Eamonn Boyce Eamonn Boyce ( born 1925 ) was an Irish volunteer of the Irish Republican Army . He was considered among the leading young activists in the organisation in the early 1950s along with Charlie Murphy , Robert Russell , Tom Mitchell , Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Joe Christie . He and Murphy were responsible for the successful raid on a British military barracks in Armagh in the summer of 1954 . He was later captured leading an IRA arms raid on the military barracks in Omagh , County Tyrone , on 17 October 1954 , for which he was sentenced to twelve years penal servitude in Belfast Gaol . In spite of the raid ' s failure , the resulting publicity surrounding Boyce ' s trial brought considerable recruits and funding for the organisation . Forty years following his release , Boyce ' s prison diaries were published as " The Insider : The Belfast Prison Diaries of Eamonn Boyce , 1956 – 1962 " detailing daily life inside the infamous prison during the Border Campaign . Biography . Early life and IRA activity . Born in Dublin in 1925 , Eamonn Boyce was working as a CIÉ Bus Conductor when he was first recruited by the Irish Republican Army in 1953 . His father had fought in the British Army in France during WW1 , however he was heavily influenced by his mother ' s & uncles ' backgrounds , fighting with Cumann na mBan & the IRA against the British during the Irish War of Independence & later against the pro - treaty Free State Forces during the Irish Civil War . He had previously been unaware of the organisation ' s existence , believing it long since disbanded since the end of the Irish Civil War , when he passed by a large billboard advertising an upcoming expose on the IRA by English Sunday newspaper . His attention was attracted to " a trench - coated figure carrying two guns " , in particular , and initially thought the portrayal was related to the Irish War of Independence . When he mentioned this to his companion Matty O ' Neill , a former Curragh internee , remarking on the garishness of the advertisement Boyce was surprised when the older man replied " Sure , them that ' s running it now don ' t mind . " Intrigued that the organisation was still active , he investigated further and was officially brought into the organisation at age 27 . Raid on Armagh ( June 1954 ) . A year later , Boyce , now Intelligence Officer , and Charlie Murphy began developing a plan to raid a British military barracks in Northern Ireland for weapons and other supplies . They enlisted a fellow Dubliner and IRA man to infiltrate the barracks by joining the British Army . The man was posted to Armagh , and while there , kept in contact with Murphy and Boyce at soldiers ' dances . The two men would leave the hall , appearing to court the various girls they brought with them to the dance , but in actuality were meeting their informant and scouting the area outside the installation gathering substantial information on movement of troops & weapons storage . This information was backed up with detailed maps & photographs taken with a Minix spy camera . The eventually felt confidant enough to plan the raid for 12 June 1954 . The operation was launched from a farmhouse in Dundalk about a mile south of the border . The initial plan was to have a lorry transport the majority of the 19 - man raiding party . The majority were armed with Thompson submachine gun s as well as small arms , grenades and burglary tools . When the lorry failed to arrive , however , they were forced to improvise and called a local haulier on the pretense of moving a herd of cattle . The haulier , once he arrived , was forced into a tent and his vehicle stolen . The raiders left in two groups with the smaller of the two travelling in a car . They were specifically tasked with taking over the guardroom . That afternoon , at around 3 : 00 pm , the car drove through the barracks ' gate . As the men held up the guardroom , one of the raiders took the place of the sentry . This man , having spent some time in the Irish equivalent on the British Territorial Army , was able to convincingly march up and down the gate . The lorry carrying the rest of the IRA raiders overshot the gate while following behind the car and forced to reverse . As they did so , a British army lorry also entering the base allowed the truck to pull in first and drove by without noticing anything suspicious . In all , the raid netted 340 rifles , 50 Sten guns , 12 Bren light machine gun s ( most of which were deactivated ) , and a number of . 22 mm arms . Though their activity was discovered during the course of the robbery , being necessary to put two soldiers in the guardroom , all the raiders were able to escape . The lorry was driven out first , with Boyce and a few others staying behind to lock every gate and door for which they could find keys for , before leaving in the car . The keys were later auctioned in the United States to raise additional funds for the IRA . The raider ' s luck held and both the car and lorry were able to re - enter the Republic of Ireland without incident . At the Monaghan side of the border , a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary gave the lorry the right of way and were able to drive the last 7 miles safely . The party split up at a dump in County Meath , upon meeting with IRA Chief of Staff Tony Magan , with some making their way back to Dublin by bus . Boyce and Joe Christie , another member of the raid , were