Patrick Joseph Kelly

Patrick Joseph Kelly (19 March 1957 – 8 May 1987), was the Commander of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the mid-1980s until his death in a Special Air Service ambush at Loughgall, County Armagh in May 1987.

Background
The oldest child in a Catholic family of five, Kelly was born in the largely Protestant town of Carrickfergus. However, he was brought up in Dungannon, a rural market town in County Tyrone. The Kelly family had a long tradition of Irish republicanism. See: Liam Kelly (Irish republican).

Paramilitary activities
Kelly became a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army at the beginning of the 1970s and gradually became one of the most experienced volunteers in Tyrone.

He was arrested in February 1982 on the word of an informant called Patrick McGurk but was released in October 1983 due to lack of evidence after a trial that lasted fifteen minutes.

In 1985, Kelly became brigade commander in East Tyrone and began developing tactics for attacking secluded Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) bases in his area. Under his leadership the East Tyrone Brigade became the most active IRA unit in Northern Ireland.

In 1986, Kelly attended the IRA Army Convention where the main topic of discussion was the principle of abstentionism. Gerry Adams and others argued the abstentionist rule should be dropped and the Provisional movement should become involved in constitutional politics. Kelly voted against dropping the rule and a rift with the majority of the IRA Army Council ensued.

Loughall ambush
Patrick Kelly was killed in an action by the SAS on 8 May 1987 while he was participating in an attack on Loughgall RUC barracks which also claimed the lives of seven other IRA members: Pádraig McKearney, Declan Arthurs, Seamus Donnelly, Tony Gormley, Eugene Kelly, Jim Lynagh, and Gerard O'Callaghan. He was shot in the head. Kelly's funeral in Dungannon was one of the largest in Tyrone during The Troubles.

Kelly was buried in Edendork cemetery, two miles from his home in Dungannon.