Warrenpoint ambush

The ambush took place on the A2 road at Narrow Water Castle, just outside Warrenpoint, in the south of County Down in Northern Ireland. The road and castle are on the northern bank of the Newry River (also known as the Clanrye River), which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Republic's side of the river, the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth, was an ideal spot from which to launch an ambush: it was thickly wooded, which gave cover to the ambushers, and the river border prevented British forces giving chase.

On the afternoon of 27 August, a British Army convoy of one Land Rover and two four-tonne vehicles—carrying soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment—was driving from Ballykinler Barracks to Newry.{{Cite book |last=McKittrick |first=David |author-link=David McKittrick |title=Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women, and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles |title-link=Lost Lives |last2=Kelters |first2=Seamus |last3=Feeney |first3=Brian |last4=Thornton |first4=Chris |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=1-84018-227-X |pages=796–797; 799}}{{Cite book |last=Sanders |first=Andrew |title=Times of Troubles: Britain's War in Northern Ireland |last2=Wood |first2=Ian S. |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0748646555 |pages=139–140 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt3fgrsn}} The British Army were aware of the dangers of using the stretch of road along the Newry River and often declared it out of bounds. However, they would sometimes use it to avoid setting a pattern. At 16:40, as the convoy was driving past Narrow Water Castle, an {{Convert|800|lb|kg|adj=on}} fertiliser bomb, hidden among strawbales on a parked flatbed trailer, was detonated by remote control by Provisional IRA members watching from across the border in County Louth. The explosion caught the last lorry in the convoy, hurling it on its side and instantly killing six paratroopers, whose bodies were scattered across the road.Harnden p. 198 There were only two survivors amongst the soldiers travelling in the vehicle; they both received serious injuries. The lorry's driver, Anthony Wood, was one of those killed. All that remained of Wood's body was his pelvis, welded to the seat by the fierce heat of the blast.

According to the soldiers, immediately after the blast they were targeted by rifle fire from the woods on the Cooley Peninsula on the other side of the border,{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (journalist) | title = Behind the mask:The IRA and Sinn Féin| publisher = TV books | year = 1997| isbn = 1-57500-061-X | page = 266}} and this view was supported by two part-time firefighters assisting the wounded, who were "sure they had been fired on from the Omeath side of the water".{{Cite news |date=29 August 2015 |title=From the Archives: August 29th, 1979 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/from-the-archives-august-29th-1979-1.2332419 |access-date=12 July 2020 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}} Shortly afterwards, the two Provisional IRA members were arrested by the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) and suspected of being behind the ambush, were found to have traces of gunsmoke residue on their hands and on the motorbike they were riding.Harnden, p. 204 The Provisional IRA's first statement on the incident, however, denied that any shots had been fired at the troops,{{Cite news |date=28 August 1979 |title=At Least 18 British Soldiers Slain In an Attack by I.R.A. in Ulster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/28/archives/at-least-18-british-soldiers-slain-in-an-attack-by-ira-in-ulster.html |access-date=12 July 2020 |work=The New York Times |page=11 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and according to Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) researchers, the soldiers might have mistaken the sound of ammunition cooking off for enemy gunfire.Harnden, p. 200 Nevertheless, at the official inquiry the soldiers declared, on oath, that they had been fired on.{{Cite book|last=Reynolds|first=David|title=Paras: An Illustrated History of Britain's Airborne Forces|publisher=Sutton|year=1998|isbn=0750917237|pages=257}}

The surviving paratroopers radioed for urgent assistance, and reinforcements were dispatched to the scene by road. A rapid reaction unit was sent by Gazelle helicopter, consisting of Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair, commanding officer of the Queen's Own Highlanders, his signaler Lance Corporal Victor MacLeod, and several army medics. Another helicopter, a Westland Wessex, landed to pick up the wounded. Colonel Blair assumed command upon arriving at the site.{{Cite book |last=Bowyer Bell |first=John |author-link=J. Bowyer Bell |title=The secret army: the IRA |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1997 |isbn=978-1560009016 |pages=454}}

William Hudson, a 29-year-old from London, was killed by the British Army and his cousin Barry Hudson, a 25-year-old native of Dingle, was wounded when shots were fired across the Newry River into the Republic of Ireland about 3 km from the village of Omeath, County Louth.

