Patrick Campbell (INLA Member)

Patrick Campbell (INLA Member)

Patrick Campbell (1977–1999) was a volunteer in the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) died on 10 October 1999 after being wounded during a conflict in Dublin, Ireland between the INLA and drug dealers.

Campbell was born in New Barnsley in west Belfast in Northern Ireland and moved to Dublin to work in the building industry. At some point, he joined the INLA, an Irish Republican paramilitary group. After his death, his parents said they were unaware that he had been involved in politics.

In the summer of 1999, the INLA became involved in a violent dispute with criminals in west Dublin. The INLA claims that it was trying to halt the sale of illegal drugs in the local working class community. Some reports claim that the businesses in an industrial estate appealed to the INLA for protection against a group of criminals and that the INLA were in fact offering support to the beleaguered community.

On 6 October 1999, Campbell and two other INLA men captured the drug gang members in a warehouse in Ballymount Industrial Estate in Walkinstown. The INLA men were bundling the captured men into a van when other drug gang members arrived and at the scene. During the scuffle that ensued, Campbell was stabbed in the leg with a samurai sword, severing an artery, causing a huge loss of blood ultimately causing his death. He was buried with full military honours in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast by the INLA who staged a show of force including a uniformed colour party. Over 1000 people attended his funeral. Campbell's funeral was one of the last high profile republican paramilitary funerals in Ireland to date. A man was charged with Campbell's murder but the charges were later dropped. Two INLA men were convicted for false imprisonment. In 2000 the INLA shot and killed a man in Inchicore in Dublin, purportedly in retaliation for the death of Patrick Campbell. Several more shootings have since been attributed to the feud.