|
 |
Recent Editions |
|
27 September, 2007 |
|
Top Stories
The Miami Showband Massacre, 1975: A survivor's search for the truth 
THE Miami Showband massacre took place 31 July 1975, near Newry, in South Armagh, while the band was travelling home to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge, County Down. Their tour bus was stopped at a roadblock, flagged down by men who were not only serving soldiers in the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment but active members of a unionist death squad, the Ulster Volunteer Force. Two soldiers planted a bomb in the bus but it exploded prematurely and killed them outright. Three members of the Miami, one of the most popular showbands in Ireland at the time, were then gunned down by the other soldiers. Teenage heart-throb and lead singer Fran O'Toole (29) and trumpet players Tony Geraghty (23) and Brian McCoy (32) were killed by the UDR soldiers. There are still unanswered questions about that night - why did it happen, who was behind it all, and who was the mysterious professional British Army officer with the clipped English accent who gave orders at the murder scene? Thirty-two years after the atrocity, one of the two surviving band members has published a book to try and find the truth in the name of justice. The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth, has been written by Stephen Travers, who was wounded but survived the attack, and Dublin journalist Neil Fetherstonhaugh. ELLA O'DWYER spoke to Stephen Travers about an event that shocked a nation. Suicide : Sinn Féin conference at Stormont 
OVER a million people die as a result of suicide worldwide every year. Suicide is now the third largest killer, trailing only behind cancer and heart disease. One person dies as a result of suicide every 40 seconds. The suicide rate on the island of Ireland has increased by 25 per cent within the last ten years. According to official records, in 2005, 645 people took their own lives. In the following year, the figures rose to almost 800 lost lives. Photo: Fr Aidan Troy (Ardoyne), Gerry Adams, Dan Neville Fine Gael TD for Limerick West and President of the Irish Association of Suicidology and Sinn Féin MLA Caral Ní Chuilin at the Sinn Féin organised conference on suicide SF in Oireachtas to lead key campaigns 
SPEAKING ahead of the resumption of the Dáil after its summer recess on Wednesday, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin noted that the day also marked one year exactly since the Taoiseach's infamous interview with Brian Dobson and that despite being questioned before the Tribunal for three and a half days he still has not adequately answered serious questions regarding his personal finances. Photo: Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin speaking after Sinn Féin’s Oireachtas planning meeting in Howth, County Dublin Unionist paramilitaries : Fears UDA feud may spread 
SINN FÉIN Fermanagh/South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew has said that the refusal of the PSNI to provide information about the extent and nature of the unionist paramilitary death threats against herself and other party members in the Fermanagh area is totally unacceptable. Government plans to close Clare's sole casualty unit 
BREAKING a pre-election promise guaranteeing its future, the Irish Government now plans to close Clare's sole hospital casualty unit in Ennis, County Clare. Education Minister intervenes in classroom assistants' dispute 
SINN FÉIN Education Minister Catríona Ruane has told the Northern Assembly that she will intervene in the classroom assistants' pay dispute. Photo: Catríona Ruane |
|
©Copyright 2012 An Phoblacht Privacy Policy |