Pádraig McKearney

Pádraig Oliver McKearney (December 1954 – 8 May 1987) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer. He was killed in a Special Air Service (SAS) ambush with seven other IRA volunteers at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987.

Pádraig McKearney was raised in Moy, County Tyrone, in a staunchly Irish republican family. Both his grandfathers had fought in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence, his maternal grandfather in south County Roscommon and his paternal grandfather in east County Tyrone. He was educated at local Catholic schools in Collegeland and Moy, and went on to St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon. However, his education was interrupted by the outbreak of "The Troubles".

He joined the Provisional IRA and left school after he was first arrested in 1972 on charges of blowing up the post office in Moy. He spent six weeks on remand, but was released due to insufficient evidence being assembled. In December 1973, he was arrested again and later sentenced to seven years for possession of a rifle. He was imprisoned in Long Kesh and later in Magilligan prison. During this period of incarceration his younger brother Seán, also an IRA volunteer, was killed on active service on 13 May 1974. He was released in 1977 but was sentenced to 14 years in August 1980 after being caught by the Special Air Service with a loaded sten gun along with fellow IRA volunteer Gerard O'Callaghan. That same year his older brother Tommy, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, nearly died on hunger strike after refusing food for 53 days. Another brother, Kevin, a civilian, and an uncle, Jack McKearney, were both shot dead by loyalists.

On 25 September 1983, McKearney took part in the Maze Prison escape along with 37 other prisoners. At the beginning of 1984 he returned on active service in his native east Tyrone with the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade. He advocated the commencement of the "third phase" of the armed struggle, the 'strategic defensive', in which the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Ulster Defence Regiment and British Army would be denied all support in selected areas following repeated attacks on their bases.1 His views were very close to those of Jim Lynagh, an IRA commander from County Monaghan, who devised a Maoist guerrilla strategy adapted to Irish conditions with the intent of creating liberated zones.

In 1985 Patrick Kelly became commander of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade and it was under his leadership that this strategy started becoming reality. Remote Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) bases were attacked and destroyed and building contractors who tried to repair them were targeted and sometimes killed. Prime examples of this policy were the destructions of Ballygawley RUC barracks in December 1985, which killed two policemen, and The Birches RUC barracks in August 1986.

McKearney was a key architect in many of these attacks and he soon became one of the most experienced guerrilla fighters in the IRA. He was killed in an ambush by the SAS on 8 May 1987 during an attack on Loughgall RUC barracks which also claimed the lives of seven other PIRA volunteers: Jim Lynagh, Patrick Kelly, Declan Arthurs, Seamus Donnelly, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, and Gerard O'Callaghan. He was buried in his hometown of Moy, thirteen years to the day after his brother Seán was killed on IRA active service.