Michael McVerry
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Michael McVerry (1st December 1949 – 15th November 1973), was a Provisional Irish Republican Army Volunteer and commanding officer of the First Battalion of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. He was killed in Keady in 1973[1].
McVerry was born and raised in the townland of Skerriff near Cullyhanna. He attended Cullyhanna Primary School and later Bessbrook Technical College before starting work on building sites throughout Northern Ireland.
Michael McVerry joined the IRA in August 1971. He was imprisoned in Mountjoy jail and later the Curragh camp, both in the Republic of Ireland, where he endured a hunger and thirst strike and eventually escaped with six other comrades and returned to active service.
He gradually became the most experienced guerrilla fighter in the IRA at that time and a legend among the local republican population in south Armagh. In 1973 he lost his hand while testing grenades. In August of that year he got married. On 15 November 1973 he was killed during an attack on the RUC barracks in Keady.
