The corporals killings is the name commonly given to the death of two British Army soldiers of the Royal Corps of Signals, corporals David Howes and Derek Wood, on March 19 1988. The soldiers were abducted and beaten by Irish republicans, after they drove into the funeral of a Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer killed in a loyalist attack. Amidst the confusion Corporal Wood produced a firearm and fired a warning shot in the air. They were later shot and killed by the IRA.^[1] Two men, Alex Murphy and Henry Maguire, were found guilty of the murder of the corporals.^[2][3] A further three men were found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder, but the conviction of one, Patrick Kane, was quashed on appeal due to the unreliability of his confession.^[4]

Context

The killings took place against a backdrop of violence at high profile Irish republican funerals in 1988. On March 6, three IRA members on a bombing mission were killed by members of the Special Air Service in Gibraltar (see Operation Flavius). Their funerals in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery on March 16 1988 were attacked by UDA member Michael Stone with pistols and hand grenades (see Milltown Cemetery attack). Three people were killed and more than 60 wounded, one of the dead being an IRA volunteer, Kevin Brady. Brady's funeral, just three days after Stone's attack, took place amid an extremely fearful and tense atmosphere, those attending being in trepidation of another loyalist attack. The attendance at the funeral included large numbers of IRA volunteers who acted as stewards. Given the presence of these men and the fear surrounding the funeral, the two British Army corporals who drove into the midst of the funeral procession were putting themselves in grave danger. How the corporals came to be in that particular street, at that particular time is uncertain, although official army sources state they arrived there by accident.^[5]

The killings

David Howes and Derek Wood were driving in a silver Volkswagen Passat car wearing civilian clothes. The Brady funeral was making its way along the Andersonstown Road towards Milltown Cemetery when the car containing the two corporals appeared. The car headed straight towards the front of the funeral, which was headed by a number of black taxis. It drove past a Sinn Féin steward who signalled it to turn. Mourners at the funeral said they believed they were under attack from loyalists.^[3] The car then mounted a pavement, scattering mourners and turning into a small side road. On finding that this road was blocked, it then reversed at speed, ending up within the funeral cortege. When the driver attempted to extricate the car from the cortège his exit route was blocked by a black taxi.

After the car was surrounded and the windows smashed, those surrounding the car attempted to drag the soldiers out. One of the corporals produced a weapon,^[6] which off-duty members of the security forces were permitted to carry at the time. Corporal Wood climbed part of the way out of a window, firing a shot in the air which briefly scattered the crowd. Television pictures showed the crowd surging back, with some of them attacking the vehicle with a wheel-brace and a stepladder snatched from a photographer. The corporals were eventually pulled from the car and punched and kicked to the ground.

They were then dragged into the nearby Casement Park sports ground where they were again beaten, stripped to their underpants and socks by a small group of men, which various media sources described as "tortured".^[3][2][7] The search revealed that the two men were British Army soldiers. The corporals were further beaten and thrown over a high wall to be put into a waiting black taxi. It was driven off at speed, camera crews capturing its passenger waving his fist in the air. The IRA also released a statement at the time which concluded: "Despite media reports, we are satisfied that at no time did our Volunteers physically attack the soldiers. Once we confirmed who they were, they were immediately executed. But we understand why a section of the mourners attacked them and given what happened in Milltown Cemetery on Wednesday, these people acted with exactly the same motive as those who were commended for pursuing loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone."^[8]

The corporals were driven less than 200 yards to waste ground near Penny Lane, just off the main Andersonstown Road. There they were shot several times. Corporal Wood was shot six times, twice in the head and four times in the chest. He was also stabbed four times in the back of the neck and had multiple injuries to other parts of his body.

Redemptorist priest Father Alec Reid, who later played a significant part in the peace process leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, arrived on the scene. One of the most enduring pictures of The Troubles shows him kneeling beside the almost naked body of one the soldiers, his face distraught as he administered the last rites.

Aftermath

Alex Murphy and Harry Maguire were jailed for life in 1989, with a recommendation of a minimum 25 years, for the murders. Sir Brian Hutton, sentencing, said that the two soldiers had been viciously attacked and, when they had been reduced to "a pitiable and defenceless state", Murphy and Maguire had brought about their deaths. He also sentenced Murphy to a further 83 years and Maguire to another 79 years for bodily harm, falsely imprisoning the soldiers and for possessing a gun and ammunition.

Both men had been listed as senior members of the IRA's Belfast Brigade. At the age of 15 in 1973, Murphy had been the youngest republican internee in Long Kesh jail, which later became the Maze.

Maguire became a member of the IRA's "camp staff" in the Maze, one of the senior IRA men effectively in control of the republican wings, and met Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam when she visited the jail to negotiate with prisoners.^[9]

In November 1998 Murphy and Maguire were released from the Maze prison as part of the early prisoner release scheme in the Good Friday Agreement. ^[10] Maguire is now Belfast chairman of the 'Community Restorative Justice' group.

Terence Clarke, the Chief Steward on the day, was sentenced to seven years for assaulting Corporal Wood. He was also Gerry Adams' bodyguard. He died of cancer in 2000.

References

Brendan O'Brien, The Long War - The IRA and Sinn Féin.