RAIDS IN ULSTER

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 15

RAIDS IN ULSTER

8.8. C. Station Blown Up

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) BELFAST, December 12.

Raiders, believed to be Irish nationalists-, attacked an Army barracks at Armagh and blew up a 8.8. C. relay transmitter in Londonderry in an outbreak of simultaneous attacks at several points in Northen Ireland this morning. The whole Ulster Police Force, including the special mobilised constabulary, guard the roads. One constable was wounded and four raiders were arrested. At Londonderry, three miles over the border, an explosion blew-the roof off the radio station building and badly damaged the station control room which was unmanned at the time of the attack.

At street corners in the vicinity of the radio station, police were posted with revolvers and rifles. Special guards were mounted at all service depots in the area. The head of the Northern Ireland Police (Sir Richard Pirn) this morning said that an unexploded bomb was believed to be still lying at or near the barracks of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. . , . In Eniskillen, a Territorial Army centre was blown up. A police hut was blown up at Newry, and a bridge was blown up at Innismore. At Tor Head there was a clash between police and armed raiders and two arrests were made. Other incidents were reported at Castleberg, Strabane and Omagh, all in County Tyrone. An officer at the Armagh police headquarters said that when the sentry at the barracks, 10 miles from the border, was fired on he returned the fire and the attackers withdrew. The attackers’ numbers are unknown. Inside the town itself a police constable was' attacked and wounded by sub-machine gun fire. A special police sergeant, who was also fired on, made two arrests. The Armagh barracks was raided by the Irish Republican Army about two and a half years ago. The raiders escaped with 300 weapons and ammunition.