Ian Phoenix
Ian Phoenix was one of a number of senior RUC officers killed in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash. He was "based at headquarters, with responsibility for Special Branch supervisory and liaison duties."[1]
Phoenix was born in 1943 in Granville, Co Tyrone.[2]
Parachute Regiment
He joined the Parachute Regiment in 1961.[3] He took part in the Borneo campaign in 1966 and had some contact with the SAS at its Jungle School in Brunei.[4] Among the officers he served with was Peter Chiswell.
RUC
Phoenix joined the RUC in 1970.[5] During his training, Phoenix saved a colleague, Ronnie Flanagan from dismissal after a fistfight, by organising a group to send the other party to Coventry until he explained the circumstances to his superiors.[6]
He initally served in B Division in West Belfast.[7] Because of his army experience, Phoenix was given responsibility for liasing with the army, including his old unit, 3 Para under Peter Chiswell, which was in Belfast in 1971.[8] In May 1971, he was caught in a bomb attack which killed a Para colleague, Sergeant Mick Willetts.[9] he was transferred to North Belfast in 1973.[10] In 1975, he was posted as a training instructor in Carrickfergus.[11] Three years later he was posted to Tennent Street station on the Shankill Road for a year.[12]
Special Branch
Phoenix was posted to RUC Special Branch as a Detective Inspector in January 1979, and underwent training in covert operations in London and Harrogate, before deployment in April.[13] He became team leader in the E4A surveillance unit.[14]
In around November 1979, he was given responsibility for re-organising the whole E4A unit.[15]
His first operation was Operation HAWK, involving surveillance of the man believed to be the intelligence officer for the IRA's Belfast Brigade.[16] He was also involved in Operation MISTRAL, which uncovered an IRA informant inside the police.[17]
According to Statewatch, he was the head of the E1 Division within Special Branch at the time of his death in 1994.[18]
Notes
- ↑ Sally Weale and Owen Boycott, CHINOOK DISASTER: COUNTING THE COST OF THE SENIOR FIGURES IN BATTLE AGAINST TERRORISM, Guardian, 4 June 1994.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.13.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.20.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.30.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.51 .
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.56.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.60.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, pp.64-65.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.65 .
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.87.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.98.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.103.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.108.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.114.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.116.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.124.
- ↑ Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.126.
- ↑ Statewatch Bulletin, Vol 4, No 4, August 1994.
