23-05-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Martin McGuinness and the story of the Provisional IRA in Derry
The paramilitary's support grew in the wake of the civil rights campaign – and the authorities response to it. Support soared for political violence in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday.
But atrocities such as Claudy Bombing and the murder of Patsy Gillespie, he died after being forced to deliver a bomb to an army based, saw that support fall.
By the 1990s, the IRA in Derry was ravaged by informers and was a shadow of its former self.
The history of the IRA in Derry was also dominated by Martin McGuinness, later a key advocate of the peace process, and education minister.
Nowhere else saw one person so prominent in the IRA for such a long period of time.
Jon Trigg is a former British soldier. He's now a writer – and his new book is 'Death in Derry: Martin McGuinness and the Derry IRA's War Against the British'.
He spoke to Ciarán Dunbar.
