Hugh Torney, believed to be the former Chief of Staff of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), was shot dead in Lurgan.
This killing was part of feud that had begun on 30 January 1996 with the killing of Gino Gallagher. (Hugh Torney's faction later disbanded on 9 September 1996.)
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Hugh Torney (c.1954 – 3 September 1996) was an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary leader best known for his activities on behalf of the INLA and Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in a feud with the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), a grouping composed of disgruntled former INLA members, in the mid-1980s; and later an internal feud following his expulsion from the organisation and eventual death.
In his youth, Torney had been a member of the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) and as early as 1970 he was injured on duty along with fellow OIRA member Jackie Goodman when both were wounded during an attack on the Henry Taggart British Army base in Ballymurphy, Belfast.
He switched allegiance to the INLA around the formation of that group in 1974 as the Official IRA began to incorporate a more political-based agenda rather than a military campaign in the early 1970s.
Being held in Long Kesh at the time, Torney officially declared his loyalty to the IRSP on 12 December 1974.
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