Dominic McGlinchey
Dominic McGlinchey was born in
1954 into a
County Londonderry ("Derry" to Republicans) family with a strong
Irish Republican background.
[Coogan, Tim Pat, IRA, The] He was dubbed "Mad Dog" by the press, but he personally disliked the name.
In August 1971, at the age of 17, he was interned without charge for ten months in the prison camps of Ballykelly and
Long Kesh. After his release, he was imprisoned again in
1973 on arms charges.
After his next release, he joined an independent Republican unit operating in the south of
County Londonderry along with
Ian Milne and future
Provisional IRA hunger striker
Francis Hughes (some members of the independent unit would later join the PIRA). Their activities led the
Royal Ulster Constabulary to take the unusual step of issuing wanted posters.
Marriage and Children
In the midst of his paramilitary career, he married Mary McNeill on
5 July 1975. The couple would have three children: Declan, Dominic, and Mháire (who died as an infant resulting from meningitis). Mary herself would later become a volunteer in the
Irish National Liberation Army.
McGlinchey was arrested by the
Gardaí in 1977 and charged with
hijacking a police vehicle, threatening a police officer with a gun, and resisting arrest. While serving time in Portlaoise Prison, he clashed with the PIRA leadership and ceased his affiliation with that organisation.
He joined the
INLA in
1982 as Operations Officer for South Derry and within six months became
Chief of Staff. He made an immediate impact, putting an end to dissension within the organisation and building the organisation up throughout the country.
Actions carried out during this period included the bombing of the Mount Gabriel radar station in Co. Cork, which McGlinchey claimed was providing help to NATO in violation of Irish neutrality; the killing of 17 people (11 RUC members and 6 civilians) by bombing the
Droppin' Well Pub; and numerous other attacks on British military personnel, RUC personnel, and loyalist paramilitary figures.
McGlinchey was arrested on St. Patrick's Day,
1984, at Ralahine, Newmarket-on-Fergus in Co. Clare, and was extradited to
Northern Ireland the same night. He was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence. In October
1985, the
Belfast Appeals Court overturned the conviction on the grounds of insufficient evidence and McGlinchey was returned to the South where he was sentenced to ten years in
Portlaoise prison on firearms charges.
While he was in prison, his wife, Mary, was murdered on
31 January 1987. McGlinchey was not allowed to attend her funeral.
After his release from prison in March of 1993, he began investigating claims that the loyalist
Ulster Volunteer Force was involved in money laundering with Irish criminals. In June of that year, he survived an assassination attempt made by UVF member
Billy Wright.
On
10 February 1994, McGlinchey was making a call from a phone box in Drogheda when two men got out of a vehicle and proceeded to shoot him fourteen times. No-one has ever been charged with his murder and it is not known which group, whether Loyalist, Republican, state security service or criminal carried out the assassination.
[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1994.html University of Ulster's CAIN Project] After his death INLA activity decreased and its organisational capability was nearly eliminated.
