Inside the Coagh IRA ambush, one of the most controversial SAS killings in Northern Ireland
In Coagh in June 1991, British soldiers killed three members of the IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade during an operation intended to stop an assassination and arrest those involved. The former SAS officer who planned the operation says troops had less than two seconds to act after a rifle was aimed at a decoy; the account comes as a fresh legal challenge over one victim’s death approaches the Supreme Court.
The dead were Michael Ryan, Lawrence McNally and 22-year-old Tony Doris, who was driving the car and was unarmed. Doris’s daughter, Roisin Nugent, is seeking permission to appeal, arguing he should not have been shot. The plan replaced the intended UDR victim with an SAS soldier, while arrest teams and an armed cover group waited nearby; intelligence suggested an attack was imminent.
In short
- Three IRA members were killed in the 1991 Coagh operation.
- Tony Doris’s daughter is seeking a Supreme Court appeal over his death.
- The SAS officer says troops had less than two seconds to decide to fire.