The Troubles in Aghagallon

The Northern Irish Troubles resulted in three deaths in or near the County Antrim village of Aghagallon.

On 27 February 1973, Constable Raymond Wylie (25) and Reserve Constable Ronald Macauley (42), both Protestant members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, were shot dead during a Provisional Irish Republican Army gun attack on their mobile patrol, Aghagallon. [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/ NI Conflict Archive on the Internet] ] The policemen had stopped their vehicle at Cranagh Bridge to examine a suspicious car when gunmen inside it opened fire. Constable Wylie was shot in the thigh, returned fire, but was hit again and died. Although shot in the chest Constable Macauley engaged the gunmen for 15 minutes until they withdrew. He died a month later in hospital. In December 1973, two men from Lurgan and one from County Tipperary were convicted of the murders and given life sentences, another was given seven years for arms offences. In May 1975 both policemen were posthumously awarded the Queen's Police Medal for Gallantry. [McKittrick, D, Kelters, S, Feeney, B and Thornton, C. "Lost Lives". Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1999, p334 and 345]

The other person to be killed was a 31-year old Catholic taxi-driver, shot by the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1996.

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