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Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde

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Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde
AllegianceProvisional Irish Republican Army
Years of service- 1984
RankVolunteer
Battles / warsThe Troubles

Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde (English Tony or Anthony MacBride (also misspelled Tony McBride), 29 August, 1957 – 2 December, 1984), was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer from Desertmartin, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.[1] He was shot and killed in an armed confrontation with British troops in 1984.[2][3]

Background

Mac Giolla Bhrighde was the oldest son of Frank and Nora MacBride.[1] He had two sisters, Marie and Patricia and three brothers, Damian, Lughaidh and Oistín.

The MacBride family moved from their County Londonderry home to the Knock Road, Belfast in 1964. It was then that Mac Giolla Bhrighde was introduced to physical force republicanism by his maternal grandmother, also called Nora, who was involved in the Irish War of Independence in the 1920s.[1]

The MacBride family later moved to Killowen Street, which is located in a predominantly loyalist area of east Belfast. The family home was subjected to a number of attacks from loyalists. The attacks came in the form of window breaking and an attempted bombing but culminated in 1972 with the wounding of Mac Giolla Bhrighde and his father Frank. Who were both shot [1]

In May 1972, two loyalist gunman called to the MacBride family's door and Nora MacBride, who was carrying baby Patrica at the time went to answer the door. The men duped Mrs. McBride into opening the door by stating that they were looking for Frank, a building contractor, and were seeking work. When the door was opened the gunmen then saw Frank coming down the narrow hallway to see who was at the door. They opened fire shooting Frank in the shoulder, hand and thighs, then young Antoine came out from a side room to protect his father and was shot in the leg. Frank was hit by 12 bullets, never recovered from the attack and died some 17 months later..[4][5][6]

Military career

Immediately after the shooting the family moved to Newtownards, County Down and in the mid-1970s Mac Giolla Bhrighde left Northern Ireland to join the Irish Army in the Republic of Ireland. The McBride family then moved again, this time returning to their native County Londonderry. Mac Giolla Bhrighde was said to have excelled in the Irish Army and received a commendation for bravery while serving there.[1][6]

Paramilitary activities

While serving in the Irish Army, Mac Giolla Bhrighde also became a volunteer in the South Derry Brigade of the IRA. He was involved in a number of operations as part of an Active Service Unit which operated throughout the rural areas County Londonderry area.

Arrest at Magherafelt

Mac Giolla Bhrighde served in the regular Irish Army between February 1975 and June 1979. In 1979, while on leave from the Irish Army and secretly holding dual membership of the IRA and the Irish Army, Mac Giolla Bhrighde was stopped by Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers near Magherafelt while in possession of a rifle. He was detained at Strabane RUC barracks and was later imprisoned for three years for this operation.[6]

Hard line republicanism

Mac Giolla Bhrighde, according to IRA sources quoted by journalist Ed Moloney was noted for his hard line militarist republicanism. He is reputed to have backed a plan to form full time guerrilla units or "flying columns" based in the Republic, which would carry out four or five large-scale attacks in the north a year.

This approach was espoused by the militant Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade led by Padraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, who wanted an escalation of the conflict to what they termed "total war". They were opposed by Kevin McKenna, the IRA Chief of Staff and by the republican leadership based around Gerry Adams, on the grounds that actions of that scale were too big a risk and unsustainable. The IRA leadership wanted a smaller scale campaign of attrition, supplemented by political campaigning by Sinn Féin.[7]

After his release from prison Mac Giolla Bhrighde, who had made a number of friends and contacts in Norway, became involved in providing information for the Irish republican cause throughout Scandinavia. After returning from Norway in November 1984, Mac Giolla Bhrighde along with fellow volunteer, Ciaran Fleming, undertook their final operation.[1][8]

Kesh ambush and death

In the early hours of Sunday morning on 2 December, 1984, in cold sleety conditions, Mac Giolla Bhrighde and Fleming stole a Toyota van in Pettigo, County Donegal. The van was then loaded with 9 beer kegs, each containing 100lbs of low explosives. They then crossed the border and travelled to Kesh, County Fermanagh. At the Drumrush Lodge Restaurant just outside of Kesh they then planted a landmine in a lane leading to the restaurant and wired up a device which was connected to an observation point. From there a hoax call was made in order to lure the British Army to the restaurant on the pretence that there was a firebomb planted within the restaurant.

