| Joe MacManus Irish: Seosamh Mac Mághnais |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 23 May 1970 Harlesden, London, England, UK |
| Died | 5 February 1992 Belleek, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland |
| Allegiance | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
| Years of service | 1987–1992[1] |
| Rank | Volunteer [2][3][4] |
| Unit | Sligo Brigade[4] |
| Conflict | The Troubles[5] |
Joseph Edward "Joe" MacManus (often incorrectly spelt Joe McManus) (Irish Seosamh Mac Mághnais; 23 May 1970–5 February 1992), was a volunteer in the Sligo Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was killed during a shoot-out after his unit attempted an ambush in Mulleek near Belleek, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.[6]
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MacManus was born in Harlesden, north-west London, which at the time had a large Irish community. His father, Seán MacManus, a native of Gubaveeney, near Blacklion, County Cavan, had moved to London in the 1960s to find work. There he met and married Helen McGovern, a native of Glenfarne, County Leitrim. In 1976, the family returned to Ireland to live in the working-class Maugheraboy area of Sligo town so that the boys could be educated in Ireland.[7]
MacManus was educated to primary level at Scoil Ursula Primary School, Strandhill Road, Sligo and St. John's Marist Brothers National School, Temple Street, Sligo to secondary level at Summerhill College and at third level at Sligo RTC. MacManus played football for local junior teams Collegians and Corinthians, and Gaelic football for both Saint Mary's GFC of Maugheraboy and Coolera GFC of Strandhill.[1]
His father Seán, who at the time was a leading republican, later became Mayor of Sligo. He was the secretary of the County Sligo anti H-Block Committee in the 1980s. He was the first Sinn Féin Mayor in the Republic of Ireland since the beginning of The Troubles in 1969. His father was also involved in the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement. Joe's younger brother, Chris, is a Sinn Féin Councillor for Sligo Borough Council, and is also a member of Sinn Féin's national executive, the Ard Comhairle.[8][9]
In 1987, MacManus attended the funeral of Jim Lynagh, one of those killed in the Loughall ambush. In 1988, at the age of 18, MacManus joined the Provisional IRA's Sligo Brigade.[1]
In 1991, MacManus joined a Ballyshannon-based active service unit which replaced the West Fermanagh Brigade, disbanded after the Enniskillen bombing. Initially, MacManus carried out minor operations including moving munitions between arms dumps, passing intelligence between operatives and attending training camps in the region.[10] On 2 February 1992, MacManus and the rest of his unit, James Hughes, Conor O'Neill and Noel Magee, met at a safe house in Ballyshannon, County Donegal to make final arrangement for an operation which was to take place later in the following week.
On 3 February, MacManus and his unit crossed the border and took over the house of farmer Pat Loughran. Loughran was ordered to lure Eric Glass, an Ulster Defence Regiment soldier and part-time Fermanagh District Council dog warden, to his home on the pretence that his dog had attacked a family member.[6]
Corporal Eric Glass of the 4th (Co Fermanagh) Battalion, UDR, a former member of the B-Specials, arrived at the farmhouse on the morning of 5 February. When he arrived at the gate of the farmhouse he was ambushed by the unit and ordered to get out of his van. The unit opened fire on Glass, then reached for his handgun, which he always had ready and loaded and placed on the passenger seat of the van. A gun battle ensued in which Glass was badly injured: his thigh bone was shattered and the bone partially penetrated his skin. Glass managed to fight off his attackers, killing MacManus in the process.[6] Corporal Eric Glass later received both the Queen's Gallantry Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery.
An account of the attack on Corporal Glass was carried in the Belfast News Letter.[11]
The trial of Noel Magee which followed the attack made Irish legal history as – for the first time since the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act 1976 had been enacted – three judges of the Republic of Ireland's top security, non-jury Special Criminal Court crossed the border into Northern Ireland on 25 October 1992 to hear evidence in the trial of Noel Magee, who had been charged with the attempted murder of Glass.[6] Magee, a native of Leggs, County Fermanagh, was jailed for 11½ years in Dublin following his conviction in 1992. Magee was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement which resulted from the Northern Ireland peace process.[6]
Two other IRA men involved in the attack, James Hughes and Conor O'Neill, were found hiding in a ditch after the attack and jailed. They were also released by the Republic of Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement.[12]
In 2002, a dispute resulted after a monument to Joe MacManus and fellow volunteers Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde and Kieran Fleming was sited close to the place where Protestant workmen William Hassard and Frederick Love were killed by the IRA in 1988.[13][14][15]
A Sinn Féin spokesman stated that "The families of Ciaran Fleming, Joseph McManus and Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde, the three IRA men commemorated by the monument, had given the go-ahead for the structure to be moved".[16]
The Sligo West Ward Cumann of Sinn Féin is named the Joseph MacManus Cumann in honour of MacManus and there is an annual lecture given in his name which has been addressed by Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Pat Doherty, Pearse Doherty, Aengus O Snodaigh and Gerry Adams in recent years.[17][18][19]