During the Cold War, British soldiers fought a Provisional IRA insurgency in their own country. Probably the toughest location was South Armagh, where they had to travel by helicopter, while watchtowers scanned the fields, and an IRA sniper could strike without warning.
In this episode, journalist and Royal Navy officer Toby Harnden takes us inside his book “Bandit Country”, which describes the borderland of South Armagh where the Provisional IRA fought one of its most formidable campaigns.
Harnden recalls arriving during the uneasy peace of 1996, meeting IRA members and security personnel, and learning how family ties, local knowledge and the Irish border made the South Armagh Brigade unusually effective.
We explore its sniper teams, homemade mortars, intelligence networks, the massive London & Manchester attacks, Libyan weapons and attempts to bring down British helicopters. Harnden also examines the Kingsmill massacre, the devastating 1979 Warrenpoint ambush, alleged Garda collusion, and the British Army’s deployment of the SAS.
Finally, he reveals the brigade’s scepticism towards the Good Friday Agreement—and asks whether the old republican flame still burns beneath South Armagh’s landscape today.
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