Mortar attack on Enniskillen barracks

On 4 September 1985, the Provisional IRA fired mortar bombs at a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Nobody was killed, but 30 people were injured. The base, which was mainly used to train new recruits, was very badly damaged.[1] It was one of many IRA mortar attacks on British Army and RUC bases in the 1980s.

Enniskillen mortar attack
Part of the Troubles
LocationEnniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Coordinates54°20′39″N 7°38′3″W
Date4 September 1985
07:50 am (GMT)
Attack type
Lob bomb, Mortar attack
Deaths0
Injured30
PerpetratorProvisional IRA

Attack

The IRA hoped to repeat the success they had earlier in the year when Newry RUC station was attacked with mortars and nine RUC officers were killed.[2]

Volunteers from the IRA's south Fermanagh brigade hijacked a lorry and fitted it with a baseplate and improvised mortar tubes. They parked the lorry on waste ground outside a pub about 300 yards away from the RUC base.

At around 07:50am, the IRA unit launched the mortars at the base, three mortars hit the main building, badly damaging it, and one hit a car park beside the building, where the recruits usually sleep, damaging a watch tower. The IRA's intelligence was faulty; they believed the recruits would be sleeping at the time of the attack but were instead having breakfast in another part of the base.[3]

Aftermath

An RUC spokesman said "It is absolutely incredible that no one was seriously hurt or killed". There was 150 people in the base at the time[4]

See also

References
  1. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1985". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  2. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1985". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  3. Bishop, Patrick; Mallie, Eamonn (1987). The Provisional IRA. Corgi Books. pp. 420–421. ISBN 0-552-13337-X.
  4. "IRA MORTAR BOMBS HIT POLICE TRAINING CENTER - Chicago Tribune". webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
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