A former British soldier has claimed that RUC Special Branch knew “everything” in advance about an IRA operation that resulted in four members being shot dead by the SAS.
The claim is made in Death in the Fields: The IRA and East Tyrone by Jonathan Trigg.
A graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Mr Trigg was posted to the north, Bosnia and the Gulf while serving with the Royal Anglican Regiment.
In his new book, he has claimed that an informer provided the RUC with information about a planned gun attack on an RUC station in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, in February 1992.
During the attack, an IRA unit used a Soviet made DShK heavy machine gun, fixed to a lorry, to rake the front of the RUC station with gunfire.
Four IRA members, Sean O’Farrell, Kevin Barry O’Donnell (21), Peter Clancy (21) and Patrick Vincent (20) were later killed in an ambush, believed by some to be a shoot to kill operation, at a church carpark at Clonoe, near Coalisland, as they made their escape.
While it has long been suspected an informer may have been involved in providing information, a former British soldier has also linked the ambush to the RUC in the new book.
“It was an informer,” he said.
“He warned the RUC Special Branch about the attack.
“The security forces knew all about it - they knew who was going to be involved, they knew about the lorry, they knew about the DShK – everything.”
It is claimed there was also knowledge about what part of the heavily fortified RUC station in Coalisland was going to be targeted.
“Crucially, the security forces also knew the front of the sanger was the main target,” the source claims.
“The policemen who would’ve normally been in the front sanger had been pulled out and were safe in the back of the base, but the PIRA boys couldn’t see that as the protective glass was tinted so they couldn’t see inside.”
The book also recalls inquest details of how one of those who died, Sean O’Farrell - a suspected IRA member - was a passenger in a car stopped on the outskirts of Coalisland by a military patrol on the night of the ambush.
In the book, a former sergeant with the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment explained how he was leading a patrol in the area when he received a message placing the area ‘out of bounds’.
After leaving the restricted zone, his patrol stopped a car containing Mr O’Farrell after he was spotted in the passenger seat.
He claims he contacted his ‘ops room’ “and asked what they wanted us to do”.
“I was instructed to search, log all details and send all information to the unit Int (intelligence cell)…Nothing was found during the search…the vehicle…. sped off towards Coalisland.”
Later that night Mr O’Farrell was shot dead.
Death in the Fields: The IRA and East Tyrone is published by Merrion Press.
