The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

the IRA’s no-warning car bombings were ‘maddening’ the Loyalist people. As a result, demands for tit-for-tat sectarian assassinations were mounting. I mentioned this to Daithi O’Conaill, the IRA leader who is said to have first advocated the use of car bombs. O’Conaill authorised me to tell Tyrie that the car bombing would stop in the expectation that assassinations would follow suit. Both cessations duly occurred and lasted for some time. Tyrie also figured in another creditable incident in UDA history. Early in his reign there was yet another demand from the ranks for an intensification of sectarian killing. Tyrie called a meeting and threw down a revolver and a list of names and addresses of known IRA men, telling his audience that whoever wished could pick up the gun and the list with his blessing. No one did.