On this Date - August 27th
August 27th - 1798 - 2000 United Irish and French forces, led by General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, routed 6000 better-armed British soldiers at the Battle of Castlebar. 1971 - Innocent civilian Joseph Corr died 16 days after being shot by British soldiers at the junction of Springfield Road and Divismore Cresent, Ballymurphy, Belfast. 1976 - Joesph Dempsey, Jeanette Dempsey and 10-month-old Brigeen Dempsey were all killed in a loyalist petrol bomb attack on their home in New Lodge, Belfast. 1978 - 10,000 people took part in a march from Coalisland to Dungannon, Co Tyrone to commemorate the momentous civil rights march which had taken place 10 years earlier. 1979 - 18 British soldiers were killed in an IRA attack at Warrenpoint, County Down. This represented the British Army's greatest loss of life in a single attack in the Occupied Six Counties. The attack began when the IRA exploded a 500 pound bomb at Narrow Water, near Warrenpoint, as an army convoy was passing. Six members of the Parachute Regiment were killed in this initial bomb. As other troops moved into the area a second bomb was detonated in a nearby Gate Lodge killing 12 soldiers - 10 members of the Parachute Regiment and 2 members of the Queen's Own Highlanders (one of whom was the Commanding Officer). The explosion also damaged a British army helicopter. A gun battle then broke out between the IRA, who were positioned across the border in the 26 Counties, and British Army soldiers in the Six Counties. An innocent civilian was killed on the 26 County side of the border by British soldiers firing from the north. Earlier in the day, Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the English queen, was killed by a bomb planted by the IRA on a boat near Sligo in the 26 Counties, as were his wife, a grandson, and a member of the boat's crew. During the Second World War Mountbatten had been supreme commander of allied forces in southeast Asia. He had also been the last British Viceroy of India. The deaths on 27 August 1978 were followed by a series of sectarian killings of Catholic civilians by loyalist paramilitaries. 1988 - Robert Russell was 'extradited' from the 26 Counties to the Six Counties. Russell was amongst those POWs who had escaped from Long Kesh Prison on 25 September 1983. 1995 - A man was admitted to Tyrone County Hospital with broken ribs and kidney damage following a vicious assault by loyalists at the weekend. His son was also admitted after being struck in the chest by a plastic bullet fired by a member of the British Crown Forces (RUC). 1996 - The homes of two nationalist families in Derry were attacked by petrol-bombers. An RUC member, David Frederick Gamble (49) who gave his address as Strand Road RUC barracks was charged at Derry Crown Court with a number of counts of theft and possession of arms. 2000 - A former member of British military intelligence revealed that weapons used by loyalist gangs who rampaged through Belfast's Shankill district the previous week were provided by British intelligence as part of a plan to defeat the IRA. 2003 - Visits were stopped in Maghaberry prison with claims by the regime that they were carrying out searches for a gun.
August 27th - 1798 - 2000 United Irish and French forces, led by General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, routed 6000 better-armed British soldiers at the Battle of Castlebar. 1971 - Innocent civilian Joseph Corr died 16 days after being shot by British soldiers at the junction of Springfield Road and Divismore Cresent, Ballymurphy, Belfast. 1976 - Joesph Dempsey, Jeanette Dempsey and 10-month-old Brigeen Dempsey were all killed in a loyalist petrol bomb attack on their home in New Lodge, Belfast. 1978 - 10,000 people took part in a march from Coalisland to Dungannon, Co Tyrone to commemorate the momentous civil rights march which had taken place 10 years earlier. 1979 - 18 British soldiers were killed in an IRA attack at Warrenpoint, County Down. This represented the British Army's greatest loss of life in a single attack in the Occupied Six Counties. The attack began when the IRA exploded a 500 pound bomb at Narrow Water, near Warrenpoint, as an army convoy was passing. Six members of the Parachute Regiment were killed in this initial bomb. As other troops moved into the area a second bomb was detonated in a nearby Gate Lodge killing 12 soldiers - 10 members of the Parachute Regiment and 2 members of the Queen's Own Highlanders (one of whom was the Commanding Officer). The explosion also damaged a British army helicopter. A gun battle then broke out between the IRA, who were positioned across the border in the 26 Counties, and British Army soldiers in the Six Counties. An innocent civilian was killed on the 26 County side of the border by British soldiers firing from the north. Earlier in the day, Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the English queen, was killed by a bomb planted by the IRA on a boat near Sligo in the 26 Counties, as were his wife, a grandson, and a member of the boat's crew. During the Second World War Mountbatten had been supreme commander of allied forces in southeast Asia. He had also been the last British Viceroy of India. The deaths on 27 August 1978 were followed by a series of sectarian killings of Catholic civilians by loyalist paramilitaries. 1988 - Robert Russell was 'extradited' from the 26 Counties to the Six Counties. Russell was amongst those POWs who had escaped from Long Kesh Prison on 25 September 1983. 1995 - A man was admitted to Tyrone County Hospital with broken ribs and kidney damage following a vicious assault by loyalists at the weekend. His son was also admitted after being struck in the chest by a plastic bullet fired by a member of the British Crown Forces (RUC). 1996 - The homes of two nationalist families in Derry were attacked by petrol-bombers. An RUC member, David Frederick Gamble (49) who gave his address as Strand Road RUC barracks was charged at Derry Crown Court with a number of counts of theft and possession of arms. 2000 - A former member of British military intelligence revealed that weapons used by loyalist gangs who rampaged through Belfast's Shankill district the previous week were provided by British intelligence as part of a plan to defeat the IRA. 2003 - Visits were stopped in Maghaberry prison with claims by the regime that they were carrying out searches for a gun.