Name Catherine Dunne | Role Bombing victim | |
Died July 27, 1990, County Armagh | ||
Sister Catherine Dunne was one of four people killed by the Irish Republican Army on 27 July 1990. The case has not been solved.
Background
A native of Dublin, Dunne was a member of the Sisters of St. Louis. She was driving a car with a passenger, 25-year-old social worker, Cathy McCann. Some hours previously, members of the PIRA took over a house close to Killylea Road, two miles outside Armagh, County Armagh, holding its occupants, a married couple and their children at gunpoint.
A detonating wire was placed from the house to a bomb, placed beside the road. As Dunne's car passed a Royal Ulster Constabulary patrol car on Killylea Road, County Armagh, the IRA detonated the bomb. Constable William James Hanson (37), and reserve officers Joshua Cyril Willis (35) and David Sterritt (34), were all killed instantly. Dunne later died of her injuries.
Sister Fiona Fullham, a regional superior of the Sisters of St. Louis, said:
I would pray that all those in Northern Ireland who have been involved in violence would try to think of the human face of the people who have died and who are dying, and of the families who are suffering needlessly all these years ... I would say, please stop. Please stop.
Charles Haughey was quoted as saying:
I know all the people of Ireland join me in my condemnation of this atrocity.
The IRA expressed no regret at the deaths. Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said:
Our sorrow at these deaths is genuine and profound, but will be abused by our political opponents who will cynically exploit yesterday's events for their own political purpose.