Thomas McGeary 30th anniversary

THE family of Armagh man Thomas McGeary plan to mark the 30th anniversary of his death. 

Thomas, from Collegeland in Armagh, was killed when a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car on the morning of 29 April 1984.

A member of the McGeary family, speaking to An Phoblacht, explained that after his killing “a group calling itself the Irish Freedom Fighters issued a statement claiming responsibility for his death.  To add to the enormous grief of our family the killers spuriously claimed Thomas was a ‘collaborator’.”

Republicans and the local community believe that this story was an attempt to excuse the brutal murder.

On the day of the killing, the Irish Republican Army issued a statement stating:

“The IRA, contrary to uninformed media speculation, was not involved in the bomb attack today in which a businessman was killed.”

That statement was carried in An Phoblacht on 3 May 1984.

Thomas McGeary was a married man and the father of seven children. He was a farmer and had family business interests on both sides of the Border, providing employment for people living in those areas.