On 24 August 1975, McConnell was alleged by Weir to have been part of a UVF group that ambushed two Gaelic football supporters at a bogus vehicle checkpoint set up in the Cortamlet Road at the townland of Altnamachin, near Tullyvallen close to the Irish Republic border.
On 19 December 1975, a car pulled up outside Donnelly's Bar in Silverbridge, County Armagh.