The pair were partners in 'Hudson Amusements' and had been operating their amusements in Omeath for the duration of the Omeath Gala. When the first explosion was heard across the Lough, the pair went down to the shore to see what was unfolding. The pair made their way to Narrow Water on the southern side of the border to get a better view of what was happening on the northern side. Barry Hudson was shot in the arm and as he fell to the ground he saw his cousin, who was the son of a coachman at Buckingham Palace, fall to the ground, shot in the head. He died almost immediately.* {{cite news |date=2 September 2009 |title=Saw his cousin shot on the day of the Narrow Water bomb |url=http://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/news/saw-his-cousin-shot-on-the-day-of-the-narrow-water-bomb-26937022.html |access-date=27 August 2016 |work=The Argus |location=Dundalk |via=Irish Independent}}

• {{cite news |date=28 October 2009 |title=Inquest is told fatal shot fired from across border |work=The Argus |location=Dundalk |page=56}}

The IRA had been studying how the British Army behaved after a bombing and correctly predicted that they would set up an incident command point at the stone gateway on the other side of the road. At 17:12, thirty-two minutes after the first explosion, another {{convert|800|lb|kg|adj=on}} bomb hidden in milk pails exploded at the gateway, destroying it and hurling lumps of granite through the air. It detonated as the Wessex helicopter was taking off carrying wounded soldiers. The helicopter was damaged by the blast but did not crash.

File:Narrow Water Tower - geograph.org.uk - 494487.jpg {{circa}} 2007]]

The second explosion killed twelve soldiers: ten from the Parachute Regiment and two from the Queen's Own Highlanders.* {{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=Sutton Index of Deaths: 1979 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1979.html |access-date=3 May 2025 |website=Conflict Archive on the Internet}}

• Harnden, p. 199 Lt. Colonel Blair was the second lieutenant colonel to be killed in the Troubles up until then, following Lt. Colonel Corden-Lloyd of the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets in 1978. Only one of Colonel Blair's epaulettes remained to identify him as his body had been destroyed in the blast. The epaulette was taken from the scene by Brigadier David Thorne to a security briefing with prime minister Margaret Thatcher to "illustrate the human factor" of the attack.{{cite news |last=Ezard |first=John |date=25 April 2000 |title=Obituary: David Thorne |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/25/guardianobituaries.johnezard |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=The Guardian |department=Obituaries}} Mike Jackson, then a major in the Parachute Regiment, was at the scene soon after the second explosion and later described seeing human remains scattered over the road, in the water and hanging from the trees. He was asked to identify the face of his friend, Major Peter Fursman, still recognisable after it had been ripped from his head by the explosion and recovered from the water by divers from the Royal Engineers.{{cite news |author=Jackson |first=General Sir Mike |author-link=Mike Jackson (British Army officer) |date=5 September 2007 |title=Gen Sir Mike Jackson relives IRA Paras bombs |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562283/Gen-Sir-Mike-Jackson-relives-IRA-Paras-bombs.html |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph}}

Press photographer Peter Molloy, who arrived at the scene after the first explosion, came close to being shot by an angry paratrooper who saw him taking photographs of the dead and dying instead of offering to help the wounded. The soldier was tackled by his comrades. Molloy said, "I was shouted at and called all sorts of things but I understood why. I had trespassed on the worst day of these fellas' lives and taken pictures of it."{{Cite news |last=Beattie |first=Jilly |date=17 June 2004 |title=These are the last pictures I ever took... I went home & threw out my camera; I was so sickened. Warrenpoint Massacre: 25 Years On We Revisit Horror of IRA Bombings |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/These+are+the+last+pictures+I+ever+took...+I+went+home+%26+threw+out+my...-a0118263934 |access-date=3 May 2025 |work=The Mirror |via=The Free Library}}

The Warrenpoint ambush was the deadliest attack on the British Army during the Troubles and the Parachute Regiment's biggest loss since World War II, with sixteen paratroopers killed. General Sir James Glover, Commander of British forces in Northern Ireland, later said it was "arguably the most successful and certainly one of the best planned IRA attacks of the whole campaign".[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/northern_ireland/2000/brits/transcript2.stm "Part 2 – Shoot to Kill – Transcript"]. BBC. Retrieved 20 May 2015. The ambush happened on the same day that Lord Mountbatten, a prominent relative and close confidant of the British royal family, was assassinated by an IRA bomb aboard his boat at Mullaghmore, along with three others.

Republicans portrayed the attack as retaliation for Bloody Sunday in 1972 when the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 unarmed civilians during a protest march in Derry. Graffiti appeared in republican areas declaring "13 gone and not forgotten, we got 18 and Mountbatten".{{Cite journal |last=Somerville |first=Ian |last2=Purcell |first2=Andrew |date=August 2011 |title=A history of Republican public relations in Northern Ireland from 'Bloody Sunday' to the Good Friday Agreement |journal=Journal of Communication Management |edition=Special PR History |volume=15 |issue=3 |doi=10.1108/13632541111150970}} The day after the Mountbatten and Warrenpoint attacks, the Ulster Volunteer Force retaliated by shooting dead John Patrick Hardy (43), a Catholic civilian, at his home in Belfast's New Lodge estate. Hardy was allegedly targeted due to the mistaken belief that he was an IRA member.{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Peter |title=Loyalists |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=9780747543886 |pages=163–164}}

Very shortly after the ambush, Provisional IRA volunteers Brendan Burns and Joe Brennan were arrested by the Gardaí. They were stopped while riding a motorbike on a road opposite Narrow Water Castle. They were later released on bail due to lack of evidence.Harnden, p. 205 Burns died in 1988 when a bomb he was handling exploded prematurely.

• {{cite news|title=IRA's top fugitive killed in bomb blast|website=UPI|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/03/02/IRAs-top-fugitive-killed-in-bomb-blast/2239573282000/|date=2 March 1988|access-date=31 January 2019}}
• [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1988.html Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 1988]. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) In 1998, former Provisional IRA member Eamon Collins claimed that Burns had been one of those who carried out the Warrenpoint ambush. No one has ever been criminally charged.{{Cite news |last=Black |first=Rebecca |date=25 August 2019 |title=Narrow Water survivor 'at peace' 40 years after atrocity which killed 18 soldiers |url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/narrow-water-survivor-peace-40-100024235.html |access-date=19 January 2020 |work=PA Media |via=Yahoo News}}

According to Toby Harnden, the attack "drove a wedge" between the British Army and the RUC. Lieutenant-General Sir Timothy Creasey, General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland, suggested to Margaret Thatcher that internment should be brought back and that liaison with the Gardaí should be left in the hands of the military.Harnden, p. 212 Sir Kenneth Newman, the RUC Chief Constable, claimed instead that the British Army practice, since 1975, of supplying their garrisons in South County Armagh by helicopter gave too much freedom of movement to the Provisional IRA.

• "But Sir Kenneth Newman, the RUC Chief Constable was adamant that the policy of 'police primacy', introduced by Merlyn Rees, should remain in all areas, including South Armagh. The Army's decision not to travel by road in South Armagh was wrong, he argued, because it gave the IRA too much freedom". Harnden, p. 213
• "Since the mid-1970s virtually all military movement has been by helicopter to avoid casualties from landmines planted under the roads; even the rubbish from the security forces bases is taken away by air." Harnden, p. 19 One result was the appointment of Sir Maurice Oldfield to a new position of Coordinator of Security Intelligence in Northern Ireland. His role was to coordinate intelligence between the military, MI5 and the RUC. Another was the expansion of the RUC by 1,000 members.{{Cite book |last=Paul |first=Arthur |title=Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland problem |publisher=Blackstaff Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0856406881 |chapter=Chapter 8}} Tim Pat Coogan asserts that the deaths of the 18 soldiers hastened the move towards Ulsterisation.{{cite book | last = Coogan | first = Tim Pat |author-link = Tim Pat Coogan | title = The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal, 1966–1995, and the Search for Peace |publisher = Hutchinson | year = 1995| isbn = 0-09-179146-4 | page = 245 | quote = "From the time of the Ulsterisation, normalisation and criminalisation policy formulations in the mid-seventies it had become obvious that, if the conflict was to be Vietnamised and the natives were to do the fighting, then the much-talked-about 'primacy of the police' would have to become a reality. The policy was officially instituted in 1976. But if one had to point to a watershed date as a result of which the police actually wrested real power from the army I would select 27 August 1979."}}

Lieutenant-Colonel Blair is remembered on a memorial at Radley College, Oxfordshire.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.radley.org.uk/OR/Lusimus/Lus16/Lusimus%20Jan08.pdf|magazine=Lusimus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722202634/http://www.radley.org.uk/OR/Lusimus/Lus16/Lusimus%20Jan08.pdf|archive-date=22 July 2011|publisher=Radley College|date=January 2008|issue=16|url-status=dead|title=A New Memorial|page=1}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last = Harnden | first = Toby | author-link = Toby Harnden | title = Bandit Country | publisher = Hodder & Stoughton | year = 1999| isbn = 0-340-71736-X }}
• {{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (journalist) | title = Behind The Mask: The IRA & Sinn Fein | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | year = 1997| isbn = 1-57500-061-X }}

• {{Cite news

|last = Blair

|first = Alexandra

|title = The day my dad was killed by the Provos

|url = http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/the-day-my-dad-was-killed-by-the-provos-160814.html

|work = Irish Independent

|date = 28 August 2004

|department = Features}}

• [http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/warrenpoint-falls-silent-as-soldiers-families-recall-ira-massacre-99651.html Warrenpoint falls silent as soldiers’ families recall IRA massacre]
• [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0828/1224253408086.html Warrenpoint ambush remembered]

{{PIRA}}

{{The Troubles|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warrenpoint Ambush}}

Category:Warrenpoint

Category:The Troubles in County Down

Category:Provisional Irish Republican Army actions

Category:1979 in Northern Ireland

Category:Conflicts in 1979

Category:British Army in Operation Banner

Category:Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)

Category:Car and truck bombings in Northern Ireland

Category:Deaths by firearm in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Military history of County Down

Category:Military actions and engagements during the Troubles (Northern Ireland)

Category:20th century in County Down

Category:August 1979 in Europe

Category:August 1979 in the United Kingdom

Category:Ambushes in Northern Ireland

Category:Accidents and incidents involving helicopters

Category:1979 disasters in Ireland

Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in 1979