When the Troubles erupted into violence in 1969, the Provisional IRA was established to force Britain to leave Northern Ireland through force of arms. Throughout the province, IRA units began to organise and carry out attacks on the police – the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) – and the British Army. One of the IRA’s most effective units was its East Tyrone Brigade, which carried out over 1,500 operations and killed dozens of soldiers and policemen during a campaign that lasted decades. At the height of its notoriety in the 1980s, the RUC Chief Constable Jack Hermon – himself a veteran of service in County Tyrone – said the Brigade “was highly regarded in terms of its proficiency, capacity and confidence”.
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