The Human Bombs of the IRA

Text by Kostas Bagiotas

Cover photo : The checkpoint where Patsy Gillespie and five British soldiers were killed by an IRA proxy bomb in October 1990, source here

In the mid-1970s, the Provisional IRA fighters used vehicles loaded with explosives for the first time, although this tactic lacked the violent characteristics it would acquire in the 1990s. Ed Moloney, in his book Secret History of the IRA, notes that car bombs may have emerged accidentally but were deliberately established by the Belfast Brigade¹. Specifically, in December 1971, 55-year-old IRA fighter Jack McCabe was killed by a premature vehicle explosion in a garage. He had been testing a mixture for manufacturing explosives.

In 1972, Belfast saw 22 vehicle bomb explosions, resulting in nine deaths and 130 injuries. However, the method of vehicle use on “Bloody Friday” differed significantly from the techniques employed in the 1990s. One of the most abhorrent tactics used during the late stages of the Troubles (1969–1998) was the proxy bomb or human bomb. This involved forcing civilians (theoretically employees in services or security forces) to drive vehicles packed with explosives to their targets. In some cases, the driver was given limited time to escape, while in others, the captives were coerced under threats to their families. This essentially measured the vehicle in some hing like the SVBIEDs, Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device.

This practice likely damaged the IRA’s public acceptance and at times overshadowed the organization’s goals. In the autumn of 1990, the IRA’s council officially sanctioned proxy bomb attacks, with the defining characteristics of the tactic as described. The strategy is attributed to a senior IRA member with the codename “Spike.”

On October 24, nearly simultaneous attacks occurred in Newry and Londonderry, while a third attempt in Omagh, the capital of County Tyrone, failed.

The Attacks

Forty-two-year-old Catholic Patrick Gillespie lived with his family in the nationalist area of Shantallow in Derry. According to the IRA, the justification for targeting him was his employment at a British army base canteen. Under the threat of harm to his family, Gillespie was forced to carry out the mission. On October 24, he drove his car, which contained a 450-kilogram explosive device, along Buncrana Road to the Coshquin base in Derry. His task was to target the Permanent Vehicle Check Point (PVCP) manned by soldiers.

Upon reaching the checkpoint, the explosive device detonated, killing Gillespie and causing thirteen military casualties, including five deaths and five serious injuries. Following the explosion, two IRA Active Service Units (ASUs) of five members each fired around 150 rounds from automatic weapons. After the skirmish, the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility, and an abandoned Vauxhall Nova was found nearby.

This was Gillespie’s second time being coerced into such an operation. On a previous occasion, he had completed the mission without loss of life.

The Two Sons of 65-Year-Old James McAvoy
The two sons of 65-year-old James McAvoy (3) were abused, and he was ordered to carry out a mission. He was forced to drive a vehicle loaded with explosives to a checkpoint in Cloghoge, Newry. Upon reaching the target, he shouted that the vehicle carried an explosive device. The soldiers of the Royal Irish Rangers panicked. Cyril Smith assisted McAvoy in exiting the vehicle safely and tried to warn his colleagues. Tragically, he was killed in the explosion and was posthumously awarded a medal for bravery.

The Third Attack

The third attack targeted the Lisanelly camp in Omagh. Gerry Kelly was tied to the driver’s seat of a van and forced to carry a 200-pound explosive device. According to Kelly, the fighters followed him with their weapons pointed at him from another vehicle. When he reached the gate, he shouted about the load he was carrying, but fortunately, neither of the two explosive devices detonated.

Two more proxy bomb attacks soon followed, one in the village of Rosslea in County Fermanagh and another at the UDR base in Magherafelt. The political cost for Sinn Féin was immense, as was the damage to the broader goals of the Irish movement. Consequently, it was decided to limit counterproductive tactics that provoked widespread revulsion. Experts on the issue suggest that the Derry Brigade, which was the most dynamic after the Belfast Brigade, ceased indiscriminate killings and largely fell silent. This was the brigade responsible for the attack in Coshquin.

The journalist Peter Taylor argued that “The IRA unintentionally strengthened those within the Republican movement who advocated finding another way beyond armed conflict.”

(1) The first proxy bomb attacks inspired Benedict Kiely to write the novella Proxopera. In it, Professor Binchey is forced to drive a vehicle to a target location, declaring, “Not even the mafia could think of the proxy bomb tactic.”

(2) The victims included Corporal Burrows and soldiers Beecham, Scott, Sweeney, and Worral, all members of the King’s Regiment from Liverpool. During the Troubles, this regiment mourned 15 dead.

(3) McAvoy was a former soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

Footnotes

1. The Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA was the largest of the organisation’s brigades, with maximum size of 1.500 men, ↩︎