Newry: A look back in time – Newry’s ‘Ghost Town’ makes international news As a direct consequence of Operation Demetrius, many otherwise moderate Catholics now felt under siege from the British and Northern Ireland government security forces and increasingly began to view the Provisional IRA as protectors of the nationalist community. There was a high human price to this, between 9th and 11th August, 24 people were killed or fatally wounded: 20 civilians (14 Catholics, 6 Protestants), two members of the Provisional IRA shot dead by the British Army, and two members of the British Army shot dead by the Provisional IRA.