Stephen

Hi !! I'm an Easy Going Person, Born and Raised in Batavia. I'm Interested in Building a Friendship that might Mature into a Relationship. I'm an On Time type of Person. I Handle Stress Fine. I'm Friendly, Caring with a Good Sense of Humor. I was Raised with Three Sisters and a Brother. I'm Single, and have Never Been Married. I became Interested in My Families Geneology in High School, My Ancestors on My Mother's Side of the Family Hails From Counties: Kerry, Cork, and Monaghan in Ireland. I Love America, it's My Country and I Was Born Here, but My Heart Will Always Be In Ireland. You can't break the Irish Spirit, Many have Tried !! Slainte !!Stephen
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LANDING AT DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ....SIGHTSEEING IN DUBLIN...... ....COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND: WHERE MY MOTHERS SIDE OF OUR FAMILY CAME FROM. IT'S BEEN MY DREAM SINCE HIGH SCHOOL TO VISIT THERE ONE DAY. .. .... ANOTHER GOOD VIDEO OF COUNTY KERRY AND THE KERRY RING .. ....Layout Provided By FreeCodeSource.com - Myspace LayoutsKitty Irvine's family have accused the British government and military of war crimes. Press Release.F�ilte romhat, a chara, welcome, to a family site dedicated to the memory of the innocent victims of McGurk's bar bombing, 4th December 1971.For two generations their families have fought for nothing but the truth. Theirs has been a peaceful struggle of Sisyphean proportions against British government collusion with loyalist terrorists, media misinformation and legal cover-up.This site will expose the facts and circumstances surrounding the massacre of innocent Irish men, women and children in McGurk's Bar.This site will follow and publicise the ongoing campaign of the victims' families as they fight for the truth.This site will stand as testament to the present British government that another generation of Irish men and women have sprung up to continue their family's campaign for truth.In the early evening of Saturday the 4th December 1971, loyalists from the Ulster Volunteer Force (U.V.F.), under the control of the British military, planted a no-warning bomb on the doorstep of a family-run bar in north Belfast. Allowed to escape unmolested into the night and into the murky history of the Troubles, they left in their wake a massacre that led claim to the single greatest loss of civilian life until the Omagh murders in 1998. Nevertheless, those people who perished that night in McGurk's were to become the forgotten victims of a very dirty war.An 8-year-old boy called Joseph McClory saw two men skulking in a parked car near McGurk's. So observant was this lad that he noted a small Union Jack flag upon its back window and then the shadowy figure of another man in the doorway of the bar. The stranger, clad in a long, dark overcoat and disguised by a mask, set a parcel down and fled back to his cohorts. He bore as little concern for that young child he passed on the pavement as he would for a dog on the street.The 50lbs of gelignite ripped through the small pub and brought its walls and roof down upon the innocent people within. Those who were not crushed or slowly asphyxiated by masonry were horrifically burned when shattered gas mains burst into flames beneath the rubble.In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, disregarding their own safety, the families in the area emptied onto the road and began clawing at the debris with their bare hands so that they might save some of their neighbours. Only for their feverish toil that night and the labours of the emergency services another dozen would have perished. Eventually, though, the lifeless bodies of fifteen innocent men, women and children were dragged from the ruins.The victims' only crime was the faith they followed.On that crisp winter's evening, after another long week of work, Johnny and Kathleen Irvine said goodbye to their teenaged children and walked the short distance to the bar they visited for a couple of drinks each Saturday night. Christmas was looming, but the road leading both to the bar and to the centre of Belfast was deathly quiet. Even the military presence that had saturated the north of the city over the previous forty eight hours seemed to have been lifted, if only temporarily. Johnny and Kitty, as her family and friends knew her, could therefore enjoy a few fleeting moments of normality as they sauntered to the pub without getting stopped, searched or harassed by the British army.The couple entered the small lounge to the side of the main service area and were immediately welcomed by the usual warmth, light and hum of the busy pub as people chattered and glasses clinked. The bar itself and a door that was locked for safety reasons separated the two areas. Nevertheless the couple preferred this smaller space as it was more snug and they could enjoy the conversation of their old friends they met each week. Looking across the bar and into the main lounge, Kitty recognised every single one of the customers who sat around talking or reading a paper. She smiled and nodded acknowledgement to anyone whose eyes she happened to meet. Thomas Kane, Robert Spotswood and James (Jimbo) Smyth had taken up their usual seats along the bar. Further along, Thomas McLaughlin, his uncle and two of their friends were too busy chatting and laughing to notice. Behind them, old Philip Garry, who even at 73 still kept himself busy as a school-crossing patrolman, was having a quiet pint. Near to him Francis Bradley and David Milligan relaxed after labouring week-long in the docks. In the