Ian Phoenix

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Ian Phoenix was one of a number of senior RUC officers killed in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash. He was "based at headquarters, with responsibility for Special Branch supervisory and liaison duties."[1]

Phoenix was born in 1943 in Granville, Co Tyrone.[2]

Parachute Regiment

He joined the Parachute Regiment in 1961.[3] He took part in the Borneo campaign in 1966 and had some contact with the SAS at its Jungle School in Brunei.[4] Among the officers he served with was Peter Chiswell.

RUC

Phoenix joined the RUC in 1970.[5] During his training, Phoenix saved a colleague, Ronnie Flanagan from dismissal after a fistfight, by organising a group to send the other party to Coventry until he explained the circumstances to his superiors.[6]

He initally served in B Division in West Belfast.[7] Because of his army experience, Phoenix was given responsibility for liasing with the army, including his old unit, 3 Para under Peter Chiswell, which was in Belfast in 1971.[8] In May 1971, he was caught in a bomb attack which killed a Para colleague, Sergeant Mick Willetts.[9] he was transferred to North Belfast in 1973.[10] In 1975, he was posted as a training instructor in Carrickfergus.[11] Three years later he was posted to Tennent Street station on the Shankill Road for a year.[12]

Special Branch

Phoenix was posted to RUC Special Branch as a Detective Inspector in January 1979, and underwent training in covert operations in London and Harrogate, before deployment in April.[13] He became team leader in the E4A surveillance unit.[14]

In around November 1979, he was given responsibility for re-organising the whole E4A unit.[15]

His first operation was Operation HAWK, involving surveillance of the man believed to be the intelligence officer for the IRA's Belfast Brigade.[16] He was also involved in Operation MISTRAL, which uncovered an IRA informant inside the police.[17]

According to Statewatch, he was the head of the E1 Division within Special Branch at the time of his death in 1994.[18]

Notes

  1. Sally Weale and Owen Boycott, CHINOOK DISASTER: COUNTING THE COST OF THE SENIOR FIGURES IN BATTLE AGAINST TERRORISM, Guardian, 4 June 1994.
  2. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.13.
  3. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.20.
  4. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.30.
  5. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.51 .
  6. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.56.
  7. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.60.
  8. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, pp.64-65.
  9. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.65 .
  10. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.87.
  11. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.98.
  12. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.103.
  13. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.108.
  14. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.114.
  15. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.116.
  16. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.124.
  17. Jack Holland and Susan Phoenix, Phoenix: Policing the Shadows - The Secret War Against terrorism in Northern Ireland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, p.126.
  18. Statewatch Bulletin, Vol 4, No 4, August 1994.