The Troubles in Moneymore

The Troubles in Moneymore recounts incidents during, and the effects of, The Troubles in Moneymore, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Incidents in Moneymore during the Troubles resulting in death(s):

1974

18 April 1974 - Séamus O'Neill (32), a Catholic civilian was killed by a bomb, planted by the Provisional IRA, while driving a tractor near his farm in The Loup, close to Moneymore. The bomb had been meant for members of the British army. This was on the same day the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, visited Northern Ireland and said there was no alternative to the Sunningdale Agreement^[1]. Seamus was the 998th person killed as a result of The Troubles.^[2].

1976

30 July 1976 - Robert Scott, a 28 year old Protestant member of the British Army (Ulster Defence Regiment) was killed by a bomb, planted by the Provisional IRA, which was attached to the gate of his father's farm, near Moneymore.

1977

8 April 1977 - Kenneth Sheehan (19) and John McCracken (22), both Protestant members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army when they approached a stationary car, near Moneymore.^[3] Both RUC men were members of the RUC Special Patrol Group, shot dead by three IRA gunmen, when they chased and tried to stop a car at Gortagilly on the main Magherafelt to Moneymore road. The car crashed and the occupants opened fire with automatic weapons before escaping across fields. A third RUC man was wounded in the legs. Some sources blamed Francis Hughes for the shooting and eventually a man was jailed for both killings. Kenneth Sheehan had just returned to duty after being seriously injured in an ambush in Derry in 1976. In April 1978, a plaque was dedicated at his former school, Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, to commemorate his death and that of two other former pupils and RUC men killed in the Troubles.^[4] That Francis Hughes was involved in the killing is confirmed in an IRA account of the incident.^[5]