Death of two '˜courageous' RUC officers recalled by former MLA

Saturday June 17, 1978 was a very warm, sunny day in mid-summer. It was however a day of tragedy and great loss for the families of two brave and courageous RUC officers on duty in south Armagh.

As the book ‘Lost Lives’ records, constables Hugh McConnell and William Turbitt were in a mobile police patrol car on Sturgan Brae overlooking Camlough Lake when they were ambushed and murdered by an IRA gang who were lying in wait for them.

As the gunmen lay in wait, they had eaten sandwiches and had drunk from a bottle.

The two officers died in a hail of at least 20 high-velocity bullets.

Constable McConnell was found dead lying beside the police car. His colleague William Turbitt was abducted and his body only found and recovered over three weeks later at a derelict border farm.

The PIRA admitted responsibility. It was and remains a despicable and inexcusable crime.

I knew Hugh McConnell. Like me, he was born and bred in the village of Bessbrook.

Older than me, he was on friendly terms with my siblings and he was a cheerful individual with a lively personality who made friends easily.

Hugh had been a talented footballer in his day and had played for Newry Town and was in the RUC’s soccer squad. He was married with two young children.

He had been a member of Bessbrook Crimson Arrow Pipe Band in his younger days – that’s where I first met him.

I was a youngster growing up close to Bessbrook Orange Hall where I could hear the local pipe band practice every week. It was my ambition to learn the side drum. My father spoke to one of the band members and I was invited to display my talent. Hugh McConnell was my instructor.

He was great fun to be around and with great patience, he tried to teach me the rudiments of pipe band drumming, which are far from simple and actually quite a skill.

I never quite mastered the art of pipe band drumming, but Hugh taught me enough to instil a love of rhythm and beat which I’ve carried throughout my life, not least as the bass drummer in Tullyvallen Silver Band for over 40 years.

The McConnell family had, and still have, a long association with both the military and the police, but the murder of Hugh and his colleague William, and the callous manner in which it had occurred, shocked the entire community. The families were devastated, a feeling shared by the many friends and acquaintances of both men.

The village of Bessbrook, still coming to terms with the Kingsmills massacre of January 1976, was plunged yet again into deep mourning for the loss of one of its finest sons. Richhill was equally affected, horrified at the murder and abduction of William, a married man with four children.

I well remember the scenes of grief at Hugh’s funeral as it proceeded from his home through the village led by the RUC band. The cortege was followed by distraught family relatives and RUC colleagues including the then chief constable, Sir Kenneth Newman.

Hugh McConnell and William Turbitt were fine upstanding police officers who were trying to protect the wider community from the onslaught of the vicious republican terrorist campaign in south Armagh. They were also family men and much loved by everyone who knew them. No one has ever been made amenable for their cruel deaths. There has been no public campaign to demand a human rights-based inquiry into their murders, neither has the republican movement shown any remorse for their desperately wicked actions.

However, those who knew both men remember them with love and pride and 40 years has not dimmed our admiration for them or their families.

One final footnote. For years as a family we were in the habit of going to Camlough lake every Eastertime for a picnic. It’s a lovely setting with beautiful scenery and the perfect place for a family day out.

Following the murder of Hugh and William, which took place on the road overlooking the beauty spot, we stopped going. My mother said she just couldn’t bear to picnic at the scene of such a cruel event which had resulted in the death of two fine men, one of whom was the son of her neighbour and friend.

Danny Kennedy is a former Ulster Unionist MLA for Newry and Armagh