Death on a Country Road

Book excerpt: The story of how two Derry GAA supporters returning from Croke Park were killed by loyalist paramilitaries operating an illegal checkpoint on a country road in South Armagh. On the way home that night through south Armagh Sean Farmer and Colm McCartney were stopped at what later transpired to be a bogus security forces checkpoint. Less than an hour later, their bodies were found at the side of the road in the townland of Altnamackin, a few miles outside Newtownhamilton. This book is the first attempt to tell the men's story. It is a vividly imagined re-creation of the time and circumstances of the murders coupled with an examination of their factual background. The murders were particularly significant because they represented the first time that the GAA had found itself targeted by terrorists in such a public and blatant way. Many more attacks on its members would follow in the next two decades. At its core this book reveals both the human stories of loss behind the headlines that the murders generated and the inadequate official investigation which followed. But above everything else this is the story of the lives and deaths on a country road in rural Armagh of Sean and Colm, two friends on their way home from a football match.