Enniskillen Bomb 1987
The Enniskillen Bomb on Remembrance Day/Poppy Day 8th November, 1987, has been well covered by journalists, and the grievous stories of those families who lost loved ones, and the dozens of people injured. I thank God that some years later I had the privilege to meet Gordon Wilson, whose daughter Marie was murdered on that grievous day.
I was a member of Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan Town in 1987 and I would like to offer a view from within Sinn Fein/PIRA at that time.
Jim Lynagh and I
I had many roles within Sinn
Fein/PIRA, and that probably explains the great lengths that some have went to
over decades to try and silence me. Two days before Jim Lynagh was shot dead by
The SAS at Loughgall, I spoke to him at Dublin Street in Monaghan Town. Our
meeting was being observed by two Garda Special Branch Officers sitting outside
Jim Lynagh’s flat at the bottom of Dublin Street, a flat Jim shared with fellow
Sinn Fein/PIRA operative John ‘Dinger’ Bell.
Christmas Card from Jim Lynagh 1985 to this writer
At this point in 1987 my job
was gathering and corelating intelligence for Sinn Fein/PIRA, however, Lynagh
wanted me to start planting under-car booby traps. Not only did he want me to
plant them, but he wanted me to construct them. I was to construct the
booby-trap bombs by getting the component parts across the border, assembling
them, and then, on Command planting them.
As Jim and I stood chatting on
Dublin Street in May 1987, Jim explained that the Semtex that had been supplied
to Sinn Fein/PIRA by Libya smelled like marzipan, I think that was the first
time I had heard about marzipan. Jim said that I would be taking a couple of
ounces of Semtex into Tyrone at any given time. The Semtex would be wrapped in
cling-film, and I would place it in my under-pants (that is a diplomatic
description of what he said) and simply walk through the British Army
Check-point.
As implausible as this might sound,
I was already in position, by training with a local GAA Team in Tyrone and
walking in and out through the British Army check-point with regularity. To the
point that the British Army did not bother searching me, I was polite to the Soldiers
at the check-point and they simply let me go through without any problem.
A couple of days later Lynagh
was dead, and while I remained within Sinn Fein/PIRA, I never heard another
word about booby-traps, I was then under the command of another member of East
Tyrone PIRA and Intelligence was my core role. In fact, my new PIRA commander
said:
“We have enough killers, we need good intelligence”.
Semtex from Libya
Libya had resumed its aid to the Provisional IRA and had provided $2 million to Sinn Fein in the Irish Republic (Irish Times, 18 and 19 June 1986).
In an interview on RTE TV on 28 October, Colonel Qadhafi said that Libya should be thanked for its position on Ireland: "If I was leader of the south of Ireland, I would consider that the north was colonised and fight to liberate that part of the country".
British Press reported that two senior Sinn Fein officials (Ted and Joe) had visited Libya in April for a ceremony to mark the American raids on Libya which was addressed by Colonel Qadhafi's teenage son, Sadi, and that Colonel Qadhafi had supplied the IRA with large quantities of plastic explosives.
Mr Collins, told the Dail on 10 November that the Irish police were urgently examining reports that two landings of arms had been made in 1985 and two in 1986, all arranged by the IRA. He said later on RTE that there was "reason to worry" (Irish Press, 11 November 1987).
Anonymous letter claimed
British knew of Enniskillen bomb plans?
In the 1987, General Election,
held on 17th February, in the Irish Republic, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
was the candidate in the Cavan/Monaghan constituency. Owen Smyth was in charge
of Public Relations for Sinn Fein/PIRA in the Monaghan Electoral area, as he had
been for the 1985 Local Government Elections, in which he was also a candidate.
In the aftermath of the
Enniskillen Bombing, it was Owen Smyth who wrote an anonymous letter to then
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan TD, claiming that he was an MI5
Officer who had prior knowledge of the Enniskillen Bomb. Smyth never made any
secret of the under-hand things that he engaged in. Smyth had sent the letter
to Muddy the Waters.
It is highly unlikely that the
British had any prior knowledge of Enniskillen, as the operation was planned in
Monaghan by a very tight circle of people and the operational detail would not
have been known, even to some of those who offered support services. There would
have been no need for anyone to change the timing on the bomb, as it was always
meant to Murder civilians.
State papers: Self-proclaimed
operative sent Brian Lenihan letter six days after IRA bomb killed 12
An anonymous letter-writer to
the Irish government 30 years ago claimed that British intelligence knew in
advance about the Enniskillen bombing but chose to do nothing about it as they
believed it would create a “massive backlash”.
The Enniskillen bombing on
Remembrance Sunday, November 8th, 1987, was one of the worst atrocities of the
Troubles. Twelve people were killed when an IRA bomb blew out the walls of a
building beside the cenotaph in the town, burying dozens of spectators in
rubble.
Six days after the bombing, an
anonymous, typed letter was sent to then Tánaiste and minister for foreign
affairs, Brian Lenihan. It has now been released as part of the 1988 State
papers.
The letter was sent by a man
who claimed that he was so scared that he drove across the Border to post it.
