Kevin Coen - Paramilitary Activity

Paramilitary Activity

Coen joined the IRA and served with the Sligo Brigade and was a member of the Southern Command. In 1971, Coen was imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin where he was jailed with fellow republican Dan Hoban.

At the age of 28, Coen was killed by a British Army soldier while on active service at Cassidy's Cross near Kinawley, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland close to the Cavan/Fermanagh border on 20 January 1975. The CAIN Sutton Index lists him as being shot during an attempted bus hijacking. However, republican sources state he was shot on the main Swanlinbar-Enniskillen road by undercover British troops in an unmarked civilian car, who opened fire at an IRA checkpoint.

Coen was the first volunteer from the Southern Command to be killed on active service since Tony Ahern died in May 1973.