State Violence and Collusion Timeline 1973
Events related to state violence and collusion in Northern Ireland in 1973.
January
- 20 - At 3.20 pm on a Saturday afternoon, as Ireland were playing the All-Blacks Rugby team at Lansdowne Road, a car parked in Sackville Place, Dublin exploded, killing 21-year-old Tommy Douglas, a native of Stirling, Scotland.[1]
March
- March undated - Brian Nelson and two other men abduct a partially-sighted man, Gerald Higgins, and take him to a UDA club where he is beaten, set on fire and electrocuted. Higgins is only saved when an Army patrol intervened as he is apparently being led to his execution.[2]
- 9 - Prime Minister Edward Heath meets Taoiseach-elect Liam Cosgrave, and expresses concern about IRA cross-border operations. Cosgrave agrees to "consider changes in existing channels of communication on intelligence matters."[3]
- 20 - British Ambassador Sir Arthur Galsworthy pays his first visit to Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave.[3]
April
- 13 - Ambassador Galsworthy hands secret dossier on IRA active service units to Liam Cosgrave.[3]
- 16 - Hugh McCann of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs advises Ambassador Galsworthy that the Irish ambassador is agreeable to a small meeting of security experts.[3]
- 25 - British Director and Co-ordinator of Intelligence Frederick Allen Rowley and Ambassador Galsworthy hold a secret meeting in Glencairn, Galsworthy's official residence, with Patrick Donegan, the Irish Minister for Defence, and his Departmental Secretary.[3]
May
- 5 - Ambassador Galsworthy meets Irish Justice Minister Patrick Cooney.[3]
- 8 - Defence Minister Donegan meets Galsworthy and nominated the Irish Director of Military Intelligence (G2), Colonel T.P. Quinlan, as "the normal channel for the exchange of information and intelligence" through meetings in London and with the British military attaché.[3]
July
- 2 - Meeting between Edward Heath and Liam Cosgrave.[3]
September
- 16 - UDA figure Tommy Herron shot dead under mysterious circumstances.[4]
Notes
- ↑ DUBLIN BOMBING OF 20th JANUARY 1973, Justice for the Forgotten, accessed 19 June 2012.
- ↑ Sir Desmond de Silva, Volume 1 - Chapter 6: The recruitment of Brian Nelson, Pat Finucane Review, 12 December 2012.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Ronan Fanning, Co-operating on the Border against a common enemy, independent.ie, 4 January 2004.
- ↑ David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea, Lost Lives, Mainstream Publishing, 2004, p.391.
