"The Massacre of Sir Norman Stronge ex-M.P. and Son"
21th January 1981 - 2 people dead

Chilling double murder of the 'Stronges' and the needless destruction

Twenty years ago on Sunday Provisional IRA gunmen murdered former Stormont speaker Sir Norman Stronge and his ex-MP son James and bombed their historic ancestral Tyan Abbey home near the Co Armagh border with Co. Monaghan. This is just one of the many foul and callous deeds of the troubles. Sir Norman Stronge and his son James were sitting alone in the main library of their Tynan home on the night of Wednesday January 21,1981, when tragedy struck.

A Provisional IRA gang composed of some of the most hardened republican terrorist killers, from the South Armagh/North Monaghan/South Tyrone area, arrived shortly after 9pm and staked out the Tudor-Gothic building and the surrounding 1,000-acre estate, situated about 10 miles from Armagh City and a mile from the border. Their targets were high-profile aristocratic establishment figures, deliberately chosen for sectarian assassination, in the IRAs words, as "the symbols of hated Unionism'.

Sir Norman, 86, was the eighth holder of one of Ulster's oldest baronetcies, but he had stepped down from active politics in 1969. His son James, 48, was Ulster Unionist MP for Mid-Armagh for three years until the prorogation of Stormont in 1972 and his main interests since were confined to merchant banking and a spell in the RUC Reserve. Lady Stronge had died a few years earlier and the two men lived alone in the rambling grey-stoned mansion.

Earlier on that fateful evening, IRA gunmen had been to the home of two Tynan families and, holding them captive, they took their cars and drove off in the direction of Tynan Abbey. Up to a dozen heavily armed Provisional, dressed in paramilitary combat uniforms, were involved in the operation, with the leader, James Lynagh a ruthless serial killer from Monaghan, who was shot dead by the SAS in the Loughgall shoot-out in May, 1987. Just before 9.45pm, the terrorists bombed the heavy front doors of Tynan Abbey and burst in on the two men. They opened fire with an assortment of high velocity weapons.

Sir Norman and James Stronge were shot at point blank range and they died instantly. The gang then bombed the Abbey, leaving bodies of the two men to burn along with the many valuable books and priceless antiques in the 230-year-old house. The multiple explosions at the Abbey were heard by an RUC patrol, who rushed to the estate, as the two cars carrying the terrorists sped away from the mansion.

Police set up a roadblock at the end of the driveway, but the terrorists rammed the block and for several minutes fired continuously into the bulletproof doors, bonnet and windows of the patrol car with the two RUC officers outnumbered and locked in the vehicle. Both officers remained in the car and miraculously, they escaped unhurt. When another RUC patrol arrived on the scene minutes later and opened fire on the IRA gang, the terrorists scattered into nearby woods and over the border.

Later, the two relieved policemen in the first patrol ear admitted that the roof of their vehicle was not armour-plated and had the terrorists known this the officers almost certainly would have been killed. The blaze at Tynan Abbey continued for most of the night and the building was almost completely destroyed. Firemen however, managed to recover the badly mutilated bodies of Sir Norman and James Stronge.

The atrocity caused shock and anger throughout the Unionist community, particularly in Co Armagh, where the Stronges were held in very high esteem as outstanding, pillars of society. A telegram from the Queen, sent to the Bangor home of Mrs Daphne Kingham., one of Sir Norman's two daughters, was read at the funeral service, in Tynan Parish Church, on the following Sunday.

The Queens telegram read: "I was deeply shocked to learn of the tragic death of your father and brother Prince Philip joins me in sending you and your sister all our deepest sympathy on your dreadful loss. Sir Norman's loyal and distinguished loyal service will be remembered". In 1984, a man was extradited from the Irish Republic to stand trial for the Tynan Abbey murders. He was acquitted in 1985, and as part of the trial, a number of witnesses gave evidence in Dublin with a Northern Ireland judge in attendance.

This was the first time this provision of the 1976 Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act was used. Sir Norman, born at Bryansford, CO Down and Eton-educated, had been a soldier, politician and a farmer. He served in the First World War with the 10th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, as lieutenant, and later as captain. His courage under fire was recognised by a series of bravery awards and he was the first soldier mentioned in despatches by Lord Haig after the Battle of the Somme began. He received the military cross and the Belgian Crow de Guerre and was wounded near Courtrai in October 1918. In 1939, Sir Norman became the eighth baronet in his family and for 30 years from 1938 was the Ulster Unionist MP for Mid-Armagh in the Stormont Parliament.

He was unopposed in the various elections and, after a short period as junior whip at Stormont, he became Speaker in 1945, a position he held for 23 years. He was also Her Majesty's Lieutenant for Co Armagh President of the Northern Ireland Council of the Royal British Legion and Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution. James Stronge, heir to the estate, was also Eton educated and served as a captain in the Grenadier Guards. He was MP for Mid-Armagh for three years and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 1973-74 period.

Both men were members of Derryhaw Boyne Defenders LOL No 768, in Killylea District. Another lodge in Killylea District is named after distinguished soldier Major James Matthew Stronge. Sir Norman's cousin who was killed in action at the battle of Ypres in 1917.

The Stronge family are related to the Brookeborough family. In December 1998, almost 18 years after the sympathy on your dreadful loss. Sir Norman's Stronge murders, Tynan Abbey was demolished. Until then, the remains of the building, which had passed into the ownership of Sir Norman's two daughters, had remained untouched behind padlocked gates since the killings. The instability of the building forced the demolition.

The January 21,1981 attack was not the first time Tynan Abbey was targeted by republicans. Several gun attempts were made by the IRA in the early 1920s, using the nearby Monaghan border as cover, but the attacks were repelled by police and Ulster Special Constabulary members.