Police Ombudsman must issue new report into McGurk’s Bar bombing to restore confidence

A NEW REPORT into the UVF bombing of McGurk’s Bar in 1971 has to be produced by the Police Ombudsman has to be produced to rebuild confidence amongst the victims’ families and the wider public, Sinn Féin North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly has said.

“The report given to the relatives of those killed in the UVF attack on McGurk’s bar was so inaccurate that it couldn’t even get year the attack happened and the names of those killed correct,” Gerry Kelly said.

“It has caused justifiable anger and it is only right that the Ombudsman bins this deeply-flawed report. What needs to happen now is not for a rehash of what was given to the families this week but a new report which accurately deals with the facts in the case. These include the reality that the RUC wrongly and deliberately blamed the IRA for the bombing and that this was backed by the political establishment of the time.

“The way in which the office of the Police Ombudsman has conducted this report reflects badly on them. There is now a job to rebuild public confidence in their work. This needs to start with the production of a report into the McGurk’s Bar bombing which gets to the truth and delivers for the families.”