corner she could not see, Edward Kane was entertaining his friend, Roderick McCorley, and 80 year-old Mr. Griffin with lively chat over a quick drink before heading home to his young family.The Tramore was a cosy family-run bar, frequented by those members of the north Belfast community who were more interested in a punt or a pint rather than the sectarian politics of the day. Indeed Patrick and Philomena McGurk, the owners of the pub, were renowned for their intolerance of bigotry and prejudice. The clientele of the Tramore Bar, or McGurk's as it was best known, naturally reflected this. As the family home was in the rooms upstairs, Mr. And Mrs. McGurk therefore sought to create an environment that was not only fitting for a well-run pub, but also one that was appropriate for the raising of their children. Upstairs, at that time, the McGurk boys and their friends, including 13 year-old James Cromie, were having a raucous game of table football as their uncle, John Colton, got ready to help his brother-in-law in the bar below.As was always the case, Mr. McGurk was swift to greet the couple warmly and ask them if they would like their usual. No sooner had the couple sat down with their drinks when their old friends Edward and Sarah Keenan arrived so Johnny was up once more to get them one before all four could settle. The banter was lively as their friends were in high spirits. Edward had just received his retirement money from his lifelong work in the docks so the old couple were looking forward to treating their family to extra special Christmas presents and new clothes that year.Time was rushing headlong towards the single moment that each one of those who were left behind would play over and over when they locked themselves away in their own minds. Upstairs Mr. McGurk's wife, Philomena and only daughter, Maria, unknown to everybody below, were just coming home from confession at St. Patrick's church. Mr. McGurk was pouring a pint of Guinness for another customer. In the snug, Johnny took a sup of his stout as he listened with glee to the animated chat just as Kitty, his own wife and mother of his children, happened to catch his eye and smile. At that moment, in an instant, the bar and his whole world collapsed around him.Collusion /k'lu:z()n/ nounSecret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose.British state collusion with their loyalist death squads has been well documented in several high profile cases from the late eighties such as the murder of the Human Rights lawyer, Mr. Pat Finucane, and the Brian Nelson affair. State collusion, though, has been institutionalized from the start of the conflict when Britain trained, armed and directed their paramilitary gangs for use against the Catholic minority in the north east of Ireland. The McGurk's Bar Massacre of the 4th December 1971 was to be the first bloody signpost of this collusion on a road that leads directly to Bloody Sunday, the New Lodge Six, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and beyond.The War Before the McGurk's Bar MassacreProof that the Irish Question could not be solved by military and legal means alone came early in the conflict but was not heeded for another generation. Far from quelling what the British portrayed as localized unrest, the introduction of internment on the 9th August 1971 plunged the north of Ireland into an all-enveloping spiral of violence, destruction and death. The story of its failure is told conclusively in the death toll in the months prior to and following its introduction. Ten people (four British soldiers, four civilians and two Republican Volunteers) had died in the four months leading up to internment. One hundred and twenty eight died in its four-month aftermath (sixty nine civilians and fifty nine combatants - thirteen Republican soldiers and forty six British army, RUC, UDR and Loyalist personnel).The Provisional IRA had rightly sensed British strategic weakness and launched such a devastating onslaught that it seemed certain that the Orange statelet, under unionist misrule, would crumple. Britain, though, in the spring of 1970 had installed one Frank Kitson as Commander of the occupying forces in Belfast. Such was his perceived skill in so-called counter-insurgency that, even though he was only a Brigadier and was to become the youngest Commander in the British army, he held its most difficult post for two years until April 1972. During this critical time he had tirelessly prepared the framework for how the British army was to wage its war in the north of Ireland. Indeed, his book, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping, which was published in 1971, became the blueprint for the British modus operandi in this theatre of war. It had been formulated and honed by British paramilitary forces in places as far-flung as Kenya, Malaya, Aden and Cyprus as the rotten empire began to crumble. Nevertheless, Britain, like its blundering generals in the First World War, had not learned from any of these conflicts. Their methodology each and every time had been unsuccessful, resulting in long-term military failure and territorial loss. History will judge whether the North of Ireland is the same.The bedrock of this counter-insurgency strategy is "the working of the triumvirate: civil, military and police as a joint and integrated organisation from the highest to the lowest level of policy-making, planning and administration" (from Counter-Revolutionary Operations, volume three of Land Operations, the army's secret training manual, obtained by the Time Out magazine in 1969). Therefore, legislative and judicial