| Seamus Twomey | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 5, 1919 Belfast, Ireland |
| Died | September 12, 1989 (aged 69) Dublin, Ireland |
| Allegiance | Irish Republican Army |
| Service/branch | Irish Republican Army Provisional IRA |
| Rank | Chief of Staff |
| Battles/wars | The Troubles |
Seamus Twomey (5 November 1919 – 12 September 1989[1]) was an Irish republican and twice chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.
Contents |
Born in Belfast, Twomey lived at 6 Sevastopol Street in the Falls district. Known as “Thumper” owing to his short temper and habit of banging his fist on tables, he received little education and was a bookmaker's (bookie's) 'runner'.
He began his involvement with the Irish Republican Army in the 1930s and was interned in Northern Ireland during the 1940s. He opposed the leftwing shift of Cathal Goulding in the 1960s, and in 1968, helped set up the breakaway Andersonstown Republican Club (later the Roddy McCorley Society).
In 1969, he was prominent in the establishment of the Provisional IRA. By 1972, he was Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade when it launched its bomb blitz of the city, including Bloody Friday when nine people died. During the 1970s, the leadership of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA was largely in the hands of Twomey, Ivor Bell and Gerry Adams.
In March 1973, Twomey was first appointed IRA chief of staff after the arrest of Joe Cahill. He remained in this position until his arrest in October 1973 by the Garda Síochána. Three weeks later, on 31 October 1973, the IRA organised the helicopter escape of Twomey and his fellow IRA members J.B. O'Hagan and Kevin Mallon, when a team hijacked and forced the pilot at gun-point to land the helicopter in the training yard of Mountjoy Prison.[2] After his escape, he returned to his membership of IRA's Army Council.
By June/July 1974, Twomey was IRA chief of staff for a second time. He took part in the Feakle talks between the IRA and Protestant clergymen in December 1974. In the IRA truce which followed in 1975, Twomey was largely unsupportive and wanted to fight on in what he saw as “one big push to finish it once and for all”.[3]
IRA informer Sean O'Callaghan claims that on 5 January 1976, Twomey and Brian Keenan gave the go-ahead for the Kingsmill massacre, when 10 Protestant workmen were killed by the Provisional IRA in retaliation for the earlier loyalist killings of five Catholics in the same area. It was Keenan's view, O'Callaghan claims, that “The only way to knock the nonsense out of the Prods is to be 10 times more savage”.[4]
Twomey was dedicated to armed struggle as a means of unifying Ireland. In an interview with French television on 11 July 1977, he declared that although the IRA had fought for seven years, it could fight on for another 70 against the British in Northern Ireland as well as Britain.[5]
In December 1977, he was captured in Sandycove, Dublin by the Garda Síochána, who had been tipped-off by Belgian police about a concealed arms shipment, to be delivered to a bogus company with an address in the area. They swooped on a house in Martello Terrace to discover Twomey outside in his car, wearing his trademark dark shades. After a high-speed pursuit, he was recaptured in the centre of Dublin. The Gardaí later found documents in his possession outlining proposals for the structural reorganisation of the IRA according to the cell system. Twomey's arrest ended his tenure as IRA chief of staff.
In the 1986 IRA split over abstentionism, Twomey sided with the Adams leadership and remained with the Provisionals.
After a long illness, Twomey died in Dublin in 1989 but was buried in the family plot in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. His funeral was attended by about 2,000 people. As Twomey is listed on the IRA’s roll of honour under the category GHQ staff, this suggests that he was a member of the IRA’s leadership until his death.