Dominic McGlinchey

Since Northern Ireland's creation in 1922, the Catholic minority had suffered from varying degrees of discrimination from the Protestant and Unionist majority.

By the middle of the decade, there was a growing popular, peaceful campaign for civil rights for Catholics.

The Northern Ireland government accused the campaign of being a front for republicanism and communism, and indeed the IRA had infiltrated it from its foundation.

The IRA's last campaign in Northern Ireland, which was called off in 1962, had failed to make an impact on either the government or nationalist consciousness, and contributed towards the organisation's move towards Marxist politics.

The gang spent the late 1970s on the run, carrying out operations and evading both the British Army and the Garda Síochána.

In 1971 he was interned without charge for ten months in Long Kesh; not long after his release the following year, he was imprisoned again on arms charges.

During his imprisonment, he married his wife Mary in 1975.

Together they had three children.

After his release, McGlinchey joined Ian Milne and future Provisional IRA hunger strikers Francis Hughes and Thomas McElwee and waged a campaign of shooting and bombing throughout the county and beyond.

Together, they later joined the Provisional IRA.

The latter force arrested McGlinchey in the Republic of Ireland in 1977.

He was convicted of hijacking a police vehicle and threatening officers with a gun.

In 1982, while serving his sentence in Portlaoise Prison, he clashed with the prison's IRA leadership and was either expelled by them for indiscipline or left the organisation due to strategic differences.

Following his departure from the IRA, McGlinchey joined the INLA.

Following his release and due to his experience, he rose through the ranks, becoming chief of staff by 1982.

Under McGlinchey, the INLA, which had previously had a reputation for disorganisation, became extremely active in cross-border assassinations and bombings.

These included many individual assassinations and woundings, but also massacres such as the Droppin Well bombing of 1982 in which both civilians and soldiers died.

There were failed operations, and McGlinchey—who believed that this was the result of an informer in the ranks—devoted much time and energy to finding the cause.

Those suspected of betraying the organisation were treated brutally, often by McGlinchey personally.

As a result of this resurgence of activity and McGlinchey's high profile, the press nicknamed him "Mad Dog".

Under his tenure the Darkley massacre was carried out, ostensibly by another group but using a weapon supplied by McGlinchey.

In late 1983, McGlinchey—still on the run—gave an interview with the Sunday Tribune newspaper in which he condemned the Darkley killings but also laid out his political philosophy and plans for the future.

By 1984 McGlinchey had fallen out with members of a powerful Republican family from South Armagh over what he considered missing funds.

Men loyal to this family were subsequently killed by McGlinchey's unit, which included his wife.

In March the same year, he was captured in County Clare following a gunfight with the Gardaí.

At this time, McGlinchey was wanted in the north for the shooting of an elderly woman, but republicans had traditionally been able to avoid extradition by claiming their offences were political.

The bloody war in the north was leading the Republic to re-evaluate its position, however, and McGlinchey became the first Republican to be extradited to Northern Ireland.

Although convicted and sentenced there to life imprisonment, this was overturned in 1985.

As a result, McGlinchey was returned to the Republic, where he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on firearms charges.

While he was incarcerated, his wife was shot dead at her Dundalk home.

McGlinchey was released in March 1993 and, claiming to have no further involvement with the INLA, moved to Drogheda.

Dominic McGlinchey (1954 – 10 February 1994) was an Irish republican paramilitary leader who moved from the Provisional IRA to become head of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary group in the early 1980s.

McGlinchey was one of 11 siblings born into a staunchly republican family from Bellaghy, County Londonderry.

He survived an assassination attempt soon after his release from prison, but in February 1994 his enemies caught up with him, and he was shot to death in front of one of his children while using a public phone.

Although his and his wife's killers have never been found, they have generally been linked to the deaths of the Armagh men years before.

McGlinchey's posthumous reputation has ranged from being a "psycho" to his enemies to being an inspiration to those who followed him.

Commentators have speculated on what he would have contributed to Irish politics had he lived.

Some have suggested that he would have contributed to the Northern Ireland peace process, while others have argued that dissident republicans, opposed to that process, would have found him a willing rallying point.

McGlinchey has remained an influence on Irish fiction and music, with both Edna O'Brien and Martin McDonagh producing acclaimed pieces based on McGlinchey's life and career.

He has also featured in popular songs.