Did gunmen dump dead body? Drama after shoot-out at police HQ

The Sunday Post on November 27, 1955, reported on an IRA campaign that came before the Troubles and has been largely forgotten.

The bombing and shooting attacks in the 1950s and ’60s ended with a ceasefire, called in February 1962. The campaign was aimed at destabilising the British governance of Northern Ireland and bringing about a united Ireland. “Eire police were searching the border area for a dead man and a wounded man,” read The Sunday Post.

“Police think there is little doubt the dead man was one of the party of gunmen which yesterday morning raided the Ulster Police Station of Roslea in Co. Fermanagh.

“A party of men called at the house of a doctor at Scotstown, Co. Monaghan, 20 miles from Roslea, and asked for a death certificate for a man they had outside in a car. The doctor examined the body and found it to be that of a man lately dead from bullet wounds. He told the men he could not issue a certificate without notifying the coroner.

“The men left, after one of them had received attention for slight wounds. The doctor immediately notified the coroner and the local guards. The guards were last night watching burial grounds along the border and further south.”