The McGurks Bar Massacre
Todays Updates
Todays updates starts in order from the latest to the oldest.
Commons apology over bomb claims
Monday, 14 July 2008
Security Minister Paul Goggins has apologised for false claims made by government officials in 1971 over the McGurk's Bar bombing.
Fifteen people, including two children, were killed when the bar in north Belfast was bombed by the UVF.
At the time, the security forces said it was an IRA "own goal".
However, speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Goggins said officials had allowed "perceptions and pre-conceived ideas to cloud the evidence".
"We are deeply sorry, not just for the appalling suffering and loss of life that occurred at McGurk's Bar, but also for the extraordinary additional pain caused to both the immediate families and the wider community by the erroneous suggestions made in the immediate aftermath of the explosion as to who was responsible," he said.
A recent report by the Historical Inquiries Team on the McGurk's bar bombing was raised in the House of Commons by Scottish MP Michael Connarty, whose great-uncle died in the attack.
The report dismissed as "irresponsible and inaccurate" British army claims at the time that the device was an IRA bomb being prepared which exploded prematurely.
A UVF getaway driver received 15 life sentences in 1978.
The group revisiting more than 2,000 unsolved murders during the Troubles found that the authorities' IRA claim, which upset relatives of the victims, "could not be based on facts but instead reflected a desired outcome".
Apology
Ahead of Monday's brief Commons debate, Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward wrote to apologise to the Labour MP for Falkirk East.
An apology which he said "reflected his concern for all those who died in the Troubles".
He said: "The tragedy of the Troubles is that any of those people died, and one of the things that politicians have to get much better at is actually taking on their responsibility as a secretary of state and saying, I'm sorry.
"Michael has a relative who was in that bar. I am sorry his relative died.
Bombed bar 'symbol of savagery'
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
There was much more to Patsy McGurk than his media label as the owner of a bar bombed by the UVF, a priest has told mourners at his funeral Mass.
Fifteen people, including three women and two children, died in the 1971 explosion in north Belfast.
"It became a symbol of the savagery and an icon of the suffering in our community," Monsignor Tom Toner said.
"It was a life changing event for Patsy. He lost his wife, daughter, business and home in one fell swoop."
"All he had left was his three fine sons, his indomitable spirit and his faith.
"But he lived the gospel, no recrimination, no anger against those who wrecked his life."
Monsignor Toner told several hundred mourners at St Teresa's Church, west Belfast, on Tuesday that Mr McGurk, who died at the age of 86, was a "true gentleman and dedicated family man, kind and generous and known for his outstanding compassion and forgiveness."
Among those at the funeral was Irish President Mary McAleese's aide de camp.
The false allegation that the explosion in the Catholic bar was caused by the IRA added to the pain felt by the bereaved. In 1977, a UVF man confessed to it.
The driver of the getaway car admitted his part in the attack and it became clear that it was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
The driver received 15 life sentences and remains the only person ever to have been convicted in relation to the explosion.
Mr McGurk and his three sons, Patrick, Gerard and John, were also injured in the blast.
A memorial was unveiled on the Queen Street site of the bar in 2001 to mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing.
Source: BBC Northern Ireland (Click Here)
Forgiving McGurk's bar owner dies
Monday, 17 December 2007
He was 86 years old. His wife and his 14-year-old daughter were among those killed in the north Belfast bomb.
Fifteen people, including two children and three women died in what was one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.
The theory that the explosion in the Catholic bar was caused by the IRA added to the pain felt by the bereaved. In 1977, a UVF man confessed to it.
The driver of the getaway car admitted his part in the attack and it became clear that it was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
The driver received 15 life sentences and remains the only person ever to have been convicted in relation to the explosion.
Mr McGurk and his three sons were also injured in the blast.
A memorial was unveiled on the Queen Street site of the bar in 2001 to mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing.
Mr McGurk forgave those responsible for the explosion and prayed for the men who carried out the atrocity.
Source: BBC Northern Ireland (Click Here)
Memorial to bar bomb victims
Tuesday, 4 December, 2001
Men, women and children lost their lives in the explosion at The Tramore Bar - better known as McGurk's - in North Queen Street on 4 December 1971.
Many others were injured when four loyalists, operating under a cover name for the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, bombed the bar in a Catholic area of the city.
Only one of the bombers - the driver of the getaway car - was ever convicted.
The families are now calling for an inquiry into the atrocity, which some felt had been largely forgotten.
