Joe McCann

Joe McCann (2 November 1947 – 15 April 1972) was an Irish republican paramilitary.

Anne's older brother, Bobby, was part of the 1956–62 border campaign and was arrested and jailed, as well as later being interned.

A member of the Irish Republican Army and later the Official Irish Republican Army, he was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

A bricklayer by trade, he joined the Fianna Éireann at age 14 and the IRA in the early 1960s.

In 1964 he was involved in a riot on Divis Street in Belfast in opposition to the threat from loyalist leader Ian Paisley to march on the area and remove an Irish tricolour flying over the election office of Billy McMillen.

In 1965 he was arrested for the possession of bayonets with five other men.

They served nine months in Crumlin Road jail.

He had expressed an interest in the priesthood while a teenager.

He joined the Third Order of Saint Francis in his later teens.

McCann was active in the IRA's involvement in the civil rights activism, protesting against the development of the Divis Flats.

McCann became Officer Commanding of the IRA in the Markets, involved in housing issues and any matters which related to local government.

In 1969, after sectarian rioting in Belfast, the IRA split into two factions: the newly created Provisional Irish Republican Army, traditionalist militarists, and the existing organisation, which became known as the Official IRA, Marxist-Leninist-oriented socialists.

McCann sided with the Officials.

His brothers Dennis, Patrick and Brian, also joined the OIRA.

McCann married Anne McKnight who hailed from a strong republican family in the Markets area in Belfast.

Anne's brother Seán sided with the Provisionals after the 1969 split, and went on to represent South Belfast for Sinn Féin.

McCann was appointed commander of the Official IRA Third Belfast Battalion.

By 1970, violence in Northern Ireland had escalated to the point where British soldiers were deployed there in large numbers.

From 3–5 July 1970, McCann was involved in gun battles during the Falls Curfew between the Official IRA and up to 3,000 British soldiers in the Lower Falls area that left four civilians dead from gunshot wounds, another killed after being hit by an armoured car and 60 injured.

On 22 May 1971, the first British soldier reported to be killed by the Official IRA, Robert Bankier of the Royal Green Jackets was killed by a unit led by McCann.

McCann's unit opened fire on a passing British mobile patrol near Cromac Square, hitting the patrol from both sides.

He was the fourth British soldier to die on active service, and the seventh overall since the conflict began.

In another incident, McCann led a unit which captured three UVF members in Sandy Row.

The UVF had raided an Official

arms dump earlier that day and the Officials announced they would execute the three prisoners if the weapons were not returned.

McCann eventually released the three UVF members, allegedly because they were "working class men".

On 9 August 1971, his unit took over the Inglis bakery in the Markets area, following the introduction of internment without trial by the Northern Ireland authorities.

They defended it throughout the night from 600 British soldiers who were seeking to arrest paramilitary suspects.

The action allowed other IRA members to slip out of the area and avoid arrest.

He was photographed during the incident, holding an M1 carbine, against the background of a burning building and the Starry Plough flag.

He was shot dead during a confrontation with RUC Special Branch members and British paratroopers in 1972.

He was born in the Lower Falls area of Belfast, and spent most of his life there and in the nearby Markets area of the city.

His mother died when he was four years old, leaving four children.

His father remarried.

He was educated at the Christian Brothers school on Barrack Street in Belfast, where he developed an interest in the Irish language.

In early February 1972, he was reported to be involved in the attempted assassination of Ulster Unionist politician and Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs John Taylor in Armagh City, outside the then Hibernian Bank on Russell Street.

McCann and another gunman fired on Taylor's car with Thompson submachine guns, hitting him five times in the neck and head; he survived, though he was badly injured.

In another incident McCann and another man were standing outside a Belfast cinema to purchase tickets for the film Soldier Blue when McCann spotted a British Army checkpoint.

McCann was killed on 15 April 1972 in Joy Street in The Markets by soldiers from the Parachute Regiment.

He had returned to Belfast shortly before being killed and was at the top of the RUC Special Branch wanted list.