Loughgall Martyrs

Loughgall ambush
Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner
Mural commemorating the IRA members killed in the ambush
Date 8 May 1987 Location Loughgall, County Armagh, Northern Ireland 54°24′26.80″N 6°36′39.88″W / 54.4074444°N 6.6110778°W / 54.4074444; -6.6110778Coordinates: 54°24′26.80″N 6°36′39.88″W / 54.4074444°N 6.6110778°W / 54.4074444; -6.6110778 Result British victory
Belligerents
Provisional IRA	United Kingdom British Army RUC
Commanders and leaders
Patrick Joseph Kelly †	Soldier A
Strength
8 in attacking unit 4 in support	24 SAS soldiers 2 HMSU officers
Casualties and losses
8 killed	3 wounded
1 civilian killed and 1 wounded by SAS
Location within Northern Ireland

 United Kingdom

The Loughgall ambush took place on 8 May 1987 in the village of Loughgall, Northern Ireland. An eight-man unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks in the village. An IRA member drove a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the perimeter fence, while the rest of the unit arrived in a van and fired on the building. The bomb exploded and destroyed almost half of the base. Soldiers of the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) then returned fire from the base and opened fire from hidden ambush positions around it, killing all IRA members. The security forces were aware of the IRA plan and the 24-man SAS unit had been lying in wait. Two of the IRA members were unarmed. A civilian was also killed by the SAS after unwittingly driving into the ambush zone.

The joint Army/RUC operation was codenamed Operation Judy. It was the IRA's greatest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles. In 2015, it was announced that a fresh inquest was to be held.

The IRA's East Tyrone Brigade was active mainly in eastern County Tyrone and neighbouring parts of County Armagh. By the mid-1980s it had become one of the IRA's most professional and effective units. Members of the unit, such as Jim Lynagh and Pádraig McKearney, advocated a strategy of destroying bases and preventing them being rebuilt or repaired, thus "denying ground" to British forces. In 1985, Patrick Joseph Kelly became its commander and began implementing the strategy. In 1985 and 1986, it carried out two major attacks on RUC bases described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". The first was an attack on the RUC barracks in Ballygawley on 7 December 1985, in which two police officers were shot dead. The second was an attack on an RUC base at The Birches on 11 August 1986. In both attacks, the bases were raked with gunfire and then destroyed with a bomb. In the attack at The Birches, they had breached the base's perimeter fence with a digger that had a bomb in its bucket. It planned to use the same tactic in an attack on the lightly-manned Loughgall base.