powers have to be weighted and local police militia bolstered towards an obdurate support of military strategy. These steps in isolation are not enough, though, if a covert surveillance and intelligence-gathering network is not in place. Kitson's subversion of insurgency theory and psychological warfare went even further with its creation of gangs and counter-gangs to off-set revolution within a particular community. In other conflicts British Special Forces would don local garb or blacken their faces to execute illegal operations in the guise of indigenous gangs. They would also fund and instruct native militia, directing them against shared quarry. Their hand need not have been so well-hidden in the north of Ireland as the dress and skin colour was usually their own. In conjunction with these death squads, the British military had also had been training and arming protestant militants for such a juncture in the war. Loyalists, in the two and a half years prior to the McGurk's Bar Massacre, had only been responsible for ten deaths (or thirteen deaths in the five and a half years prior to the pub bombing). Now was the time for the British to unfetter these paramilitary dogs of war and direct them against ordinary, Irish civilians. Their success, in British military terms, is calculated in the death count of innocents that rose sharply from, and began with, the McGurk's Bar Massacre of the 4th December 1971. A war that lasted for two generations, though, testifies to their abject failure.The Week Prior to the McGurk's Bar MassacreOn Saturday the 27th November 1971 the north reeled from a major IRA offensive and bomb blitz throughout the city of Belfast and the counties of Derry and Fermanagh. Beginning at 9 a.m., there had been nine explosions over a half hour period and, within thirty hours, a further twenty blasts. Maliciously-started fires raged as custom posts, check points and army patrols were attacked. Two custom officers (Jimmy O'Neill and Ian Hankin) and one Scots Guardsman (Paul Nicholls) were killed. The tempo of bombings, shootings and death was maintained vigorously throughout the week and rose to such a crescendo that another weekend blitz was guaranteed. The British military, therefore, swamped the streets of all major towns across the statelet and dug in in anticipation.In North Belfast, the prison services had been caught napping once more on the day before the McGurk's Bar Massacre when three high profile Republican prisoners, Martin Meehan, Anthony "Dutch" Doherty and Hugh McCann, simply scaled the wall of Crumlin Road jail and jumped to freedom. As this escape followed on the coattails of the highly embarrassing breakout of nine inmates on the 16th November from the very same jail, it was imperative that these latest escapees were immediately caught. Therefore a ring of steel was thrown around North Belfast so that the potential movements of these men would be hampered until their capture. Press reports speculated that the prisoners were bundled swiftly over the border but the British authorities knew they had been quick enough to react and keep them in the vicinity.The Day and Night of the McGurk's Bar MassacreOn the fateful night of the 4th December the Belfast Telegraph reported:In a massive clamp-down operation, hundreds of troops today saturated Belfast's city centre... in an effort to prevent a repetition of last Saturday's IRA terror campaign... More than 4000 men in nine regiments are stationed in and around Belfast, and today each regiment was told to keep a lookout for trouble in its own area... All this was in addition to the massive search which has been mounted for the three IRA jail breakers. Road blocks on all roads leading into and out of the city are being manned round the clock.The McGurk's family pub was on North Queen Street, one of North Belfast's main thoroughfares, five minute's walk away from both the commercial hub of the statelet and the jail in question.Witnesses (see Joe Graham's account in our Guest Book) recall that there were cordons and searches at every turn and yet it was in this area that a loyalist death squad felt confident to linger and act. The military on this one major road had somehow vanished to allow a carload of men with a 50lb bomb in the backseat into their target zone.As we know from the testimony of the one convicted bomber, Robert James Campbell, the gang even waited for half an hour to have clear access at their original target, the Gem bar, with its perceived allegiances to the Official Republican movement. The British war machine planned to stir up internecine strife between the two Republican wings with the no-warning and devastating bomb at this pub. As one wing blamed the other, both would be deflected from their war against the occupation forces and their community support networks rent asunder by recrimination and infighting - the classic formula for divide and conquer that the British military and its agents had perfected over centuries of misrule. As it happened, though, the Gem had men outside it, so, after waiting for thirty minutes, with no apparent concern for being accosted by security forces, the loyalists decided that any Catholic pub would suffice. What mattered was that it was a softer target to hit - the loss of innocent civilian life was irrelevant. The McGurk's family pub was their fateful choice.Afterwards, as the death squad raced towards the nearby Cathedral Quarter where they had arranged to dump their car and get picked up, the bomb they had left behind ripped through the small pub and the innocents within. A couple of minutes later they abandoned