ON THIS DAY IN 1978, CORBYN'S MATES...

The Provisional IRA shot dead a police reservist at his home in County Tyrone.  Reserve Constable Howard George Donaghy was working on a bungalow he was having built in preparation for his forthcoming marriage.  The property was going up on land owned by his father in the small village of Loughmacrory near Omagh.  On the day of the attack the reservist was being assisted by his brother and his brother's girlfriend when three armed men arrived and surrounded them.

The attackers were carrying rifles and appeared to know who their target was.  R/Con Donaghy's brother was told not to move while the reservist was shot several times in front of him.  After the gunmen fled, his first instinct was to call their mother, a nurse.  R/Con Donaghy was clinging to life when his mother arrived, but he died in her arms a few minutes later.  The 24-year-old was also a post office engineer and had joined the RUC Reserve four years earlier.  He was due to be married in June the following year.

R/Con Howard Donaghy