I.R.A. bombs Judge’s home

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 10

I.R.A. bombs Judge’s home

NZPA-AP Belfast The Irish Republican Army yesterday claimed responsibility for bombing a judge’s home in retaliation for the killing of eight I.R.A. gunmen in a security force ambush. In London, newspapers said the Friday night ambush, the bloodiest blow to the outlawed I.R.A. in 18 years of conflict, was mounted by Britain’s crack Special Air Services unit acting on information from an informer.

The reports said the informer, who had penetrated deep within the 1.R.A., laid low for months but was reactivated after the I.R.A. assassination on April 25 of Northern Ireland’s second-ranking judge, Sir Maurice Gibson,

and his wife, Cecily. In Belfast, police said noting that broke out on Saturday night continued until the early hours of Sunday in the Roman Catholic slums and in Londonderry and three other city centres, police reported. The police said three people, including a 14-year-old girl hit by a police plastic bullet, were injured, in Belfast.

In the attack on the home of Judge John Curran, gunmen fired shots and hurled a bomb from a car, breaking windows in the house where a young people’s party was taking place, police said. No one was injured. The 1.R.A., in a telex to Belfast media, said its guerrillas attacked Judge

Curran, who was also in the house.

The police held for the second day four people arrested after a huge arms cache, including a Soviet-made RPG-7 rocket launcher, was seized in the Catholic west of the city, police reported. In London, Sunday newspapers said police had known weeks in advance of the I.R.A.’s plan to attack the police station in Loughgall, a village 50 kms west of Belfast, where the eight guerillas and a civilian were killed on Friday night.

Those slain included three top I.R.A. men — James Lynagh, aged 32, described by police sources as one of the most wanted terrorists in the province; the I.R.A.’s East Tyrone commander, Eugene Kelly, 25; and Patrick McKearney, aged 32, who escaped from a Belfast jail in 1983.

The other I.R.A. men shot dead were identified by police as Pat Kelly, aged 33; Declan Arthur, aged 21; Sean Donnelly, aged 21; Tony Gormley, aged 25; and Gerald O’Callaghan.

A motorist who accidentally drove into the crossfire was also killed and his brother critically injured, police said.