their car as all around Belfast sounded to the squeals of the emergency services speeding towards the carnage. At this moment, in an apparent act of cowardice, their pickup fled the area and abandoned his cronies (no loyalist was punished for this treachery, as would be expected, which leads us to assume that the gang member was attached directly to British Intelligence). Instead they had to phone their controllers and arrange a second team to collect them which meant another half an hour in the immediate vicinity of their atrocity. Yet still, the three men were not stopped, questioned or arrested as they skulked suspiciously in the shadow of St. Anne's Cathedral and the ring of steel closed once more with thousands of troops flooding into the area. Eventually they were picked up and driven the couple of miles back to their drinking dens, through roadblocks and past army posts. Indeed, the British did not even recover the original transport they abandoned a few hundred yards away from McGurk's.The Aftermath of the McGurk's MassacreAs surely as what happened in the McGurk's family pub was a massacre of innocents, the British authorities' handling of the case in the generations thenceforth has constituted nothing less than an atrocity and an abasement of basic Human Rights.The original plan was to have their loyalist death squad hit an establishment frequented by Official IRA members to fan the flames of the split with the Provisional movement. This feud would spill onto the streets of their own community and sap the very support that each needed to survive. When McGurk's family pub, the softest of innocent targets, was hit instead, the British machinations for misinformation were firmly in place. The recently formed Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) section in Palace Barracks within minutes had begun to propagate the lie that the bomb was an IRA own-goal in order that the objective of their original plan was realised and the local power-base of the IRA drained. As ordinary people emptied onto North Queen Street to claw at rubble and debris, British officers were debriefing journalists with the lie spun by their Intelligence superiors: bombers were being trained in the bar or the bomb was waiting to be transported to its intended target. The IRA were to blame and the people in the bar were guilty by association if not legally culpable through complicity.The impact of this lie was dependent upon its longevity and its life span upon the synchronicity between the administrative powers, the police and the media. The British military, therefore, swung the full weight of each behind their deception. As neighbours dug feverishly for survivors, police and army personnel descended upon the New Lodge community and began an intensive house-to-house search operation. Ignoring the highly accurate testimony of young Joseph McClory, they used the McGurk's Bar Massacre as a thinly-veiled excuse to turn whole streets upside-down in a hunt for intelligence, prison escapees or arms. They even swooped on the family home of Edward Kane in the vain hope that they might upturn some incriminating evidence that they could use to back their spurious claims concerning the victims. Mrs. Kane, a young mother to young children, watched as her home was ransacked and her neighbours were dragged onto the street. She recounts how a local informant, hidden from view behind a screen in an army vehicle, could be heard telling his paymasters whether his neighbours were connected to the Republican movement. She had not been told at this moment in time that her partner, the father of her babies, had been murdered.Nothing could be found or planted by the British military to connect any family member to illegal activity but still the lies of the state grew.John Taylor, minister of state for home affairs in the Stormont government, felt assured four days later to tell the world from the statelet's parliament that "forensic evidence supports the theory that the explosion... took place inside the building". The families would obviously like to know whether Taylor, with security as his remit, was an instrument of British Intelligence or duped by them. To date, even though he is supposed to be a servant of the public, he has not made this information available either to the bereaved family members, the ombudsman's investigation or the belated police inquiry. The minutes of a secret military briefing (ref. MG/71/1338 55/20/6) on the 14th December 1971, buried in archives, but recently discovered by a family member, discussed how the lie was to be further propagated at governmental level:"Findings which indicated that that the explosion in the McGurk's Bar had been the result of a bomb in the bar (by implication, in transit there) should be publicized, possibly by means of a written parliamentary question."The British media, to its eternal shame, breathed life into the lies of Military Intelligence due to either subjective or extremely lazy reporting. John Chartres in the Times (16th December 1971) devoted a complete article to the debriefing of the British army. He recorded, without heeding any of the witness accounts:Police and army intelligence officers believe that Ulster's worst outrage, the killing of 15 people, including two children and three women... was caused by an IRA plan that went wrong.Below are the memories or messages of support that people from around the world have been kind enough to record.If you wish to leave a message for the families please contact us at [email protected] leave your name and nationality.You may even have information that