Downpatrick landmine attack
54°19′19.2″N 5°42′10.8″W / 54.322000°N 5.703000°W / 54.322000; -5.703000
- v
- t
- e
in Ireland
- Battle of the Bogside/1969 riots
- RTÉ bombing
- Battle of St Matthew's
- Falls Curfew
- Crossmaglen bombing
- Scottish soldiers' killings
- Operation Demetrius
- Ballymurphy massacre
- Newry killings
- Red Lion Pub bombing
- McGurk's Bar bombing
- Balmoral showroom bombing
- Bloody Sunday
- Abercorn Restaurant bombing
- Donegall St bombing
- Battle at Springmartin
- Dungiven ambush
- Battle of Lenadoon
- Springhill massacre
- Bloody Friday
- Operation Motorman
- Claudy bombing
- Newry customs bombing
- Benny's Bar bombing
- Annie's Bar massacre
- Belturbet bombing
- Dublin bombings
- New Lodge Six shooting
- Coleraine bombings
- Rose & Crown Bar bombing
- Clogher barracks attack
- Dublin & Monaghan bombings
- Mountainview Tavern attack
- Bleary Darts Club shooting
- Strand Bar bombing
- Forkhill beer keg bomb
- Miami Showband killings
- Bayardo Bar attack
- Tullyvallen massacre
- October 1975 attacks
- Drummuckavall ambush
- Dublin Airport bombing
- Dundalk & Silverbridge attacks
- Central Bar bombing
- Reavey and O'Dowd killings
- Kingsmill massacre
- Castleblayney bombing
- Hillcrest Bar bombing
- Flagstaff Hill incident
- Charlemont pub attacks
- Store Bar shooting
- Chlorane Bar attack
- Ramble Inn attack
- Stag Inn attack
- Andersonstown incident
- Garryhinch ambush
- Jonesborough Gazelle shootdown
- La Mon restaurant bombing
- Warrenpoint ambush
- Dungannon land mine attack
1980s
- Dunmurry train bombing
- Lough Foyle attacks
- Altnaveigh landmine attack
- Glasdrumman ambush
- Divis Flats bombing
- Droppin Well bombing
- Ballygawley land mine attack
- Darkley killings
- Kesh ambush
- Strabane ambush
- Newry mortar attack
- Ballygawley barracks attack
- Birches barracks attack
- Clontibret invasion
- Loughgall ambush
- Remembrance Day bombing
- Milltown Cemetery attack
- Corporals killings
- Avenue Bar shooting
- Lisburn van bombing
- Aughanduff Lynx shootdown
- Ballygawley bus bombing
- Drumnakilly ambush
- Jonesborough ambush
- Derryard checkpoint attack
1990s
- Derrygorry Gazelle shootdown
- Downpatrick landmine attack
- Operation Conservation
- Armagh City roadside bombing
- Fort Victoria
- Proxy bombings
- Lough Neagh ambush
- Silverbridge Lynx shootdown
- Mullacreevie ambush
- Cappagh killings
- Craigavon mobile shop killings
- Glenanne barracks bombing
- Coagh ambush
- Musgrave Park Hospital bombing
- Craigavon Hyster killings
- Teebane bombing
- Sinn Féin Headquarters shooting
- Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting
- Clonoe ambush
- Cloghoge checkpoint attack
- Coalisland riots
- South Armagh sniper campaign
- Forensic Lab bombing
- James Murray's bookmakers attack
- Castlerock killings
- Cullaville occupation
- Battle of Newry Road
- Shankill Road bombing
- Greysteel massacre
- Fivemiletown ambush
- Crossmaglen Lynx shootdown
- 1994 Shankill Road killings
- Loughinisland massacre
- Killeeshil ambush
- Drumcree conflict
- Thiepval barracks bombing
- Coalisland attack
- 1997 riots
- Quinn brothers' killings
- Banbridge bombing
- Omagh bombing
On 9 April 1990, the South Down Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a massive improvised land mine under a British Army convoy outside Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. Four soldiers of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were killed,[1] the regiment's greatest loss of life since 1983.
Background
The Provisional IRA had been attacking British Army patrols and convoys with landmines and roadside bombs since the beginning of its campaign in the early 1970s. The deadliest attack was the Warrenpoint ambush of August 1979, when 18 soldiers were killed by two large roadside bombs near Warrenpoint, County Down.[2] In July 1983, four soldiers of the local Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were killed when their vehicle struck an IRA landmine near Ballygawley, County Tyrone.[3] It was the UDR's biggest loss of life up until then.
Attack
On the morning of 9 April 1990, two UDR armoured landrovers were travelling from Ballykinler Barracks to Downpatrick.[4] An IRA unit had planted a 1,000-pound (450 kg) improvised landmine in a culvert under the Ballydugan Road, just outside the town.[4] The unit waited in woodland overlooking the road, about 350 ft (110 m) away.[4] As the landrovers drove over the culvert, the IRA detonated the bomb by command wire.[4] The huge blast blew the vehicle into a field and gouged a large crater in the road, 50 ft (15 m) wide and 15 ft (5 m) deep.[4] A witness described "a scene of utter carnage".[4] Four soldiers were killed: Michael Adams (23), John Birch (28), John Bradley (25), and Steven Smart (23).[4] It was the biggest loss of life suffered by the UDR since the 1983 Ballygawley landmine attack.[5] The soldiers in the other landrover suffered severe shock and were airlifted to hospital.[5] Police said a civilian driver also suffered shock and another received cuts and bruises.[6]
Aftermath
The bombers escaped on a motorcycle which had been stolen in Newry a week earlier, and was later found abandoned in Downpatrick. The IRA issued a statement saying the attack was carried out by members of its South Down Brigade.[5]
British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, said on BBC radio: You take these murders of these four people today alongside those decisions in the Supreme Court of the Republic not to extradite those accused of violent crime - and one is very, very depressed.[5] Charles Haughey, the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, condemned the attack as an "atrocity".[6]
A 23 year-old man was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for the attack. He had driven a scout car for the bombers when it was planted the day before the attack.[7]
See also
- Dungiven landmine and gun attack
- Dungannon land mine attack
- Ballygawley land mine attack
- Improvised explosive device
References
- ^ "Sutton Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 9 April 1990". Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- ^ Moloney, Ed (2007). A Secret History of the IRA (2nd ed.). Penguin Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-14-102876-7.
- ^ A Chronology of the Conflict: July 1983. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- ^ a b c d e f g McKittrick, David (2001). Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Random House. p. 1195.
- ^ a b c d "Four died despite bomb alert". The Herald. 10 April 1990.
- ^ a b "A Huge Bomb Kills Four British Soldiers in Ulster". The New York Times. 10 April 1990.
- ^ "Anniversary of a dark day during the Troubles". Down Recorder. 22 April 2015.