Patrick Kelly
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- For the Canadian ice speed skater see Pat Kelly (skater)
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Patrick Kelly (1957 – 1987) was the commander of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade during the mid 1980s until his death in a Special Air Service ambush at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987.
Kelly was born and lived in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army at the beginning of the 1970s and gradually became one of the most experienced IRA volunteers in Tyrone. He was arrested in February 1982 on the word of a supergrass but was released in October 1983 due to lack of evidence. He was appointed brigade commander in East Tyrone in 1985 and began developing tactics for attacking secluded Royal Ulster Constabulary bases in his area. Under his leadership the East Tyrone Brigade became the most active IRA unit in Northern Ireland.
Patrick Kelly 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: Pádraig McKearney, Declan Arthurs, Seamus Donnelly, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, Jim Lynagh, and Gerard O'Callaghan. Kelly's funeral in Dungannon was one of the largest in Tyrone during The Troubles.
