McGurk’s Bar bombing families’ High Court action against PSNI as Amnesty slams failure to deal with the past

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

'The HET told us that its review was completed but, nearly a year later, the Chief Constable of the PSNI still will not hand it over to our families'

FAMILIES of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar bombing of 4 December 1971 are in the Belfast High Court today (Thursday) to begin legal proceedings against the Chief Constable of the PSNI and his decision to block the release of an Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report into the atrocity.

At the same time elsewhere in Belfast, Amnesty International will be releasing a report which slams the failure to deal with the past in the North of Ireland. The McGurk’s Bar bombing features in its hard-hitting report and some family members will be there to receive it.

The 'McGurk’s Bar bombing' was carried out by the UVF at 8:45pm on 4 December 1971 when an explosion ripped through the Tramore Bar on the corner of North Queen Street and Great George’s Street, near the nationalist New Lodge Road in north Belfast. The bar was run by Patrick McGurk.

Fifteen men, women and children died in the atrocity.

From the outset, the RUC and British security chiefs had enough information to know that unionists were behind the bombing yet decided to spin a web of deceit, based on disinformation, blaming the IRA for the attack.

In his foreword to the book The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Collusion, Cover-Up and a Campaign for Truth (Ciarán MacAirt, Frontline Noir), Colin Wallace, a former Senior Information Officer at the heart of the British Army’s psychological warfare unit in the North of Ireland in the early 1970s, writes:

“If it could be shown that the IRA was directly or indirectly responsible then this would be seen as further justification for internment.”

Author Ciarán MacAirt, grandson of Kathleen Irvine who was murdered in McGurk’s Bar, said ahead of the Belfast High Court hearing this week:

“We met with Amnesty International over a year ago when they were researching their report, Northern Ireland: Time to Deal with the Past. We presented our evidence to them and shared our experiences, including how we have been treated by the present Chief Constable and his Historical Enquiries Team. By that stage we had waited patiently for the HET to finish its review of the McGurk’s Bar bombing for over six years. 

“Subsequently, in late 2012, the HET told us that its review was completed but, nearly a year later, the Chief Constable of the PSNI still will not hand it over to our families.

“It is ironic and quite sad that we have since been forced to bring the Chief Constable to court to try to gain access to this HET review on the same day that Amnesty International releases its hard-hitting report.

“It is also an horrific indictment of the state’s failure to give families on all sides who lost loved ones during the conflict even the semblance of truth and justice.”