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25 Years Ago/1999
Gang in bungled robbery
A BURGLAR was shot in the foot as he made his getaway after a bungled robbery at a shop in Lack.
The thief was wounded when a shot was fired from a legally held firearm during the getaway from the shop at Lack Post Office at Main Street around 5.40am.
He and an accomplice fled the shop with a cache of cigarettes and batteries and made off in a getaway car, believed to have been driven by a third person – all rumoured to be from Tyrone. From there, it is understood that the burglars drove to the Tyrone County Hospital where the injured man was admitted. The car was abandoned in the hospital car park.
The injured man was later transferred to Belfast City Hospital where his injury was described as non-life threatening.
It is though that a Tyrone gang may be responsible for an orchestrated campaign of burglaries, including the robbery in Lack.
According to Cllr Caldwell McClaughrey, the talk in the Fermanagh village is that a gang, possibly from Tyrone, have been involved in a spate of burglaries in the area.
He claimed that two other burglaries were carried out on Monday night, including a Kesh pub, and locals believed all three crimes are linked The councillor said people in the village are living in constant fear and expressed his concern that someone may be killed.
He said a number of elderly people had been targeted recently, leaving the pensioners afraid to leave their homes.
50 Years Ago/1974
UDR men injured in bomb
FOUR UDR men were injured and admitted to Tyrone County Hospital at Omagh after an IRA ambush on a patrol on a quiet country road, in which they detonated an explosives-packed van as the part-time soldiers passed by in their Land Rovers.
The UDR men were injured when their vehicle was blown across the road while they were on their way to investigate a bomb scare in Augher.
All members of the patrol were admitted to hospital, one with an eye injury, another with injuries to his head, and the other two with cuts and bruises.
The carefully laid ambush began when police in Omagh received a phone call saying there was a bomb in a merchant’s yard in Augher. The UDR men, in two Land Rovers, left from Clogher to check out the report and were at Crossowen, mid-way between the two villages, when they ran into the trap.
As the leading UDR Land Rover drove past a mini van parked at the roadside, the van exploded without warning, hurling the UDR vehicle across the road.
The ambushers had been lying in wait and detonated the bomb-packed van from a nearby wood. The explosion also damaged a house, shattering the windows and bringing down ceilings.
The report about the bomb in the merchant’s yard turn out to be a hoax.
Responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the East Tyrone Provisional IRA.
75 Years Ago/1949
Aughnacloy Boxing Champion
TYRONE’S interest was centred on the All-Ireland Heavyweight Boxing Championship fight in the King’s Hall, Belfast when Paddy Slavin, a 22-years-old Aughnacloy man and six-county Champion, met Gerry McDermott, the Sligo holder of the twenty-six county titled.
Many fight fans travelled to Belfast and those who did not clustered around their radios for the commentary on the fight.
Slavin, who entered the game seriously only 16 months ago, was a good winner of a gruelling fight against a more experienced opponent.
He took a boxing lesson in the first three rounds and was sent down in the fourth round with a smashing blow.
In the fifth and sixth rounds, he made a remarkable recovery, and although McDermott continued to give him a boxing lesson, the Tyrone man fought back gamely, and with heavy punches to the Sligo man’s head and body succeeded in slowing him down.
The fight took a complete change in the seventh round when Slavin, moving doggedly into the attack and concentrating on McDermott’s body, began to get on top.
The fight was fast paced, but McDermott was definitely slowing down under Slavin’s aggressive punching.
As the rounds went by Slavin wiped out his points arrears and never relinquishing his hold on the fight, was a clear-cut winner at the end.
100 Years Ago/1924
Another chance
HEAD-Constable Kennedy had Joseph Stevenson summoned for being drunk and disorderly at Newtownstewart. He was disorderly by shouting and striking a boy who reported his conduct.
He had blood on his face and was very excited. It was his fourth offence of drunkenness within 12 months.
Mr WE Orr for the defendant, admitted that he had not been doing well at all lately, but if he were given a chance he was determined on turning over a new leaf. He is a respectable man.
The chairman said his conduct is a scandal to the whole country.
There was also an application to estreat the defendant’s recognisance’s in his personal security of £5, the bail being entered into in respect of a similar offence some months ago.
Mr Orr asked that the magistrates deal with both cases together and mentioned that he would have no more to do with the defendant if he abused the chance which he (Mr Orr) asked that he be given.
The chairman said the magistrates were going to give the defendant one more chance.
He trusted for their own sakes and his (defendant’s) they were doing right and if he came up again he would straightaway be sent to Derry Jail.
Personally if he (chairman) had been dealing with him, to jail he would go that day.
The case would be adjourned for one month.
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