1993 Fivemiletown ambush

Fivemiletown lays in the western edge of the Clogher Valley, near the border between County Fermanagh and County Tyrone.[1] No deaths directly related with paramilitary activity had occurred there before the 1993 IRA ambush,[2] though there were a number of incidents in the region in the previous months.

On 7 May 1992, members of the IRA South Fermanagh Brigade detonated a 1,000 pounds (450 kg) car bomb outside the local RUC part-time barracks. The huge explosion left ten civilians wounded, and caused widespread damage to the surrounding property. The security base itself was heavily damaged, and the blast was heard from 30 miles away.[3][4]

A secondary incident took place on 9 May, when a British soldier killed his company's sergeant major in a blue-on-blue shooting at the same place, while taking part of a security detail around the wrecked facilities.[5][6][7]

On 20 January 1993 the nearby RUC base in Clogher was hit and severely damaged by a Mark-15 “barrack-buster” mortar launched by the IRA, in the operational area of the East Tyrone Brigade. A number of constables received minor injuries.[8][9]

Constable Andrew Beacom and Reserve Constable Ernest Smith were patrolling Fivemiletown's Main Street on a civilian-type, unmarked Renault 21 on the early hours of 12 December 1993.[10] Both men were part of the RUC Operational Support Unit, which surveilled the border with the British Army.[11] The constables were based at Clogher RUC barracks.[10]

At 1:30 am, up to the junction of Main Street and Coneen Street, at least two IRA members opened fire from both sides of the road with automatic weapons, hitting the vehicle with more than 20 rounds. Beacom and Smith died on the spot.[10] Constable Beacom lived in Fivemiletown, just a hundred metres from the site of the ambush, where his wife owned a restaurant. She was one of the first persons to arrive to the scene of the shooting.[12] Smith resided with his family at Augher.[10]

According to a colleague in the Operational Support Unit, himself a reserve constable deployed at Linaskea and a former UDR soldier, their deaths “hit the unit very hard”. The men were appreciated for their in-depth knowledge of the area.[11]

A “major” follow up security operation was mounted between Fivemiletown and the border with the Republic of Ireland,[10] supported by airborne troops and RUC reinforcements, in an attempt to block the attackers getaway.[13]

Approximately an hour after the ambush, an Army Air Corps Lynx helicopter came upon a number of IRA volunteers in the searching area, just a few miles from the site of the shooting, but the aircraft became the target of automatic rifle fire and was forced to disengage.[14][15] The assailants broke contact successfully.[15] A number of people was arrested and questioned about the killings,[13] but the perpetrators managed to slip away.[15]

The shootings were widely condemned. RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley said that “At a time when the whole community is looking toward peace, the Provisional IRA has yet again shown they have absolutely nothing to offer but deaths and suffering. ”[10]

Presbyterian Moderator Rev. Andrew Rodgers called on the governments to break any contact with Sinn Féin and other “men of blood in both sections of the community.”[10]

A former IRA member cited instead the answer of an IRA volunteer in the area when questioned by him about the futility of the actions at Fivemiletown. He replied that “The war must go on”.[16]

The ambush and killing of the two constables at Fivemiletown was mentioned by Member of Parliament Ken Maginnis and Prime Minister John Major during the latter's speech to the House of Commons right after the joint Downing Street Declaration with Albert Reynolds, the Irish Taoiseach, that set the basis of the Northern Ireland peace process, on 15 December 1993, just three days after the attack.[17]

• Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1990–99)
• List of Irish republican ambushes
• List of attacks on British aircraft during The Troubles