Mac Giolla Bhrighde observed an RUC patrol car approaching the restaurant and gave the detonation code word "one", however, the mine failed to explode. There was another car parked in the car park which Mac Giolla Bhrighde believed to contain civilians, and he got out of the van from which he was observing the scene to warn the civilian car to leave the area.[9]

Conflicting accounts of his death

According to the republican sources, when he approached the car, two Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers got out and commanded him to halt and drop his gun. Mac Giolla Bhrighde, who was unarmed, informed the SAS of this and then one of the SAS men stepped forward and shot him on his left side. He was then handcuffed and shot dead.[1][10]

However, according to CAIN there was a gun battle at the scene of the attempted bombing, between a number of IRA men and British troops in which Mac Giolla Bhrighde was killed. Andy McNab a former SAS soldier, also supports this view in his book Immediate Action. A British Army soldier, Lance Corporal Alistair "Mr. Angry" Slater, from Leicestershire, was also killed in the exchange of fire and Mac Giolla Bhrighde's companion Ciaran Fleming (also known as Kieran Fleming) drowned in the swollen Bannagh River as he tried to get away.[2][9][11]

The British Army officially listed Slater as a member of the Parachute Regiment. However an obituary appeared in the SAS magazine, Mars & Minerva, stating that Slater was a member of 7 Troop (Free Fall) 'B' Squadron of the SAS.[12]

Monument issue

In 2002, a row erupted when a monument to Mac Giolla Bhrighde, Fleming and Sligo Volunteer Joe MacManus was sited close to the place where Protestant workmen William Hassard and Frederick Love were killed by the IRA in 1988.[5][13][14]

A Sinn Féin spokesman stated that "The families of Ciaran Fleming, Joseph McManus and Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde, the three IRA men commemorated by the monument, had given the go-ahead for the structure to be moved".[15]

Other information

The Republican Sinn Fein party branch in Glenade, County Leitrim is known as the Kieran Fleming/Tony McBride Cumann after Kieran Fleming and Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde.[16]

On 29 January, 2007, Sinn Féin member Lughaidh Mac Giolla Bhrighde, a younger brother of Mac Giolla Bhrighde, voted against giving the leadership the power to participate in the province's policing and justice structures at the extraordinary conference, or Ard Fheis, in Dublin.[17]

His sister, Patricia Mac Bride, was appointed as one of the four Commissioners Designate of the Victims' Commission for Northern Ireland in January 2008.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Tírghrá. National Commemoration Centre. 2002. p. 265. ISBN 0-9542946-0-2.
  2. ^ a b Malcolm Sutton. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". CAIN. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  3. ^ Tony Geraghty (26 February, 2000). "She said too much". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Shane Mac Thomáis (2 December, 2004). "Four Derry Volunteers killed in action - Remembering the Past". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b "Family's hurt at IRA monument". Impartial Reporter. 21 March, 2002. Retrieved 2007-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Murray, Raymond (1993). The SAS in Ireland. The Mercier Press. pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-85342-991-X.
  7. ^ Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books. pp. 313–314. ISBN 0-141-01041-X.
  8. ^ Coogan, Tim (2000). The I.R.A. Harper Collins. p. 530. ISBN 0-00-653155-5.
  9. ^ a b McNab, Andy (1996). Immediate Action. Corgi Adult. pp. 225–233. ISBN 0-55214-276-X.
  10. ^ Collins, Frank (1998). Baptism of Fire: The Astonishing True Story of a Man of God. Corgi. ISBN 0-5521458-2-3.
  11. ^ The SAS in Ireland, p. 276.
  12. ^ Mars & Minerva, Special Air Service Regimental Journal Magazine, Issue 7, Volume 2 1995
  13. ^ Aileen McGurk (22 July, 2002). "Northern News". The Irish Emigrant. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ Rosie Cowan (20 July, 2002). "Republicans make conciliatory move over IRA memorial". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Family's relief at plans to remove IRA monument". Impartial Reporter. 25 July, 2002. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ "Letitia Branley". SAOIRSE Irish Freedom. October 1999. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  17. ^ Owen Bowcott (29 January 2007). "Historic vote ends Sinn Féin's long battle with the police service in Northern Ireland". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ BBC NI: No concern over 'IRA volunteer' Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7217578.stm Accessed: 30th January 2008.

See also

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