Fergal Caraher (12 April 1970 – 30 December 1990) was a

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish re ...

volunteer and

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

member who was killed by a group of

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious warfare, amphibious light infantry and also one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighti ...

at a checkpoint in

Cullyhanna Cullyhanna () is a small village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The village extends further over the townlands of Tullynavall and Freeduff. It had a population of 306 in the 2001 Census. It is within the Newry and Mourne Distri ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

.''Tírghrá'', National Commemoration Centre, 2002. PB. p.321

Background

Fergal Caraher was born in

to a

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

family. He was a member of both the

and

. On 30 December 1990, he was killed by

near a checkpoint in

. His brother, Michael Caraher, who was severely wounded in the shooting, later became the shooter of one of the South Armagh sniper squads, which killed seven British soldiers and two

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Roya ...

members. Michael Caraher was imprisoned in 1997, but released in 2000 under the prisoner release terms of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

. In 1996, Fergal Caraher's sister,

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

, was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in Newry and Armagh, but she did not stand in the subsequent

1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 25 June 1998. This was the first election to the new devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. Six members from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary consti ...

. She is currently the principal of Bunscoil an Iúir, an

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

school in

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Armagh, Armagh and County Down, Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry ...

Murder trial

In 1993, two Royal Marines were charged with Caraher's murder. Both men, Lance Corporal Richard Elkington, 23, and Private Andrew Callaghan, 21, from

45 Commando 45 Commando Royal Marines (pronounced "four-five commando") is a battalion sized unit of the British Royal Marines and subordinate unit within 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, the principal Commando formation, under the Operational Command of the ...

RM, denied the charges and were acquitted. Crown prosecutors stated that Elkington smashed the driver's window with his rifle and opened fire on the car, ordering Callaghan to do likewise as the brothers attempted to drive from a pub car park. They also stated that the investigation into the shooting had been hampered as other soldiers on scene had collected spent bullet cases instead of preserving the scene for

(RUC) police officers and claimed that there was no lawful justification for firing on the car. Elkington told police he had fired nine aimed shots at the driver, believing that a third Marine was being carried away by the brothers on the bonnet of their car. Callaghan stated that he fired 12 shots at the car because he feared for the life of the third Marine, whom he could not see. Fergal Caraher is one of 24 Provisional IRA volunteers remembered at the South Armagh Memorial Garden in

Mullaghbawn Mullaghbawn ( or ; ), or Mullaghbane, is a small village and townland near Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 596. History A barracks was built near Mullaghbawn in 1689 and was known ...

, near

Slieve Gullion Slieve Gullion ( or ''Sliabh Cuilinn'', " Culann's mountain") is a mountain in the south of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The mountain is the heart of the Ring of Gullion and is the highest point in the county, with an elevation of . At t ...

mountain.

References

Bibliography

* Geraghty, Tony: ''The Irish War''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. . * Harnden, Toby: ''Bandit Country:The IRA and South Armagh''. Coronet Books, 2000. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Caraher, Fergal 1970 births 1990 deaths Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland Irish republicans People from County Armagh People killed by security forces during The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Provisional Irish Republican Army members History of the Royal Marines Military history of County Armagh

Background

Murder trial

See also

References

Bibliography