The helicopter was forced to abort the landing and return to base. Individual members of the brigade were also involved in the.

GAA Central Council official reply was that “The GAA has strict protocols and rules in place regarding the use of property for Political purposes.”  “The Association is committed to a shared future based on tolerance for the different identities and cultural backgrounds of people who share this Community and this island.” [15], The SAS ambush had no noticeable long-term effect on the level of IRA activity in East Tyrone. See this British Commons account about the NI violence for the first month of 1990: See the 12 May and 17 May entries at the 1992 CAIN chronology: UTV News Report: In Pomeroy an IRA horizontal mortar hit an RUC car but failed to explode. On the evening of 26 March 1997, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) East Tyrone Brigade launched an improvised grenade attack on the fortified Royal Ulster Constabulary/British Army base in Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. His assassination was the first IRA attack since the Government replied on Thursday to Sinn Féin's 20 questions about the Downing Street Declaration.

The main target, Brian Arthurs, escaped injury. [58][59] According to a 2002 interview to local DUP politician Maurice Morrow, the security base had not been rebuilt by that time. Both Lost Lives and the Sutton Index of Deaths (at CAIN) list him as a civilian. The SAS unit was then surrounded by a crowd of protesters who prevented them approaching Doris or leaving. [15], Helicopter downed by the Provisional IRA over Northern Ireland, British Army personnel inspecting the Gazelle's wreckage, Asia-Pacific defence reporter, Volumen 17, p. 67. [4] The Gazelle was eventually written off. Three IRA members drove a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the base's perimeter fence, while the rest of …

Of these, most were Catholics civilians with no paramilitary connections but six were Provisional Irish Republican Army members. 26 March 1997: A grenade was thrown by IRA volunteers to the Army/RUC base at Coalisland. In 1985 and 1986, the East Tyrone Brigade carried out two attacks on RUC bases in their operational area, described by author Mark Urban as "spectaculars". [14], In December 2011, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)'s Historical Enquiries Team found that not only did the IRA team fire first but that they could not have been safely arrested. The four, Peter Clancy, Kevin Barry O'Donnell, Sean O'Farrell and Patrick Vincent, were killed at Clonoe after an attack on the RUC station in Coalisland.