The Troubles in Garvagh

The Troubles in Garvagh recounts incidents during, and the effects of, The Troubles in Garvagh, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

The Troubles claimed the lives of five people in Garvagh. All were Protestant and all were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. One was a corporal in the UDR, John Conley (43), killed by a car bomb on 23 July 1974. One was an off-duty RUC constable, Norman Annett (56), shot dead on 1 July 1989. The first civilian casualty was Arthur McGraw (29), shot dead at his home on the Moneycarrie Road on 10 August 1979. (Another Protestant civilian, Winston McCaughey, was shot dead in Boveedy (three miles east of Garvagh, but closer to Kilrea) on 11 November 1976.)

On 20 April 1994, Alan Smith (40) and John McCloy (28) were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army while sitting in a stationary car on Main Street, Garvagh. A third occupant of the vehicle was also injured in the attack. Both were civilians; Smith was a former member of the UDR, and had survived a previous attempt on his life when a bomb exploded under his van. The IRA claimed the men were members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), but this was denied by their families, by security sources and by the UDA. RUC sources indicated the shootings may have been a case of mistaken identity.

In May 1994, at a special court in Coleraine, Patrick Kelly (29) and Liam Averill (29), both of Maghera, County Londonderry, were accused of murdering Smith and McCloy and of the attempted murder of the third occupant of the vehicle. They were remanded in custody to appear at a court in Belfast in May 1994. Averill was sentenced to life imprisonment shortly before the IRA announced its 1994 ceasefire. However, in 1997 he escaped from jail and was later reported to be living in Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.