Burning of the Burning Embers pub

Burning of the Burning Embers pub
Part of the Troubles Official IRA / Provisional IRA feud
Date March 1971 Location Falls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland Result Provisionals complete 1 out of 2 objectives Gun fight between Official & Provisional IRA Volunteers. Provisional IRA gain paramilitary control of most of West Belfast's Nationalist "No-Go" areas Provisional Commander Charlie Hughes shot dead
Belligerents
Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade - D Company	Official IRA Belfast Brigade (OIRA BB)
Commanders and leaders
Charles Hughes † Brendan Hughes	Jim Sullivan
Strength
12 Volunteers from D Company	Unknown
Casualties and losses
1 Volunteer killed, 2 injured.	1 Base for operations owned by the Official IRA ruined. at least 1 injured.

The Burning of the Burning Embers pub was an early military operation carried out by the Provisional IRA's Belfast Brigade (PIRA). The Burning Embers was used as a base by the Official IRA (OIRA), the Provisional IRA also hoped to burn down the Cracked Cup which was another pub owned by the OIRA along the Falls Road on Leeson Street but the OIRA got information that the PIRA was coming and a gun battle broke out.

Background

Tensions had been high between the OIRA and PIRA after the two factions split in December 1969. This was the third major split in the IRA since it became the legitimate army of the Irish Republic state in 1920. In April 1970 the PIRA tried to kill OIRA Belfast Brigade Commanding Officer Billy McMillen but he survived his injuries. After the Falls Curfew relations turned even more sour. The Officials accused the Provisionals of tricking them into a fight they could not win and then leaving them to fight alone, resulting in the loss of much of their weaponry and several of their men being captured & wounded. Over the following months each organization carried out beatings of each other's members, the majority of these beatings were carried out by the OIRA as they were still the larger group at the time. The OIRA was also angry that the PIRA had started raiding OIRA arms dumps for weapons.

The OIRA had the focused nearly all of their Volunteers inside the Lower Falls area of Belfast as in that area as both the OIRA and PIRA knew it was a key location. Most of those had been there before the outbreak of the Battle of the Bogside & Northern Ireland riots in 1969 which started the conflict. The Provisional IRA was small in the area but was young and very determined to make a name for themselves, especially D-Company headed by Brendan Hughes's cousin Charlie Hughes, a well respected and liked volunteer. The mindset was who ever controlled the Lower Falls controlled Belfast and the PIRA was determined to wrestle power away from the OIRA or "Sticks" as the PIRA called them.

Tensions increased even more when the OIRA "arrested" and beat Paddy McDermott the QM (Quartermaster) of the PIRA Belfast Brigade D-Company for looking through their arms dumps and then badly beat him. But the PIRA now had controlled the arms dump that McDermott was beaten for. In retaliation for the PIRA controlling the arms dumps, in late 1970, they shot the brother of Joe Cahill, Tom Cahill. They shot him six times but he survived the shooting.

Attack and Counter-Attack

The final straw came in early 1971 when PIRA Volunteer Alec Crowe had been "arrested" by the OIRA and taken to their drinking den the Cracked Cup on Balkan Street. Brendan Hughes was in a house opposite the Cracked Cup and seen Alec Crowe being forced out of the car and dragged into the pub. Brendan then immediately ran around to his cousin and O/C Charlie Hughes and told him what he saw. Charlie told Brendan to mobilise the rest of the Volunteers in the PIRA Belfast Brigade, open the arms dump & to be on standby. Charlie mobilised the Volunteers into one group sent a squad to burn down two OIRA clubs, the Cracked Cup and the Burning Embers. The squad arrived at the Burning Embers first & when they got inside they saw people were having a celebration for Paddy Devlin MP and OIRA Comnmander Jim Sullivan was also there at the same time. Brendan Hughes ordered them to move first but they wouldn't budge, so Charlie ordered them to pour petrol around the club and put a match to it, people then started to move once they the flames in the clubs & soon the whole building was ablaze.

Their next target was the Cracked Cup on Leeson street which is where the PIRA Volunteers headed to next, but the Official IRA got information passed on to them that a PIRA unit was coming to Leeson street to burn another club but as soon as the PIRA Volunteers got to McDonnell Street (near Leeson Street) they were ambushed by OIRA Volunteers and two of the PIRA's men Frank Gillen and Dipper Dempsey were shot and injured. A gun battle ensued around McDonnell and Leeson street which lasted for about twenty-five minutes. According to Brendan Hughes the British Army drove past the gun battle at the bottom of Leeson Street and did not bother intervening in the gun battle between the PIRA & OIRA Volunteers. Out numbered & out gunned orders came for the PIRA Volunteers to pull back. This ended hostilities for the day.

The OIRA took revenge for the burning of their main HQ when they shot PIRA Commander Chalie Hughes. He was shot coming out of a house in Leeson Street along with Billy McKee and Proinsias MacAirt, an OIRA Volunteer opened up with a Thompson submachine gun killing Hughes instantly. It's been speculated Joe McCann was the shooter. The backlash against the OIRA from the Nationalist community was to do large damage to the OIRA, Hughes was a well liked, respected & a devout Catholic, who helped many local people during the Falls Curfew & at other times the Lower Falls was attacked. Many new young recruits started joining the PIRA in the wake of Huges's killing and before long the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade was in charge of the Lower Falls & most of Nationalist Belfast. A ceasefire was soon arranged between the OIRA and PIRA after the death of Charlie Hughes and Brendan Hughes, Charlie's cousin took over command of D-Company.

Aftermath

The Official IRA who were already being criticised for the killing of Charlie Hughes seen their support drop even more after the 1972 Aldershot Bombing which killed seven civilians, they also seen their support fade in Derry as well after they shot dead a popular local off duty Catholic British soldier William Best (19) who was home on leave in Williams Street in May 1972. Shortly after the death of Best the group called a ceasefire. And on Monday the 19 June 1972 an associate of the OIRA (Desmond Mackin, aged 37) was shot dead by the PIRA during a dispute in the Cracked Cup Social Club, the site the PIRA tried to burn a year earlier. Mackin had gotten into a fight with a PIRA volunteer over the Official/Provo feud. About a month after the Mackin killing the PIRA killed Joseph Rosato (59) a Catholic civilian, Rosato was the father of the intended victim & an OIRA Volunteer. This killing happened on the same day as the IRA operation which became known as Bloody Friday

A feud broke out again between the two Republican groups which began on Wednesday 29 October 1975 in a bid by the Provisional IRA to wipe the Official IRA out. Eleven people were to die in this feud which was to last until November.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties but the PIRA came out of the feud in better shape, the OIRA was severely weakened from the feud thanks as well to a feud with the Irish National Liberation Army earlier during the year. Former Official IRA Belfast Brigade Commander Billy McMillen was killed in the feud and Sean Garland was badly injured by the INLA.

See also

• Battle of St Matthew's
• Falls Curfew
• Battle at Springmartin

Sources

• CAIN project
• Ed Moloney - Voices From The Grave: Two Men's War In Ireland

References

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