From Our Archives - Terror for Donegal gardaí facing 200 rioters

A night of hell in Lifford 50 years ago saw around 200 teenagers take part in a riot which led to nine gardaí being injured. The following report which includes details of paving stones being ripped up, gardaí being mauled, and wales torn down, appeared on the front page of the Donegal Democrat on Friday, November 10, 1972:

It was the lowest form of blackgaurdism I have experienced during my service, was the comment of a weary-eyed garda officer to a ‘Democrat’ reporter, who went to Lifford on Tuesday to investigate the outbreak of rioting which occurred there on the previous night.

Shattered windows in the Garda barrack and rubble strewn streets gave emphasis to the officer’s comment, which was corroborated by residents of the town, who stressed very vehemently that the culprits were outsiders, many of them from Strabane on the other side of the border. 

Almost 200, mostly teenagers, were involved in the attack on the Garda barrack. Nine Gardaí injured in the melee were treated in the nearby Lifford hospital where two of them were still detained on Wednesday.

Members of the Gardaí stationed locally were altogether unprepared for the assault, and when reinforcements arrived so lacking were they in riot gear that they had to improvise defence and attack and fall back on the use of chair legs to substitute for battens lost in the scuffles.

Most severely injured were Gardaí Liam Walsh and Michael Lawless, who became separated from the main body of Gardaí at the height of the trouble and were savagely mauled by a section of the crowd before they could extricate themselves.

Also admitted to the hospital with injuries was a 15-year-old local boy, who, however, was released after treatment.

Several buildings in the vicinity, including newly opened headquarters of the Credit Union, suffered damage during the two hours of rioting. 

ORIGIN OF THE TROUBLE 

Origin of the violence was the discovery of an explosives and arms dump in a field at Murlog on the outskirts of the town. 

40lbs of gelignite found in the search was detonated later by an army expert beside the river Foyle on the far side of Lifford. 

Reports that a man had been arrested by Gardaí after the arms find and had later escaped could not be confirmed.

The drama began about 4.30pm when Garda found the secret dump in what a spokesman said was one of their regular searches of the area. 

Word of the Gardaí raid spread quickly through the town and unto Strabane. 

Soon after the explosives were detonated at 7.30pm, youths began gathering outside the garda station. About 100 youths rushed across the bridge which links the town with Strabane and joined the angry crowd outside the station. The crowd milled around the station for some time as appeals were made to them by groups of men to disperse. There were only about 15 gardaí on duty at this stage. 

As the crowd began to disperse a small number of youths hurled stones and bottles at the station. Soon a full - scale riot had developed and 40 extra gardaí were rushed to the town from stations in East Donegal.

PAVING STONES  

The crowd ripped up paving stones near the customs post and tore down two stone walls to get ‘ammunition.’ Gardaí baton-charged the crowd several times in an effort to break up the riot and during the bitter exchanges nine gardaí fell injured.

Eventually gardaí succeeded in driving about 100 youths down the main street and onto the link bridge. Panic developed among the rioters when they found themselves caught between the charging Gardaí and the British troops who had lined up at the Camel’s Hump.

After some time the youths were allowed back into Strabane. Some were searched. Others avoided the searches by making off across the fields. 

During the confusion at the bridge at least two youths were beaten by troops.  

TENSION

Irish troops at Finner and Letterkenny were alerted and a contingent of soldiers from each centre rushed to the scene and remained on alert until early on Tuesday morning.

It was 2 am before peace returned to the town, but tension remained. The local Gardaí force has been strengthened and on Tuesday night, fearing a recurrence of the trouble, troops and Gardaí were kept at the ready in the force. 

LIFFORD GARDAI LACKED RIOT EQUIPMENT

The riot in Lifford brought to light an amazing lack of preparedness by the authorities for dealing with such situations especially in an obvious flashpoint such as this border town. No riot equipment had been located in the Garda station to deal with such incidents and it speaks volumes for the bravery and discipline of the Gardaí stationed there that they were able to deal with the rioters so successfully without such equipment. It is probable that Gardaí would not have been injured had they had riot shields for protection from flying stones/bottles.