The decoy on the roadside

On August 30 1988, SAS soldier George Simm removed the wheel of his coal truck near Drumnakilly in County Tyrone, four miles south of Omagh. Dressed as a delivery driver, he was the bait for an IRA Active Service Unit.

Breaking silence after decades

George has never spoken publicly about what happened that day until now. He is breaking cover from a shadowy world to tell his side of a story that ended in death, from which the fallout still rumbles on today.

The real target and the trap

For more than an hour, George waited for what British intelligence said was a three-man IRA team intent on killing the real coal truck driver, who was also a part-time member of Northern Ireland's security services. Surveillance teams reported suspicious movement.

The decision to stay

Police suggested ending the operation, but George, communicating via a radio concealed under his jacket, decided to wait a little longer by the truck for men intent on killing him.

The car approaches

After more tinkering on the wheel and silence by the roadside, George heard a car over-revving as it raced towards him. At about thirty yards away, Martin Harte opened fire on him.

Counting the rounds

George recalls Martin Harte firing at him. He counted the rounds: fifteen at first, but later investigations found it was sixteen. Bullets cracked under and around the truck as he moved for cover.

“I counted his rounds. I said 15… It was 16 [later investigations found].”

The SAS opens fire

After the car passed and stopped, George heard doors open. Then the SAS team hiding in a hedgerow opened fire. Gerard Harte, Martin Harte and Brian Mullan were all killed within moments.

“Then there was holy hell on, because all the guys just opened up on them.”

The context of violence

The ambush took place during one of the most violent periods of the Troubles. Ninety-four people were killed in Northern Ireland in nineteen eighty-eight, including twenty-one regular soldiers, twelve Ulster Defence Regiment members, six police officers and fifty-five civilians.

Escalating IRA campaign

That year had already seen the SAS shoot dead three IRA members in Gibraltar in March. In June, six soldiers were killed by a bomb in Lisburn. On August twenty, eight soldiers were killed by an IRA roadside bomb near Ballygawley, outside Omagh.

Peace talks amid conflict

On the same day the SAS killed three men at Drumnakilly, John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin held a final meeting of a series that had been going on through the year of violence.

The controversy endures

Drumnakilly has remained controversial. Families of the three dead men have long questioned whether the operation was an ambush intended to kill rather than arrest them. In twenty twenty-three, the High Court declared the Police Ombudsman had unlawfully failed to investigate alleged RUC wrongdoing.

Veterans face renewed scrutiny

SAS veterans and former commanders are speaking publicly now because they have become participants in a renewed political and legal battle over how the Troubles should be investigated. Men in their sixties and seventies face continuing civil proceedings and legacy investigations.

The new Troubles Bill

The Labour government is replacing the Conservatives' controversial twenty twenty-three Legacy Act with a new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. The proposed legislation abolishes the previous scheme offering conditional immunity from prosecution, leaving veterans facing potential repeated investigation.

“They're trying to say you were a murderer. Well, you're not. And the fact is, I stood there and a bloke opened fire on me.”