The Troubles
The Troubles, which impacted on Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic from 1969 onwards saw the area remain relatively quiet but with frequent British Army patrols, checkpoints, and Helicopter activity. The most significant event relating directly to the townland which was to occur during the troubles was probably an attack on a military helicopter en route from Crossmaglen to Bessbrook in June 1988, and which Harden records as follows:
| “ | The Libyan shipments further enhanced the IRA’s anti-aircraft capability when 18 DShKs were landed between 1985 and 1987. The DShK, or Degtyarova Shapgma Krupnokalibernyi, designed by Degtyarova and Shapgma and manufactured in Russia, had been used against American forces during the Vietnam War. Taking several men to carry, the weapon has an effective range of more than a mile and can fire 575 rounds per minute. A DShK was used for the first time by the IRA in June 1988. This time it was a lynx flying from Crossmaglen to Bessbrook Mill which was the target. Lieutenant David Richardson, a Royal Navy pilot attached to the Army Air Corps, felt his Lynx get into a spin as it was hit 15 times around the fuselage and rotors, damaging control cables and stopping on engine. Several of the rounds were amour-piercing and the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing near Cashel Lough Upper. It was later found that the Lynx had been engaged by two DShKs, three M60s and assorted rifles from Aughanduff mountain. An IRA statement said a dozen volunteers had taken part in the attack. | ” |
The impact of the Troubles lessened during the early stages of the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and especially following the demilitarisation of the South-Armagh region. The Troubles are widely seen to have ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but not definitively so until the deadly Omagh bombing of August that year, which saw 29 people killed. A minor connection between the area and that tragedy was that one of the two telephone warnings made by the Real IRA with respect to that attack was made from the BT telephone box at McGeough’s crossroads in the south of the district, where the Aughanduff Road meets that running from Newry to Crossmaglen.
Read more about this topic: Aughanduff, History, 20th Century
Famous quotes containing the word troubles:
“This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“It is quite a common and vulgar thing among humans to understand, foresee, know and predict the troubles of others. But oh what a rare thing it is to predict, know, foresee and understand one’s own troubles.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)