He claimed that he was an MI5
agent operating in Northern Ireland for 18 months and that he worked in the
special section which was set up to infiltrate paramilitary organisations.
Remembrance Day parade
He listed ways in which
British intelligence sought to target republican paramilitaries including the
manipulation of Dessie “The Border Fox” O’Hare, “a psychopath”, through his
wife.
He went on to state that his
section of MI5 knew in advance of plans to bomb the Remembrance Day parade in
Enniskillen.
British intelligence knew when
and where the IRA gang were going to plant the bomb, its size and technical
make-up, he claimed.
“Our section decided to change
the timing device and let the explosion take place so that the IRA would score
an own goal and create a massive backlash against itself,” he wrote.
“Our section also calculated
that in the climate of a backlash against the IRA all kinds of security
measures could be implemented including extradition.”
The self-proclaimed operative
also suggested that MI6’s involvement in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings had
been “well-established” in MI5.
“If I had more courage, I
would come out openly and prove with more what I am now saying,” he wrote.
The anonymous letter generated
only one piece of correspondence in the files. It was from an official in the
Department of Foreign Affairs to an official in the Department of Justice.
It noted that the letter was
sent in an envelope to the Tánaiste but was addressed to “Dear sir or madam”.
The official suggested that perhaps the letter was meant for a wider
circulation including the press.
Other Top Stories
The Enniskillen Bomb Why and Who
The Enniskillen Bomb was planned in Monaghan Town and the Commanding Officer of The PIRA Unit that carried out that attack was from Monaghan Town.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, told The House of Commons that he was satisfied that Charlie Caufield was the PIRA member responsible for the Enniskillen Bomb.
Seamus McElwaine's funeral 1986. Front left, Charlie Caufield, front right Sean Tierney (arrested by RUC with this author 1986), Gerry Adams (Army Council) far right, Jim Lynagh (balaclava rolled up as monkey hat).
Following the shooting dead of Seamus McElwaine in Fermanagh in 1986, Charlie Caufield from Monaghan Town was appointed OC South Fermanagh, to replace Seamus McElwaine who had been OC (Officer Commanding) of South Fermanagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Sean Lynch who was with McElwaine on the night that he was killed survived.
To be fair to Charlie Caulfield, I found him to be a sober, intelligent and committed member of The PIRA. Charlie was a close friend of Seamus McElwaine who was shot dead in Fermanagh in 1986, Seamus McElwaine would have sought no apology from The SAS for the manner in which he died.
On the 8th May 1987, Charlie Caufield lost another life long friend Jim Lynagh, who was the Commanding Officer of the 8-man PIRA Unit wiped out by The SAS at Loughgall, again Lynagh would have sought no apology from The SAS for the manner in which he was killed. Lynagh was ruthless and had emptied 6 rounds into a Protestant man in Tynan in 1980 while that man lay injured on the ground. In 1981 Lynagh would murder Sir Norman Stronge in cold blood. Lynagh had many sectarian kills under his belt.
Loughgall Maryrs and the Pressure to Retaliate
Following the killing of 8 PIRA operatives at Loughgall on the 8th May 1987, by The SAS, the PIRA leadership in Monaghan was under pressure, not personnel pressure as the recruits just kept coming, but leadership pressure. Kevin McKenna who was PIRA Chief of Staff from 1983-1997, was constantly watching over his shoulder as Martin McGuinness tried to get his old job back as Chief of Staff.
History now tells us that McGuinness was an MI6 Agent from 1986 and his enthusiasm at this point in 1986 to retake his title as Chief of Staff is probably explained by the fact that MI6 wanted him back at the top.
As we waited at the County Monaghan side of the Moy Bridge near Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, in 1987, for Jim Lynagh’s body to be returned by The RUC, there was real anger in the crowd gathered.
Senior members of Sinn Fein/PIRA had gathered at the Moy Bridge and there was already talk about retaliation for Loughgall. Senior members of Sinn Fein/PIRA such as J.B. O’Hagan (OTR Lurgan) and John Joe McGirl (Leitrim) talked in quiet whispers, that what ever was going to happen it had to send shock waves through the Protestant population of Northern Ireland.
Choosing the target that would be Enniskillen
The PIRA in Monaghan under the leadership of Kevin McKenna talked more often about “Orange Bastards” (slang term for Protestants) and “Black Bastards” (slang term for Protestants) than they ever did about “Brits” and so forth. By the mid-1980s the Sinn Fein/PIRA leadership were satisfied that The British Government would do business with Sinn Fein/PIRA and it was Protestants that were the obstacle to their demands for British withdrawal.
In 1986 Martin McGuinness had delivered a message to Kevin McKenna from Northern Command in Belfast, sanctioning a campaign of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’. Retaliation for Loughgall would be sectarian, yet it would have to be given ‘Political camouflage’. This meant that just as The British Army followed ‘The Yellow Card Rule’, Sinn Fein/PIRA would follow The Green Book Rule:
“Get your defensive right, before your offensive”.
