In 1987, an East Tyrone IRA unit was ambushed with eight of its members being killed by the SAS while they were making an attack on a police station in Loughgall, County Armagh.

Despite these losses, the IRA's campaign continued, with it attacking nearly 100 police and military facilities over the next five years, wrecking thirty three and damaging the remainder to varying degrees.

Ryan was the same man who, according to Irish journalist and author Ed Moloney, had led an attack on Derryard checkpoint on the orders of IRA Army Council member 'Slab' Murphy two years earlier.

[11] British Special Forces personnel thereafter performed covert reconnaissance of the Coalisland area in advance of planning an operation to arrest the IRA members involved in the forthcoming attack.

They decided that due to the urban environment around the RUC station it was not feasible to thwart an attack on the building itself, as well as there being a high risk of civilian casualties in any ensuing gun battle.

The special forces ground commander eventually decided the best option was to attempt an arrest in the car park of Clonoe Chapel as the active service unit members were getting ready to attack the RUC station.

[11] At around 7:30pm on the night of the attack, twelve British counter terrorist operators armed with Heckler & Koch G3 rifles and a FN MAG machine gun (both in 7.62mm NATO caliber) were posted behind a hedgerow at the southern boundary of the car park of Clonoe Chapel to await the arrival of the IRA members.

The British soldiers observed a number of vehicles, including a Vauxhall Cavalier, entering and exiting the car park at various times, then heard automatic gun fire coming from the direction of Coalisland and seen tracer bullets in the sky.

The soldiers would later claim that the headlights of the getaway vehicles had illuminated them behind the hedgerow, and since they had no hard cover to protect them from the heavy machine-gun they had no choice but to engage the IRA team without first shouting a warning or attempting to arrest them.

[11] He criticised the operation, saying it was not planned and controlled in a way to minimise the need to use lethal force, and that the soldiers' claims that the Provisional IRA members opened fire in the car park were "demonstrably untrue".

A total of 51 spent 7.62mm Soviet cartridge cases (from the AKM rifles) were recovered: 30 from outside the RUC station, 6 from along Annagher Road, and 15 from the bed of the lorry's trailer.

The bodies of O'Donnell, Clancy and O'Farrell all had gunshot wounds to the head, which were later determined due to the bullet trajectories to have been inflicted when the men were laying incapacitated on the ground.

[11] During the funeral services for O'Donnell and O'Farrell in Coalisland, the parish priest criticised the security forces for what happened at Clonoe church, which had resulted in the deaths of the four IRA men.