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Daniel McCann (politician)
Daniel McCann (30 November 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who was shot dead by the British Army on 6 March 1988 whilst being accused of attempting to plant a car bomb in Gibraltar. Early life McCann was born into an Irish republican family from the Clonard area of West Belfast. He was educated at primary level at St Gall's Primary School, Belfast, and at St Mary's Grammar School, Belfast. McCann did not finish his education as he was arrested after becoming involved in rioting. He was charged and convicted of "riotous behaviour" and sentenced to six months in prison. Later that year McCann joined the Provisional IRA. He was later convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for the possession of explosives. Paramilitary activity In 1987 McCann along with another IRA member, Sean Savage, murdered two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers at Belfast docks. In 1988 McCann and Savage, along with Mairead Farrell, another I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clonard, Belfast
Lower Falls was one of the nine district electoral areas which existed in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 1985 to 2014. Located in the west of the city, the district elected five members to Belfast City Council and contained the wards of Beechmount; Clonard; Falls; Upper Springfield; and Whiterock. Lower Falls formed part of the Belfast West constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly and UK Parliament. The district, along with the neighbouring Upper Falls district took its name from the Falls Road, one of the main arterial routes in the west of the city. History Lower Falls was created for the 1985 local elections. The Falls and Clonard wards had previously been in Area F, with the remaining wards part of Area D. It was abolished for the 2014 local elections. The Falls and Clonard wards joined the Court District Electoral Area, while the remaining wards became part of a new Black Mountain District Electoral Area. Wards Councillors 2011 Elections See also *Belfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action and covert reconnaissance. Much of the information about the SAS is highly classified, and the unit is not commented on by either the British government or the Ministry of Defence due to the secrecy and sensitivity of its operations. The corps currently consists of the 22 Special Air Service Regiment, the regular component, as well as the 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve) and the 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve), which are reserve units, all under the operational command of United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF). Its sister unit is the Royal Navy's Special Boat Service which specialises in maritime counter-terrorism. Both units are under the operational control of the Dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1957 Births
1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1950s decade. Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be dismissed for having ''handled the ball'', in Test cricket. * January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns. * January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. * January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar. * January 14 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher), after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars. * January 15 – The film '' Throne of Blood'', Akira Kurosawa's reworking of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he followed the policy of abstentionism as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency. Adams first became involved in Irish republicanism in the late 1960s, and had been an established figure in Irish activism for more than a decade before his 1983 election to Parliament. In 1984, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by several gunmen from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), including John Gregg. From the late 1980s onwards, he was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, entering into talks initially with Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and then subsequently with the Irish and British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary Film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception hat remainsa practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called "actuality films", lasted one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length, and to include more categories. Some examples are educational, observational and docufiction. Documentaries are very informative, and are often used within schools as a resource to teach various principles. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social-media platforms (such as YouTube) have provided an avenue for the growth of the documentary- film gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mairéad Farrell
Mairéad Farrell ( ga, Máiréad Ní Fhearghail or ''Mairéad Ní Fhearail'') (3 March 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). She was shot dead by the British Army in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988.Pg 300, ''Tírghrá'', National Commemoration Centre, 2002. PB) Early life Farrell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland to a middle-class family with no link to militant Irish republicanism other than a grandfather who had been interned during the Irish War for Independence. She grew up in West Belfast and was educated at Rathmore Convent School, Belfast. At the age of 14 she was recruited into the Provisional IRA by Bobby Storey. After leaving school at the age of 18, she was hired as a clerical worker for an insurance broker's office. First term of IRA activity, 1975–1976 On 1 March 1976, the British government revoked Special Category Status for prisoners convicted from this date under anti-terrorism legislation. In response, the IR ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handgun
A handgun is a short-barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced against the shoulder to be used properly. The two most common types of handguns in modern times are revolvers and semi-automatic pistols, although other types such as derringers and machine pistols also see infrequent usage. Before commercial mass production, handguns were often considered a badge of office, comparable to a ceremonial sword. As they had limited utility and were more expensive than the long guns of the era, the few who could only afford to purchase them carried these handguns. However, in 1836, Samuel Colt patented the Colt Paterson, the first practical mass-produced revolver, which was capable of firing five shots in rapid succession and very quickly became a popular defensive weapon, giving rise to the saying, "God crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Stone (loyalist)
Michael Stone (born 2 April 1955) is a British ex-member of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, convicted of three counts of murder committed at an IRA funeral in 1988. In 2000 he was released from prison on licence under the Good Friday Agreement. In November 2006, Stone was charged with attempted murder of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, having been arrested attempting to enter the parliament buildings at Stormont while armed. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced in 2008 to a further 16 years' imprisonment, before being released on parole in 2021. Early life Stone was born in Harborne, Birmingham, to English parents Cyril Alfred Stone and his wife Mary Bridget (née O'Sullivan). Mary Bridget walked out on the marriage soon after Stone's birth and Cyril Alfred enlisted in the Merchant Navy, leaving the infant Michael in the care of John Gregg and his wife Margaret (Cyril's sister) who lived in Ballyhalbert. Stone has c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milltown Cemetery Attack
The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Cemetery killings or Milltown massacre) took place on 16 March 1988 at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the large funeral of three Provisional IRA members killed in Gibraltar, an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member, Michael Stone, attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistols. He had learned there would be no police or armed IRA members at the cemetery. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd chased him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of the crowd caught Stone and beat him, but he was rescued by the police and arrested. Three people had been killed and more than 60 wounded. The "unprecedented, one-man attack"McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''. Mainstream Publishing, 1999. p. 1117. was filmed by television news crews and caused shock around the world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand-grenade
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, and a safety lever secured by a cotter pin. The user removes the safety pin before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the safety lever gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze (sometimes called the delay element), which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge. Grenades work by dispersing fragments (fragmentation grenades), shockwaves (high-explosive, anti-tank and stun grenades), chemical aerosols (smoke and gas grenades) or fire (incendiary grenades). Fragmentation grenades ("frags") are probably the most common in modern armies, and when the word ''grenade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " irregular war" or " low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe. The conflict was primarily political and nationalistic, fuelled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension but despite use of the terms 'Protestant' and 'Catholic' to refer to the two sides, it was not a religious conflict. A key issue was the status of Northern Ireland. Unionists and loyalists, who for historical reasons were mostly Ulster Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the Unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoot-to-kill Policy In Northern Ireland
During the period known as The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969–1998), the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were accused by Republicans of operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy, under which suspected paramilitaries were alleged to have been deliberately killed without any attempt to arrest them. Such a policy was alleged to have been directed almost exclusively at suspected or actual members of Irish republican paramilitary groups. The Special Air Service (SAS) is the most high-profile of the agencies that were accused of employing this policy, as well as other British Army regiments, and the RUC. Notable incidents alleging the use of the shoot-to-kill policy include the Loughgall ambush; Operation Flavius in Gibraltar; the Drumnakilly ambush; the Coagh ambush; the Clonoe ambush; and an incident in Strabane in which three IRA volunteers were shot dead. The SAS killed 24 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) members a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
