Pádraig McKearney
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Pádraig Oliver McKearney (1954 – 1987), was a Marxist oriented Provisional Irish Republican Army Volunteer. He was killed in a Special Air Service ambush with 7 other IRA men at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987.
McKearney was raised in Moy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in a staunchly Irish republican family. Both his grandfathers had fought in the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence, his maternal in south County Roscommon and his paternal in east Tyrone. Padraig McKearney was educated at local primary schools in Collegeland and Moy, and went on to St. Patrick's Academy in Dungannon. However his education was interrupted by the outbreak of the conflict known as The Troubles. He joined the Provisional IRA and left school after he was first arrested in 1972 on charges of blowing up the post office in Moy. He spent six weeks on remand, but was released due to insufficient evidence being assembled.
In December 1973, he was arrested again and later sentenced to seven years for possession of a rifle. He was imprisoned in Long Kesh and later in Magilligan prison. During this period of incarceration his younger brother Sean, also an IRA volunteer, was killed on active service on 13 May 1974. Padraig was released in 1977 but was sentenced to 14 years in August 1980 after being caught with a loaded sten gun. That same year his older brother Tommy, who was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, nearly died on hunger strike after refusing food for 53 days.
On 25 September 1983 McKearney broke out of the Maze Prison along with 37 other comrades. At the beginning of 1984 he returned on active service in his native east Tyrone with the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade. He advocated the commencement of the "third phase" of the armed struggle, the 'strategic defensive', in which the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Ulster Defence Regiment and British Army would be denied all support in selected areas following repeated attacks on their bases1. His views were very close to those of Jim Lynagh, an IRA commander from County Monaghan, who devised a Maoist guerrilla strategy adapted to Irish conditions with the intent of creating liberated zones.
In 1985 Patrick Kelly became commander of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade and it was under his leadership that this strategy started becoming reality. Secluded RUC bases were attacked and destroyed and building contractors who tried to repair them were targeted and sometimes killed. Prime examples of this policy were the destructions of Ballygawley RUC barracks in December 1985 and The Birches RUC barracks in August 1986. Padraig McKearney was a key architect in many of these attacks and he soon beacme one of the most experienced guerrilla fighters in the IRA.
McKearney was killed in an ambush by the SAS on the 8 May 1987 during an attack on Loughgall RUC barracks which also claimed the lives of seven of his comrades: Patrick Kelly, Declan Arthurs, Seamus Donnelly, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, Jim Lynagh, and Gerard O'Callaghan. He was buried in his hometown of Moy, 13 years to the day after his brother Sean died on IRA active service.
[edit] Footnote
Note 1: The "Third Phase" in Provisional IRA thinking represented an escalation of the conflict in Northern Ireland with eventual aim of using conventional warfare by taking and holding "liberated zones" along the border. Due to a number of factors, including the loss of experienced activists at Loughall and the interception of 150 tonnes of Libyan weaponry aboard the Eksund ship, this strategy was never carried out. (See also: Provisional IRA arms importation and Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997)
