1997 Coalisland attack On the evening of 26 March 1997 , the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade launched an improvised grenade attack on the fortified RUC / British Army base in Coalisland , County Tyrone , Northern Ireland . The blast sparked an immediate reaction by an SAS unit , who shot and wounded alleged IRA volunteer Gareth Doris . The SAS unit was then surrounded by a crowd of protesters . RUC officers arrived and fired plastic bullet s at the crowd , allowing the special forces to leave the area . Previous incidents . Coalisland is a village in County Tyrone reputed as being a republican stronghold ; five residents had been killed by British security forces before the first IRA ceasefire in 1994 . In February 1992 , four IRA volunteers were killed in a gun battle with the SAS during their escape after a machine gun attack on the RUC / Army station there . Three months later a bomb attack on a British Army patrol at Cappagh , in which a paratrooper lost his legs , triggered a series of clashes between local residents and British troops on 12 and 17 May . A number of civilians and soldiers were injured , a soldier ' s backpack radio destroyed and two army weapons stolen . The meleé was followed by a 500 people protest in the village and bitter exchanges between Irish and British officials . Incident at the RUC base . Bomb attack . At 9 : 40 pm on Wednesday 26 March 1997 , a grenade was thrown at the joint British Army / RUC base at Coalisland , blowing a hole in the perimeter fence . The RUC reported that a 1 kg device hit the fence off the ground . Another source claimed that the device was a coffee - jar bomb filled with semtex . The grenade was thrown or fired by two unidentified men . At the time of the attack , there was an art exhibition at Coalisland Heritage Hall , also known as The Mill , from where the explosion and the gunshots that followed were clearly heard . The incident lasted one to two minutes . Undercover operation . Just one minute after the IRA attack , bypassers heard high - velocity rounds buzzing around them . A number of men , apparently SAS soldiers , got out of civilian vehicles wearing baseball caps with " Army " stamped on the front . A first - hand source initially described them as members of the 14 Intelligence Company . The men were firing Browning pistol s and Heckler & Koch sub - machine guns . Witnesses said there were eight to ten gunshots , while a republican source claimed that up to 18 rounds were fired . Nineteen - year - old Gareth Dorris was shot in the stomach and fell to the ground . Doris was allegedly returning from the local church and was in company of a priest when he was shot . Local priest Seamus Rice was driving out of the church car - park when his car was hit by bullets , smashing the windscreen . Three minutes after the blast , hundreds of angry residents gathered at the scene and confronted the undercover soldiers . The soldiers fired live rounds at the ground and into the air to keep people back . The crowd kept drawing back and moving forward again until 9 : 50 , when the RUC arrived and began firing plastic bullets at the protesters . Two women were wounded by plastic bullets and the undercover soldiers then fled in unmarked cars ; setting off crackers or fireworks at the same time . Sinn Féin councillor Francie Molloy claimed that the protesters forced the SAS to withdraw , saving Doris ' s life in the process . Witnesses feared that one undercover soldier , who was brandishing a pistol , would have killed the wounded Doris with a shot to his head . Afterward , hundreds of residents were forced to leave their homes as security forces searched the area near the base . This kept tensions high according to local republican activist Bernadette McAliskey . Two men were later questioned by the RUC about the attack . Aftermath . The attack — along with two large bombings the same day in Wilmslow , England — raised concerns that the IRA was trying to mar the upcoming UK general election . Martin McGuinness dubbed the shooting " murderous " , while independent councillor Jim Canning said that more than a dozen soldiers " were threatening to shoot anybody who moved [ . . . ] while a young man lay shot on the ground " . Republican sources claimed that this was another case of shoot - to - kill policy by the security forces ; Ulster Unionist Party MP Ken Maginnis , however , acknowledged the SAS for their actions . Gareth Doris was admitted to South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon , where he was arrested after undergoing surgery . He was later transferred to Musgrave Park military hospital in Belfast . Doris was later convicted for involvement in the bombing and sentenced to ten years in jail before being released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement . Gareth was the cousin of Tony Doris , an IRA member killed in an SAS ambush in the nearby village of Coagh on 3 June 1991 . According to Sinn Féin councillor Brendan Doris , another cousin of Gareth , " He absolutely denies being involved in terrorist activity of any description " . Amnesty International raised its concerns over the shooting and the fact that no warning was given beforehand . On 5 July 1997 , in the eve of widespread riots along Nationalist areas in Northern Ireland , the British Army / RUC base was the scene of another attack , when an IRA volunteer engaged an armoured RUC vehicle with gunfire besides the barracks , and one female officer was wounded . The former RUC station at Coalisland was eventually shut in 2006 and sold for private development in 2010 .