29 December 1973: Michael Joseph Logue, 21-year-old Catholic, single and an RUC police officer was shot in a loyalist gun attack. The attack occurred at Forthriver Road in the Glencairn district and was a joint UDA/UVF operation. Three members of each organisation were convicted for the killing. There was a report of a robbery at a local supermarket in which Const. Logue and 2 other police officers went to investigate. A few minutes earlier, 4 armed gunmen held up staff and escaped with a substantial amount of money. The policemen came under fire by 2 of the gunmen as they pulled into the supermarkets car park. Const. Logue was sitting in the passenger seat of the Land Rover and was shot. The driver was cut by flying glass and the 3rd police officer escaped injury. Const. Logue was covering for another Catholic police officer. It was reported that loyalists had carried out the attack in retaliation for the murder of Alexander Howell a few hours earlier. It was thought they had intended to lure an army patrol rather than the RUC into an ambush. It was believed that up to 15 people were involved in the attack. Six men were convicted in January 1975 for Const. Logues killing. The judge described the men as members of the UDA. It was believed that 3 of the men were members of the UVF. The judge said: the UDA was condemned by having 12 members before me charged in connection with the death of a policeman and I hope it will be deeply ashamed of this. Just as on the 1 side of the extremists come from the Provisional IRA, regrettably on the other side more and more of those before the courts charged with crimes of violence are said to be members of the UDA. If it is not an organisation which is committed to violence those concerned with it should not allow it to be used for violence. The judge told the convicted men: you werent heroes, you were behind the hedge, shoot in the back and run away gunmen. Mr Logue was from Londonderrys Waterside district and had been in the RUC for only 3 years. A week before his death he became engaged to a girl from Bangor. LEST WE FORGET!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:14:24 +0000
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