What this Green Book Rule means is that you have a cover story for your actions, for example, many victims of Sinn Fein/PIRA rapists were subject to various Human Rights abuses to ensure their silence, in some cases murder. Sinn Fein/PIRA would let it be known in the community that such a young person was ‘anti-social’ or whatever before shooting, beating or on occasion murdering them.
Retaliation for Loughgall was going to be sectarian, but there had to be a political cover story. Remember back in 1987 there was no Google, all Intelligence had to be gathered manually. In 1987, newspapers from previous years and from a number of areas were sourced, including Enniskillen, to establish who would normally be standing where, on Remembrance Day. These newspaper photographs would be the core sources of information to determine where to plant the bombs. There was no eyes-on intelligence as neither civilian Catholics nor Sinn Fein/PIRA would be out and about when Remembrance Day was held in Enniskillen.
Enniskillen was chosen as it was an historic town that had been used as a garrison by the English and was viewed in 1987 by Sinn Fein/PIRA as a Protestant town. An attack on the Protestants of Enniskillen would fit in well with the newly sanctioned campaign of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’.
Sinn Fein/PIRA would offer up many lies to a sometimes too willing to write media in relation to the Enniskillen atrocity and other atrocities. Sinn Fein/PIRA would whisper that Enniskillen was retaliation for The RUC attacking Sinn Fein/PIRA memorials, for example, a week before the bombing, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) clashed with mourners at the funeral of IRA volunteers Eddie McSheffrey and Paddy Deery. However, nobody with any credible understanding of the logistics for bombing Enniskillen would believe that the operation was thrown together in a week.
While many would argue that Sinn Fein/PIRA had operated a campaign of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ from their foundation in 1969-70 and evidence could be found to support this view, an actual plan for ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ was not sanctioned until 1986. This newly sanctioned plan would mean targeting non-military targets such as Enniskillen, while ensuring that there was a political cover story. Sinn Fein/PIRA had political ambitions and that meant keeping the campaign presented as one of David (Sinn Fein/PIRA) facing up to Goliath (The British).
The PIRA would murder a Protestant and Sinn Fein/PIRA would issue a statement of apology through P. O’Neil saying that they believed the Protestant murdered was a member of the security forces, when they knew that he/she was not. This was psychological as well as physical terrorism, especially in remote rural locations. Kevin McKenna and those around him wanted to do what McKenna's ancestors had done to Protestants in 1641, kill them in large numbers and drive them out.
Kevin McKenna making the final decision
The final decision to bomb Enniskillen was with Kevin McKenna, although many wanted in on the attack. Kevin McKenna, J.B. O’Hagan, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, Michael McKevitt, Brendan McKenna, John Joe McGirl, were all at Command level that took the final decision to bomb Enniskillen.
Charlie Caulfield would be OC for the operation although there would be many PIRA members involved in the two-bomb plan.
John Joe McGirl had trusted PIRA men under him in Ballinamore, County Leitrim and they would prepare the bombs to be used under the supervision of Charlie Caufield, who was himself a bomb maker. The Enniskillen bomb, 40lb of explosives, planted close to the cenotaph would be left on the night of the 7th November, 1987. The bomb was planted at the gable wall inside Enniskillen’s Reading Rooms and set to explode at 10.43am just as the largest number of people would be in the vicinity of the bomb.
The bomb was intended to kill Protestant civilians in large numbers anyone who thinks differently did not know Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan and they certainly did not know Kevin McKenna. This intention to maximise the number of Protestants to be murdered was best summed up by, RUC Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter when he said:
"Their intention was to inflict casualties. The only mistake in the operation was that the bomb went off before the parade arrived".
If military personnel were killed, they would be the collateral damage not the civilians. The second bomb in the joint operation, a 150-pound (68 kg) bomb in Tullyhommon failed to explode and would again have killed many innocent civilians.
As news broke about The Enniskillen Bomb on the morning of the 8th of November, 1987, I made my way to 21 Dublin Street in Monaghan Town which was/is the Sinn Fein/PIRA Office and shop. I meet with one of the most senior members of Sinn Fein/PIRA, who was the messenger between Kevin McKenna and Northern Command at that time. This senior Sinn Fein/PIRA member was distressed about the Enniskillen Bomb, not because of the numbers of casualties that grew with every news report, but in his words:
“Charlie has not reported back”
This author, “Charlie Caufield?”
“Yes, he has not reported back, he could be one of the casualties, we don’t know”.
Remember back then there was no mobile phones, and the majority of contact in such circumstances was person to person. Whatever about the political fall-out for Sinn Fein/PIRA in the weeks and months following, there was celebration in Sinn Fein/PIRA pubs in Monaghan that day, both pubs belonging to members of Sinn Fein/PIRA.
There is a strong possibility that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness did not have prior warning about the Enniskillen attack and only reluctantly came on board in the aftermath in order to keep Kevin McKenna on board. For Kevin McKenna and many others, it was a glorious kill and the campaign of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ would continue.
Enniskillen Bomb 1987, Charlie Caufield, Kevin McKenna, Ethnic Cleansing
