were killed on the 9 July in Belfast.

Seamus Twomey confronts British Soldiers in Lenadoon Avenue before the battle began

10 July

More gun battles and rioting took place the following day although nobody else was killed. William Whitelaw admitted secret talks had taken place between the IRA and British government.

11 July

The IRA attempted to blow up a British Army observation post in Lenadoon Avenue, using a mechanical digger loaded with a massive bomb in its bucket. A Volunteer drove the machine into the billet and his comrades surrounded the billet and fired thousands of shots to cover him but the bomb failed to explode properly. Between 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm a 16 year old Volunteer from the OIRA's Youth Wing Gerard Gibson was shot dead by the British Army in Carrigart Avenue, Suffolk,Belfast near Lenadoon.

An IRA sniper takes cover during a gun battle

14 July

Six hundred additional British troops were sent into Lenadoon Avenue to confront the IRA as the IRA had taken over most of the estate at this stage in the battle, this resulted in fierce gun battles which resulted in the deaths of a further six people. A PIRA sniper shot dead a British soldier Robert Williams-Wynn (24) in Lenadoon Avenue, a 64 year old Protestant civilian was shot dead during a PIRA sniper attack on a British Army base in Highfield, Belfast and Louis Scullion (27) a PIRA Volunteer was shot dead by the British Army at the Unity Flats in Belfast. William Whitelaw speaking in the House of Commons said that the IRA had used a rocket launcher in one of the battles and that they had six of them in their inventory to date.

British Soldiers on patrol in Lenadoon Avenue

A fierce gun battle took place in Ardoyne, during the battle Official IRA Belfast Brigade Volunteer Edward Brady (30) was shot dead by the British Army, and two British soldiers were shot dead by snipers from the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade. Although the British Army claimed Edward Brady was a IRA member and the Official IRA at the time claimed him as one of their Volunteers his family in recent years denied he was involved with any paramilitary group.

Aftermath

The IRA continued to intensify their campaign of bombing, sniping and ambushes. Just one week after the end of the battles around Belfast the IRA carried out one its largest bombing operations ever, in what became known as Bloody Friday when the Provisional IRA planted and exploded 22 car bombs in Belfast City in the space of 75 minutes, killing 9 people and seriously injuring approximately 130 others.

See also

• Battle at Springmartin
• Battle of St Matthew's
• Falls Curfew