IRA Proxy bombs : 3 human car bombs on British army checkpoints, killing 6 soldiers, October 1990

On 24 October 1990, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a series of proxy-bomb attacks. In these particular cases, three men deemed by the IRA to be "collaborators"were strapped into three vehicles and forced to drive to three British military targets. However, unlike the earlier proxy bombings, they were not given the chance to escape. The three synchronised attacks took place at Coshquin (near Derry), Cloghoge (near Newry), and Omagh in the early morning of 24 October 1990. The Coshquin attack was the deadliest, killing the human proxy and five soldiers. One soldier was killed at Cloghoge, but the proxy survived. At Omagh, there were no fatalities because a faulty detonator meant the main explosive charge did not go off as intended.

Coshquin

The Coshquin operation involved 11 members of the IRA's Derry City Brigade.RUC Special Branch had received some intelligence about the operation,but it was said to be only a "vague outline" of an "impending assault against a base" in the area.

A Catholic, Patrick Gillespie, 42, who lived in the Shantallow area of Derry and worked as a cook at the Fort George British Army base in the city, had been warned to stop working at the base or risk reprisal. On one occasion, the IRA had forced him to drive a bomb into the base, giving him just enough time to escape. However, that bomb had failed to detonate. On 24 October 1990, members of the IRA's Derry City Brigade took over Gillespie's house.While his family was held at gunpoint, he was forced to drive his car to a rural spot on the other side of the Irish border in County Donegal. Gillespie was then put in a van loaded with 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of explosives, chained to the seat to prevent his escape and told to drive to the Coshquin permanent border checkpoint on Buncrana Road.

An armed IRA team followed him by car to ensure that he obeyed their commands.Four minutes from the checkpoint, the IRA team armed the bomb remotely.When Gillespie reached the checkpoint, at 3:55 AM,he tried to get out and warn the soldiers, but the bomb detonated when he attempted to open the door. IRA bomb makers had installed a detonation device linked to the van's courtesy light, which came on whenever the van door opened. As a safeguard, the bombers also used a timing device to ensure that the bomb detonated at the right moment. Gillespie and five soldiers were killed, including Kingsman Stephen Beacham, Vincent Scott, David Sweeney, Paul Worrall and Lance Corporal Stephen Burrows, from D (Support) Company of the 1st Battalion the King's Regiment.

Witnesses reported hearing "shouting, screaming and then shots" right before the explosion.The bomb devastated the base, destroying the operations room and a number of armoured vehicles. It was claimed that the death toll would have been much higher had the soldiers not been sleeping in a recently built mortar-proof bunker. The blast damaged 25 nearby houses.

At Gillespie's funeral, Bishop Edward Daly said the IRA and its supporters were "the complete contradiction of Christianity. They may say they are followers of Christ. Some of them may even still engage in the hypocrisy of coming to church, but their lives and their works proclaim clearly that they follow Satan".

Cloghoge


In tandem with the Coshquin operation, members of the IRA's South Down Brigade took over the house of a Catholic man, James McAvoy, 65, in Newry. He was allegedly targeted because he served RUC officers at his filling station, which was beside the house.He was driven away in a Toyota HiAce van while his family was held at gunpoint.At Flagstaff Hill, near the Irish border, members of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade loaded the van with one ton of explosives. McAvoy was strapped into the driver's seat and told to drive the van to the accommodation block at Cloghoge permanent vehicle checkpoint. Before he drove off, a senior IRA member seemed "to have a pang of conscience" and whispered in McAvoy's ear "don't open the door; go out through the window".

An IRA team followed the van in a car and turned into a side road shortly before it reached the checkpoint. When McAvoy stopped the van and climbed out of the window, a soldier came over and began shouting at him to move the vehicle.Moments later, a timer detonated the bomb. The soldier was killed outright and 13 other soldiers were injured. McAvoy survived but suffered a broken leg.

The soldier killed was Ranger Cyril J. Smith, from B Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers. Smith, who was also a Northern Ireland Catholic, was posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal, as he tried to warn his comrades about the bomb, rather than running for cover.