Documentary sparks memories of failed raid on Strabane barracks

MEMORIES of an audacious air raid on Strabane police barracks nearly 50 years ago were reignited last week after an RTE documentary detailing the attack hit TV screens last week.

The three-part series, called ‘The Heiress and the Heist’, is the story of Rose Dugdale. Raised in London high society circles, Ms Dugdale became embroiled in left-wing politics while studying at Oxford and later a firm supporter of the IRA.

In January 1974 she, along with her partner, Donegal-born Eddie Gallagher, hijacked a helicopter and had the pilot fly it to Strabane. In the helicopter were milk churns packed with explosives, which the pair had planned to detonate on the town’s barracks.

Fortunately, none of the bombs exploded. Two of them had to be abandoned before reaching Strabane due to weight, while the other two failed to detonate.

One fell into the garden of a house in Courtrai Park, close by the barracks, while the other dropped into the river Mourne.

Gerry Milligan, a 15-year-old resident of Church Street at the time, remembers the incident.

He told the Chronicle, “I was out the back of the house fixing TVs and the helicopter flew quite low over our house. I didn’t think it was terribly unusual given our proximity to the police station.

“When I looked up at the helicopter, the underbelly was silver, so I knew it wasn’t an Army helicopter and I saw what I thought were mailbags hanging from it so I thought no more about it. I now know they were the milk churns being readied to be dropped on the barracks.

“We didn’t know much more about it until someone came to the house later and said that the barracks had been bombed and I told my family I’d seen it happen. There was no security operation in place following the attempted bombing, at least not as far as I’m aware; we were certainly never asked to leave the house.”

Another resident, Maeve McLaughlin of the Bowling Green, recalled, “It was a big thing all right; I was there when it happened. Our house was in the Bowling Green, right next to the police station. The police came in and ordered everyone to go to the back of the house in case they detonated and we were warned that we may have to be evacuated.”

Others remember watching from classrooms, which would have had a suitable vantage point to view the incident. It was observed by Mary McCarron that, “When you actually consider what would have happened if the churns had detonated, none of us would be alive today. It easily could have been a horrendous tragedy for Strabane.”

For her part in the attempted air-raid, Ms Dugdale was wanted for questioning, but fled.

She was later jailed for nine years later that year for her part in the Russborough House art heist, using the courtroom as a platform to denigrate British rule in ‘a small part of Ireland’.

The third part of ‘The Heiress and the Heist’ can be seen next Tuesday on RTE1 at 9.35pm and the other episodes can be caught up on the RTE Player.