The 1991 Cappagh killings took place on 3 March , when a unit from the Mid-Ulster Brigade went to the village of Cappagh , County Tyrone , intent on killing an entire Provisional IRA unit based in the village . Taking up a position outside Boyle 's Bar , the gunmen waited for a car to pull up containing republicans and opened fire on them as they exited the vehicle . The UVF men succeeded in killing IRA volunteers John Quinn , Dwayne O'Donnell and Malcolm Nugent before entering the bar and opening fire . One more man , Thomas Armstrong , was killed in the pub but he was not a member of the IRA , while their intended target , Brian Arthurs , survived by crouching behind the bar . A member of the Mid-Ulster Brigade staff would later claim that the Cappagh attack was " one of the best things we did militarily in thirty years " as it proved they could strike directly at the Provisional IRA in an area which was a republican stronghold . Because of the lack of a security force presence in an area where it was usually heavy , republicans and journalist Peter Taylor have alleged security force collusion in the killings , with Taylor suggesting the UDR
1991 Cappagh killings
1991 Cappagh killings
UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade