Thatcher Loyal
Well-Known Member
We have people in our midst who turn up every Saturday and sing songs about those who went into a church in Nothern Ireland and massacred Protestants.
Gunmen Fire Into Ulster Church; 3 Protestants Killed, 7 Wounded
By The Associated Press
Published: November 21, 1983
DARKLEY, Northern Ireland, Nov. 20— Two gunmen burst into a Protestant church here tonight and opened fire with automatic weapons on 60 worshipers, killing three and wounding seven, the police reported.
They said the attackers shot and killed three men standing in a doorway handing out Bibles and then fired into the congregation of men, women and children seated on folding chairs in Darkley's Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church.
Bloodstained Bibles were strewn across the floor of the single-story building as the gunmen fled, firing more shots at the horrified worshipers through the church's wooden walls.
Attack Seen as Retaliation
The police said the seven wounded people, including two married couples, were taken to nearby Craigavon Hospital where three were reported in serious condition.
The Press Association, the British domestic news agency, said local residents believed the attack was in retaliation for the Aug. 8 killing of a Roman Catholic, Adrian Carroll, 24 years old, who was shot in the head on the doorstep of his home in nearby Armagh. Mr. Carroll's brother, Roderick, an admitted member of the outlawed Irish National Liberation Army, was killed by security forces at a roadblock last year, the police said.
An extremist Protestant group calling itself the Protestant Action Force has said its members killed Mr. Carroll. Gunfire Interrupts Singing
A group calling itself the Catholic Reaction Force said it had been responsible for the attack on the Darkley church, but the police said they believed that name was a cover for the Irish National Liberation Army.
A policeman said some worshipers were singing hymns this evening as others were being welcomed on the porch.
"The sounds of gunfire suddenly rose over the singing," he said. "One man from the welcoming party ran into the hall, collapsed and died there on the floor. The two others died in the porchway."
Sgt. Cyril Davidson, a police spokesman in Belfast, said that the killers had fled in a car driven by an accomplice and that police forces on both sides of the Irish border had begun a search for them.
Darkley is in County Armagh, three miles north of the border with the Irish Republic.
Police officers searching the scene recovered about 30 spent cartridges.
In a statement sent to news organizations in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, the Catholic Reaction Force said it had carried out the attack. Police officials said they had never heard of the group and thought the assault had been carried out by members of the Irish Nationalist Liberation Army, a Marxist offshoot of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
"It had all the hallmarks of an I.N.L.A. attack," said Sgt. Jim McKenney of the Belfast police.
He said it was a "sectarian attack," adding that no one in the congregation was connected with Northern Ireland's security forces. I.R.A. Denies Involvement
In a statement to news organizations, the I.R.A. denied "any involvement in the blatantly sectarian shooting."
"There is clear distinction," it said, "between our discriminate attacks on British forces and tonight's shooting, which benefits only British propaganda and loyalist extremists."
Today's deaths brought to 2,330 the number of people known to have been killed in Northern Ireland's violence since 1969.
Gunmen Fire Into Ulster Church; 3 Protestants Killed, 7 Wounded
By The Associated Press
Published: November 21, 1983
DARKLEY, Northern Ireland, Nov. 20— Two gunmen burst into a Protestant church here tonight and opened fire with automatic weapons on 60 worshipers, killing three and wounding seven, the police reported.
They said the attackers shot and killed three men standing in a doorway handing out Bibles and then fired into the congregation of men, women and children seated on folding chairs in Darkley's Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church.
Bloodstained Bibles were strewn across the floor of the single-story building as the gunmen fled, firing more shots at the horrified worshipers through the church's wooden walls.
Attack Seen as Retaliation
The police said the seven wounded people, including two married couples, were taken to nearby Craigavon Hospital where three were reported in serious condition.
The Press Association, the British domestic news agency, said local residents believed the attack was in retaliation for the Aug. 8 killing of a Roman Catholic, Adrian Carroll, 24 years old, who was shot in the head on the doorstep of his home in nearby Armagh. Mr. Carroll's brother, Roderick, an admitted member of the outlawed Irish National Liberation Army, was killed by security forces at a roadblock last year, the police said.
An extremist Protestant group calling itself the Protestant Action Force has said its members killed Mr. Carroll. Gunfire Interrupts Singing
A group calling itself the Catholic Reaction Force said it had been responsible for the attack on the Darkley church, but the police said they believed that name was a cover for the Irish National Liberation Army.
A policeman said some worshipers were singing hymns this evening as others were being welcomed on the porch.
"The sounds of gunfire suddenly rose over the singing," he said. "One man from the welcoming party ran into the hall, collapsed and died there on the floor. The two others died in the porchway."
Sgt. Cyril Davidson, a police spokesman in Belfast, said that the killers had fled in a car driven by an accomplice and that police forces on both sides of the Irish border had begun a search for them.
Darkley is in County Armagh, three miles north of the border with the Irish Republic.
Police officers searching the scene recovered about 30 spent cartridges.
In a statement sent to news organizations in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, the Catholic Reaction Force said it had carried out the attack. Police officials said they had never heard of the group and thought the assault had been carried out by members of the Irish Nationalist Liberation Army, a Marxist offshoot of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.
"It had all the hallmarks of an I.N.L.A. attack," said Sgt. Jim McKenney of the Belfast police.
He said it was a "sectarian attack," adding that no one in the congregation was connected with Northern Ireland's security forces. I.R.A. Denies Involvement
In a statement to news organizations, the I.R.A. denied "any involvement in the blatantly sectarian shooting."
"There is clear distinction," it said, "between our discriminate attacks on British forces and tonight's shooting, which benefits only British propaganda and loyalist extremists."
Today's deaths brought to 2,330 the number of people known to have been killed in Northern Ireland's violence since 1969.
