Drummuckavall Ambush

During the mid-1970s, the most violent decade of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the monitoring of the border between south County Armagh and the Republic of Ireland by the British Army was carried out from several static observation posts (OPs). The main goal of these OPs was to prevent attacks launched from beyond the border. These part-time manned positions were highly vulnerable to attack, as proved by a 1974 bomb attack which claimed the lives of two Royal Marines at the outpost of Drummuckavall, a townland 3 km southeast of Crossmaglen close to the border. It was not until 1986, when the first surveillance watchtowers were erected in operations Condor and Magistrate that the British…

A section of four soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, coming from Crossmaglen, mounted an observation post at 2<small>AM</small> on 21 November 1975. The OP was on a slope at Drummuckavall behind bushes overlooking a small stream that ran along the border. Unknown to them, locals had spotted their position and informed the IRA. At 16:20 the next day, an IRA unit of up to 12 members attacked the OP. Heavy gunfire killed three of the Fusiliers and disabled their communications equipment. A later inquest found that the IRA unit had fired from two positions inside the Republic. Those killed were James Duncan (19), Peter McDonald (19), and Michael Sampson (20). The only fusilier on…