Pat Arthus was just 14 when her mother, Kathleen Irvine, died in the explosion.
Pat was playing out in the street when the bomb went off.
"I remember running down to the scene. It was just completely flattened," she said.
"People just came from everywhere. They were on their hands and knees. They were passing the rubble one by one. They were in a big line.
"You heard them shouting: 'There's one, there's one'.
"It was just total chaos. Soldiers threw their guns down on the ground to help the people from the New Lodge Road dig."
Later, she went home and found her grandmother in the house crying, after learning that Pat's mother and father had been caught up in the bomb.
Her father was seriously injured.
"After that was like a total blur, because people were coming in and out of the house," she said.
"There were that many different stories being told.
"My granny gave me and my brother wee jobs to do about the house. To go in and make the tea, tidy up, to try and keep us busy.
"But you were hearing people saying things like they were bringing people out in black bags. It was terrible, it really was."
She also recalled the pain of seeing her father, who has since died, cope with the loss of his wife.
"I remember at night after my mummy had died, listening to my daddy crying and calling for her. I remember my granny, she was 80-odd years of age, going into him," she said.
"When I looked into the room she was cradling her son in her arms. 'It's all right Johnny,' she said. 'It's all right'.
"This seemed to go on every night, where he cried and he relived the whole explosion. It was a very sad time."
Some reports at the time suggested the bar was frequented by political activists, that the bomb belonged to an IRA team in transit and was a republican 'own-goal'.
But this was rubbished as "ridiculous" by local residents.
Pat said: "You were saying to yourself: 'Who killed my mummy? Why did my own people kill my mummy?
"At the back of your mind you knew it wasn't our own people that had done it.
"This was a family-run bar and it was people like my mummy and daddy that went to talk with each other and just pass the time of day for a pint or an orange and then come home again."
Seven years after the bomb, a UVF man received 15 life sentences after he was convicted of the bombing.
Daughter recalls bar bomb horror
Monday, 3 December, 2001
A woman who lost her mother in the McGurks' bar atrocity relives the horror of that day.
"I remember at night after my mummy had died listening to my daddy crying and calling for her."
These are the words of Pat Arthus who was just 14-years-old when a loyalist bomb ripped through a bar in a Catholic area of Belfast and killed her mother.
Fifteen people including men, women and children lost their lives in the explosion at The Tramore Bar - better known as McGurk's - in North Queen Street on 4 December 1971.
It was one of worst atrocities in the history of the Troubles, but one which some families of the bereaved feel is largely forgotten about.
Playing
Pat Arthus remembers her mother, Kathleen Irvine, saying her prayers on the day of the explosion.
Ironically, Mrs Irvine and other local women went to a grotto every day to pray for peace.
Pat was playing out in the street when the bomb went off.
"I remember running down to the scene. It was just completely flattened," she said.
"People just came from everywhere. They were on their hands and knees. They were passing the rubble one by one. They were in a big line.
"You heard them shouting: 'There's one, there's one'.
"It was just total chaos. Soldiers threw their guns down on the ground to help the people from the New Lodge Road dig."
Later, she went home and found her grandmother in the house crying, after learning that Pat's mother and father had been caught up in the bomb.
Her father was seriously injured in the blast.
"After that was like a total blur, because people were coming in and out of the house," she said.
"There were that many different stories being told.
"My granny gave me and my brother wee jobs to do about the house. To go in and make the tea, tidy up, to try and keep us busy.
"But you were hearing people saying things like they were bringing people out in black bags. It was terrible, it really was."
'Own goal'
She also recalled the pain of seeing her father, who has since died, cope with the loss of his wife.
"I remember my granny, she was 80-odd years of age, going into him," she said.
"When I looked into the room she was cradling her son in her arms. 'It's all right Johnny,' she said. 'It's all right'.
"This seemed to go on every night, where he cried and he relived the whole explosion. It was a very sad time."
Some reports at the time suggested the bar was frequented by political activists, that the bomb belonged to an IRA team in transit and was a republican 'own-goal'.
But this was rubbished as "ridiculous" by local residents.
Pat said: "You were saying to yourself: 'Who killed my mummy? Why did my own people kill my mummy?
"At the back of your mind you knew it wasn't our own people that had done it.
"This was a family-run bar and it was people like my mummy and daddy that went to talk with each other and just pass the time of day for a pint or an orange and then come home again."
Seven years after the bomb, a UVF man received 15 life sentences after he was convicted of the bombing.