Background
McVerry was born and raised in the townland of Skerriff near Cullyhanna, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
McVerry was born and raised in the townland of Skerriff near Cullyhanna, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
He attended Cullyhanna Primary School and later Bessbrook Technical College before starting work on building sites throughout Ireland.
He was killed in Keady in 1973. Michael McVerry joined the Ireland Republican Army in August 1971. He was imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison and later The Curragh camp, both in the Republic of Ireland, where he took part in a hunger and thirst strike.
On Sunday, 29 October 1972 he and six other comrades (Colm Murphy, James Hazlett, Thomas McGrath, Paddy Carty, James McCabe and Christopher Murphy) audaciously escaped from The Curragh through a tunnel and returned to Ireland Republican Army active service.
He gradually became the most experienced guerrilla fighter in the Ireland Republican Army at that time and a legend among the local republican population in south Armagh. In 1973 he lost his hand while testing grenades.
On 15 November 1973 he was killed during an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks in Keady. He was shot by British soldiers after placing a 100 lb bomb against the gable wall of the barracks during the Ireland Republican Army attack.
The resulting explosion badly damaged the station and surrounding properties.
A second device failed to detonate. The Ireland Republican Army unit escaped towards Carnagh Custom Post on the border, where they hijacked two cars and set fire to the Custom Post before escaping across the border. McVerry was taken to Street Mary"s Hospital in Castleblayney, County Monaghan, but was found to be dead on arrival from a bullet wound in the stomach.
Provisional Irish Republican Army]
A gun battle started as the Ireland Republican Army unit withdrew after attack between them and members of the RUC and British Army in which a policeman was shot in the shoulder. One member of the Ireland Republican Army was also hit.
