Séamus McElwaine

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Séamus Turlough McElwaine (1961 – 1986), was an IRA Volunteer.

McElwaine was born and grew up in Knockna Cullion, County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. He joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army at the age of 14. He served with the South Fermanagh Brigade and was one of the most active and ruthless volunteers in the IRA. He was known to have slept in ditches waiting to ambush British Army or RUC patrols, and carried out several attacks on British security forces . McElwaine was arrested in 1980, an extremely active year for the South Fermanagh Brigade, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an RUC reserve constable and a UDR soldier, both of which were off duty at the time of their murder. He escaped from the Maze / Long Kesh prison along with 37 other paramilitaries on the 25th September 1983 and returned to active service.

During that time he held a meeting with Pádraig McKearney and Jim Lynagh, members of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade, in which they discussed forming a flying cloumn independent of the IRA with the aim of going on the offensive by destroying police barracks and establishing liberated areas within Northern Ireland. However, this plan never materialised.

On 26th April 1986 McElwaine and another IRA volunteer, Séan Lynch from Lisnaskea, were preparing to ambush an army patrol near Rosslea in Fermanagh when they were ambushed themselves by the SAS. Both were wounded but Lynch managed to crawl away. McElwaine was interrogated for several minutes and then died. Lynch was arrested after being found hiding nearby.