to drive the lorry back to Dublin themselves . While Boyce sat in the back of the lorry , Christie climbed into the drivers ' cabin and ordered the driver to divert from the pre - arranged route and onto the main roads . They eventually attracted the attention of a Garda police car on the outskirts of Dublin , having heard news of the Armagh raid , and attempted to block the road . Christie told the driver to ram the car but it was able to pull out of the way . The two men in the lorry were later taken into custody when returning it to its owner . They were questioned by police but were released partly due to lack of evidence , nothing save two revolvers were found in the truck , and the Irish government ' s embarrassment over the incident . Omagh raid ( October 1954 ) . On the night of 16 October 1954 , Boyce led 35 men in a second weapons raid in Omagh , County Tyrone , the supply depot for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers . The previous week , Magan delivered 20 machine guns to a house in Dublin in preparation for the attack ; a " carbon copy of the Armagh raid " , it was also to have been co - led by Murphy but ordered to remain Dublin at the last minute . Gearoid O ' Broin , a leading republican during the period , was in charge of the transportation for the raid consisting of two small cars and a lorry . Equipment was also brought to jump start British army lorries which the raiders hoped to later commandeer at the base . The barracks was being guarded by three patrolling sentries with two watching the wall facing the town while a third soldier guarded back wall covering approximately 100 yards . The raid was supposed to have taken place at the changing of the guard but O ' Broin had trouble securing a lorry and was forced to steal one . This caused a three - hour delay and , at 3 : 30 am , Boyce and 15 other men scaled the wall while the rest waited outside . Three of the men were armed with knives , assigned to neutralise the sentry on duty , and broke away from Boyce ' s group once inside the base . They headed towards an arch way where the soldier was to supposed take shelter , and when he did not , the three attacked him . Instead of using their knives , they instead attempted to merely knock him out using the butts of their revolvers . The soldier was able to fight off the three men and his shouts alerted the British soldiers in the guardroom near the main entrance . It was through the main gate that the raiders had planned to use to flee if things went wrong . With their escape route blocked , the soldiers now shooting from the guardroom , Boyce and his men retreated back the way they came over the wall and escaped into the surrounding marshes . The 20 other raiders outside the main entrance were left standing outside the main gate . The raiders split up at this point , and in the confusion , Boyce was left behind with the lorry driving without him . He was not yet concerned about being pursued and was walking to the lorry , keeping a lookout for stragglers , when it suddenly took off when he was 50 yards away . He ran after the lorry but was unable to catch up . He then unsuccessfully tried to break into an RUC car parked nearby before resigning to walk the 20 miles back to the border . Boyce got as far as the Clogher Valley area , and while taking off his boiler suit in a ditch , he was captured by a Protestant farmer and his five sons , all of whom were heavily armed . He experienced some degree of police brutality following his capture , being " cuffed about " and forced to dress and undress in his wet clothes six times , before being transported back to Omagh to stand trial . At his trial , which he and his men refused to recognise , Boyce told the court " This war was not waged against any Irishman , but against a foreign Queen who has no right to have her forces on our soil . " The 27 - year - old Boyce , who was identified by authorities as the leader in the raid , was sentenced to twelve years penal servitude in Belfast Gaol . The rest of the men involved received ten years each . Release and later years . Boyce was released from prison after serving eight years of his twelve - year sentence . He was in poor health at the time , having trouble with his nerves , preventing him from " any of the normal things prison keeps a man from doing " such as crossing a street unaided , walking into a shop or applying to a labour exchange . This , he put down to the severe restrictions imposed on Category A Republican Prisoners & the ' Institutionalisation ' of many years imprisonment . He found that his mother had also suffered during his incarceration , not only because of the emotional stress , but through the loss of Boyce ' s income and unknowing aiding his accomplices ; for months , several hundredweights of gelignite had been hidden under her bed . He was eventually able to get his job back as a bus conductor and later married Dympna McConnell , a Grand Niece of Michael Mallin , Chief of Staff of the Irish Citizen Army , executed 8 May 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising . According to author Tim Pat Coogan , Boyce was a typical " example of what IRA men were like at the time and of what they encountered " . Like of his contemporaries of the 1950s , he dropped out of the movement entirely . His prison dairies were published , entitled " The Insider : The Belfast Prison Diaries of Eamonn Boyce , 1956 – 1962 " , in 2007 . Further reading . city