Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade - Before The Loughgall Ambush

Before The Loughgall Ambush

Members of the East Tyrone Brigade had previously carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". The first was an assault on Ballygawley barracks. The second attack was on the part-time station at The Birches, County Armagh, and it began by driving a JCB digger with a 200 lb (91 kg) bomb in its bucket through the reinforced fences the RUC had in place around their bases, and then exploding the bomb and raking the police station with gunfire. On these two occasions the stations were destroyed, and, in the first case, two of the occupants killed. In April 1987 they shot and killed Harold Henry, one of the main contractors to the British Army and the RUC in Northern Ireland.