Pitchfork murders
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Assassinations in Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe
- 1970s
- John Barnhill killed by OIRA
- Tommy Herron killed by UDA/UFF
- Joe McCann killed by British Army
- Michael Naan and Andrew Murray killed by British Army
- Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews killed by UDA/UFF
- Ann Ogilby killed by UDA/UFF
- Billy Hanna killed by UVF
- Jim Hanna killed by UVF
- Billy Fox killed by UDA/UFF
- Billy McMillen killed by INLA
- Thomas Niedermayer killed by PIRA
- Martin McBirney killed by PIRA
- William J. Staunton killed by PIRA
- Ross McWhirter killed by PIRA
- Robert McConnell killed by PIRA
- Majella O'Hare killed by British Army
- Máire Drumm killed by UVF
- Christopher Ewart-Biggs killed by PIRA
- Seamus Ludlow killed by RHC
- John Francis Green killed by UVF
- Robert Nairac killed by PIRA
- Seamus Costello killed by OIRA
- Jeffery Agate killed by PIRA
- Richard Sykes killed by PIRA
- Airey Neave killed by INLA
- Louis Mountbatten killed by PIRA
- 1980s
- Miriam Daly killed by UDA/UFF
- Ronnie Bunting killed by UDA/UFF
- James Stronge killed by PIRA
- Norman Stronge killed by PIRA
- William McCullough killed by INLA
- John McKeague killed by INLA
- Lenny Murphy killed by PIRA
- Robert Bradford killed by PIRA
- George Seawright killed by IPLO
- Edgar Graham killed by PIRA
- Anthony Berry killed by PIRA
- John Bingham killed by PIRA
- Larry Marley killed by UVF
- Ta Power killed by IPLO
- Gerard Steenson killed by INLA
- Maurice Gibson killed by PIRA
- Robert Seymour killed by PIRA
- John McMichael killed by PIRA
- William "Frenchie" Marchant killed by PIRA
- Aidan McAnespie killed by British Army
- James Craig killed by UDA/UFF
- Pat Finucane killed by UDA/UFF
- 1990s
- Ian Gow killed by PIRA
- Fergal Caraher killed by Royal Marines
- Eddie Fullerton killed by UDA/UFF
- Martin O'Prey killed by UVF
- Pearse Jordan killed by RUC
- Sammy Ward killed by PIRA
- Trevor King killed by INLA
- Ray Smallwoods killed by PIRA
- Joe Bratty killed by PIRA
- Raymond Elder killed by PIRA
- Gino Gallagher killed by INLA-GHQ
- Hugh Torney killed by INLA
- John Hemsworth killed by RUC
- Billy Wright killed by INLA
- Rosemary Nelson killed by LVF
- acronyms
- Republicans
INLA = Irish National Liberation Army
IPLO = Irish People's Liberation Organisation
OIRA = Official Irish Republican Army
PIRA = Provisional Irish Republican Army
- Loyalists
LVF = Loyalist Volunteer Force
RHC = Red Hand Commando
UDA/UFF = Ulster Defence Association / Ulster Freedom Fighters
UVF = Ulster Volunteer Force
- Security Forces
RUC = Royal Ulster Constabulary
see also: The Troubles in Ireland See also: The Troubles in Britain and Europe
The killing of Michael Naan and Andrew Murray, better known as the Pitchfork murders, was the killing of two Catholic civilians in October 1972, by two British Army soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Stabbing
On 23 October 1972 at around 4:20 p.m., two soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Sgt. Stanley Hathaway and Cpl. John Byrne, attacked farmer and civil rights activist Michael Naan (31) and laborer Andrew Joseph Murray (24) with a Bowie knife, while they were lifting hay off a trailer at Naan’s farm in Aughnahinch, County Fermanagh.[1][2][3][4]
Murray was stabbed 13 times in the chest and Naan was stabbed at least 17 times and his throat slashed.[3]
Hathaway and Byrne claimed they attacked Naan and Murray because they believed they were members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Although it is possible they targeted Naan because he was a prominent member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association; the killings could have also been in reprisal for the murder of Pvt. John Robert “Robin” Bell (21), a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment who was ambushed by the IRA a day earlier at his family’s farm in nearby Derrydoon.[5][6][7]
References
- ^ "The Pitchfork murders: Fifty years of unanswered questions". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
- ^ Burke, Edward, ed. (2018), "Murder: The Killing of Michael Naan and Andrew Murray", An Army of Tribes: British Army Cohesion, Deviancy and Murder in Northern Ireland, Liverpool University Press, pp. 227–332, ISBN 978-1-78694-097-1, retrieved 2023-11-27
- ^ a b "Pitchfork Murders: cover-up by British Army exposed". www.anphoblacht.com. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
- ^ "h300_andy.htm". www.tinneny.net. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
- ^ "Three killings which left a Border community reeling". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
- ^ "Nann and Murray murders in Fermanagh still 'raw' 50 years on". NorthernSound. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
- ^ "Brother recalls deadly IRA ambush as they arrived home". Impartial Reporter. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2023-11-30.