Patricia Black

Patricia Black or Patricia Black-Donnelly (28 November 1972 – 15 November 1991) was a Volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). She was killed on 15 November 1991 in St Albans when a bomb she was carrying exploded prematurely. Born in West Belfast, her family were ignorant of her republican involvement. Having joined the IRA in 1990, the following year she was sent to England as a sleeper agent, moving to Manchester and then to London. Here she associated with another volunteer, Frank Ryan, with whom she went to St Albans, Hertfordshire, in November 1991. They intended to plant a bomb—probably because there was a charity concert performance by the Blues and Royals regimental band of the British Army. The bomb exploded prematurely, however, and both were killed immediately. Identification was impossible. Her remains were returned to Belfast where her family refused to allow a paramilitary-style funeral. She has been commemorated on Belfast murals and by Republican music groups since.

Early life Black, the second of four children, was born in 1972 and grew up in the Lenadoon area of Belfast, a sprawling council estate with a high level of unemployment. She was educated at St. Oliver Plunkett Primary School and St Genevieve's High School for Girls in Andersonstown, which she left at 16. As a youth, she regularly complained of harassment from army patrols. Her parents had separated by the time she moved to England. She informed her mother that she was moving to Dublin but secretly moved to London. It is unknown whether she rented her own accommodation or had been provided with a safe house; she was later suspected of living in North London. A sleeper, or cleanskin, she lived in Manchester between September 1989 to June 1990; although there was IRA activity in the city around this time —for example, incendiary devices were found in the Arndale Centre —Black is not thought to have been involved.

St Albans

Black was killed, along with fellow Volunteer, Frank Ryan, just before 10 PM on Friday Their target was a British Army military band from the Blues and Royals, which was playing a charity concert on St Peter's Street when the device exploded, scattering them across the area. was held the day after she would have celebrated her 19th birthday. It was private, as her family had not known of her IRA membership; effectively disowning the IRA in public. Conversely, while Black received nine tributes in the month after she died, only one of them—to "our aunt 'Tricia"—did not emphasise her IRA connection.

Her burial took place some distance from the Republican plot, as her mother had requested no paramilitary trappings such as the guard of honour, a volley of shots, or republican flags as was usually the case for volunteers killed on active service. Friends carried orange, white and green flowers. Instead a colour party came out and fired several volleys of shots in Ballymurphy, at the Loughall Martyrs mural a few days previously. and other party members. Anti-British graffiti and black flags lined the route of the procession and soldiers staked out residents' front gardens, although security was otherwise unobtrusive. by anything other than her dental records. Police believed that an arms cache discovered in Selworthy Close, Wanstead, was connected to Black's cell. Scotland Yard detectives travelled to Northern Ireland to investigate;

The IRA named her in a statement, Media interest in the case was heightened by Black's youth. Writing in The Guardian, Owen Bowcott suggested that she "remained shadowy figure, portrayed as martyrs to the cause or pawns in a deadly game", and that she probably joined the IRA as a means of retaliating against perceived injustices . A political mural depicting a uniformed armed female republican in uniform in the Lenadoon area of Belfast is jointly dedicated to Black as well as Laura Crawford, Bridie Quinn and Mairéad Farrell. Black's name was inscribed on the Lenadoon roll of honour mural beneath that of Mairéad Farrell. Black, along with Farrell, the Price Sisters, Bronwyn McGahan and Geraldine Ferrity is discussed in the context of Irish republican feminism and armed struggle. A memorial ceremony on the 25th anniversary of Patricia Black's death faced criticism when images of children wearing "paramilitary regalia" were circulated in the media.