Reavey and O'Dowd killings

On 4 January 1976, seven Irish Catholic civilians—three members of the Reavey family in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family in Ballydougan—were shot in their homes in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain haemorrhage almost a month later. The shootings were part of a string of attacks on Catholics and Irish nationalists by the "Glenanne gang"; an alliance of loyalist militants, rogue British soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. Billy McCaughey, an officer from the Special Patrol Group, admitted taking part and accused another officer of involvement. His colleague John Weir said those involved included a British soldier, two police officers and an alleged police agent: Robin 'the Jackal' Jackson. The next day, republican gunmen shot dead ten Protestant civilians. This was claimed as retaliation for the Reavey and O'Dowd shootings, and was the climax of a string of tit-for-tat killings in the area during the mid-1970s.