Courts

McGurk’s bar massacre inquest ordered

North’s Attorney General orders fresh inquiry into the deaths of 15 people in Belfast bar in 1971

A replica of the facade of McGurk’s Bar in Belfast unveiled in 2011 by Robert McClenaghan and other relatives of the victims of the 1971 bomb attack by loyalists that killed 15 people. Photograph: Rob Stothard/The New York Times

Freya McClements
Fri Apr 26 2024 - 00:01

The North’s Attorney General has ordered a fresh inquest into the deaths of 15 people in McGurk’s bar in Belfast in 1971.

Brenda King notified the family of Edward and Sarah Keenan, a husband and wife who were among the victims of the loyalist bombing, that she had “considered the submissions and documents provided and has decided that it is advisable to order a new inquest into their deaths”.

However, there is no prospect the inquest can be heard before the cut-off date of May 1st introduced by the controversial Legacy Act, when all Troubles-era inquests will end.

In a recent decision to order a new inquest into the death of Official IRA leader Joe McCann in Belfast in 1972, Ms King acknowledged this and said she was “committed to continue exercising her . . . discretion up until she loses the power to order inquests in Troubles-related cases”.

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Gerard Keenan, who was 13 years old when he was orphaned by the bombing, said the McGurk’s Bar families welcomed the Attorney General’s “historic decision . . . as all the families have campaigned with great dignity for over 52 years for scraps of truth and justice from the British state.

“Like many other bereaved families now, though, we face the reality that the British state will not allow this inquest to go ahead as it desperately wants to stop us from discovering why our loved ones were murdered in the McGurk’s Bar massacre and how it failed to prevent it.”

Of the 15 people who died in the bombing, the youngest was 13-year-old Jimmy Cromie, playing Subbuteo with the owners’ sons, and the eldest 73-year-old school lollipop man, Philip Garry; the victims also included the publican’s wife, Philomena McGurk, and their 14-year-old daughter Maria.

The security forces wrongly labelled the attack an IRA “own goal”; a member of the UVF was later convicted of the bombing.

The families of the victims have long alleged security force collusion and cover-up and that the British army had prior knowledge of, and could have prevented, the attacks.

Campaigner and researcher Ciarán MacAirt, whose grandmother Kathleen Irvine was killed and grandfather John Irvine was injured in the bombing, submitted a new file of evidence to the Attorney General which included secret British military logs which indicated a covert ambush OP [observation post] had been operating near the bar.

In her letter to the Keenan family’s solicitor, the Attorney General said the “investigation of the actions or inactions of the army in the period before the bombing occurred is incomplete” and it was apparent from those military logs “that there were military observation posts near to the area where the Keenans met their deaths”.

“An inquest would provide a forum in which the actions of the army prior to the bombing could be explored,” she said.

Solicitor Niall Ó Murchú, who represents the Keenan family, said it was “a poignant reminder of the power of family campaigning and the fact that legal processes – however slow – can work if not shut down by the British state.

“Even after more than half a century, an inquest may offer the families an opportunity for truth and justice but now, of course, they first must fight for the repeal of the shameful Legacy Act.”

On Thursday the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) – the new investigative body established by the Legacy Act – outlined its proposals for completing inquests which are at an advanced stage but which have not concluded by May 1st.

Bereaved families can request the ICRIR continues the investigation into the death of their loved ones after this date, though many have already indicated they will not engage with the body.

Freya McClements

Freya McClements

Freya McClements is Northern Editor of The Irish Times

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