would be of importance to the ongoing investigation. Otherwise, if you do not have any confidence in the agencies that are performing these investigations, you can contact the families alone and anonymously.From Pat Irvine, the youngest child of Kitty.Sitting in the family home, from where my mother's body was removed 35 years ago, I am quietly reading the many letters of support and comfort from around the world.From my heart I thank you.It's hard some days to remember just the simple things a mother and daughter shared those many years ago. It is sometimes hard to remember her face and voice.The memory that will never leave me is the memory of death and destruction. The hill of death through which a mass of people clawed their way to save life. Watching and listening to the screams ,to the shouts of "I think I've found one!", "Over here!", "There's another one!". Little did I know that one was my father.Walking back up to the house I saw people coming from my home. When I arrived at the door my granny told me to come in. "Granny, where's my mummy and daddy? I can't find them. Father Blaney told me to come home".I had not known at that time about my parents. Father Blaney did. My uncle and I were on our way down to the scene when one of the neighbours called him over. He turned to me and told me to go back home. Standing in the kitchen I heard trough the hum of voices "God help those wee children losing their mother like that. What about Johnny? Is he alright?"The rest of the evening is just a blur of people coming and going, looking at my brother and me with pity. Fourteen years of age looking at everyone around me wanting to scream, to wake up from this horrible nightmare, a nightmare that the families of those murdered have continued to live for over 35 years. A nightmare that will come to an end with the truth.Again, from my heart, I thank you and I thank the people of the New Lodge for saving my father and the other survivors of that terrible night. I thank our neighbours for all that they did for my family.I thank you for all your kind words.Pat Irvine, daughter of KittyFrom Mr. Michael Connarty, Labour M.P. and Nephew of Philip GarryI hope to come over to visit my aunt who still lives in Belfast some time when I can draw breath.I would obviously pursue my enquiry with the authorities when I am over.The victims and the families of the murdered at McGurk's Bar are not forgotten.Best Wishes,Michael Connarty MP, Linlithgow and East Falkirk, Scotland.To those who lost relatives that terrible night,I can recall that evening very clearly. I was visiting my uncle Patrick Foots (RIP) who lived in Unity Flats at the corner of Unity Street. He always insisted on leaving me around to get a taxi or bus beside Liam Cray's shop in Clifton Street.As we walked towards Clifton Street the explosion went off ahead of us in North Queen Street, we both ran across into North Queen Street and made our way to the scene as people ran to join us, it was awful to see and quite unbelievable, along with a load of young men about my age we clambered on top of what was a smouldering pile of rubble and black dust.At that time there was no soldiers or police at the scene but I remember some elderly man climbed up to where we were standing. He seemed to know the layout of the building and told us to start digging with out bare hands in a particular spot.I could not believe it but soon someone shouted he had hold of somebody's hair and we all dug around him holding the hair and shortly dragged a man out. An ambulance arrived and took him away. I never ever knew if he survived or not and after that I never saw anyone else being dug out. In fact, when I left the scene a digger with a shovel had arrived as it was felt there was no more hope.I heard shooting coming from the direction of the bottom of the New Lodge towards Tigers Bay and I think a soldier was killed during this (Major Jeremy Snow died on the 8th December due to injuries sustained shortly after the McGurk's Bar Massacre).I did not realise during all of this that the bar was McGurk's as I knew Paddy McGurk quite well. In fact he was the Vice President of our Gaelic Athletic Club, the Ardoyne Kickhams.In closing I just felt the need to say I have never forgotten that evening and always remember everyone who died in my prayers.Mr. Joe Lavery, Belfast, IrelandI am very sorry indeed for your loss and the loss to your family. My sincere condolences.Noel Sweeney, Washington D.C., U.S.A.After reading through the website I am ashamed to call myself human. It is a shame that we live in a world full of hate, dictated by such a small few that it can affect us all.To the families and friends, I can only extend my sincere sympathy and let you know that I feel that this website is a fitting and informative tribute that can only grow in strength. May you continue with your campaign for justice and tell many more the true story of that fateful night.Sincerely,Stephen Cunningham, Monaghan, IrelandAfter reading this Website it does give horrific evidence that this was total collusion. To all that were involved in the massacre may they be forever remembered and may the truth be brought to light.Shane Kelly, Hastings, New ZealandOn my many trips to the New Lodge I have passed the fitting monument at the site of this horrific act giving me cause to reflect.My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, may they rest in peace.God bless,Greg Clark New Jersey, USAA Personal Memory by Joe GrahamIt was on the evening of the 4th December 1971 and I was returning to the A.1 Taxi Depot in York Street for whom I was driving at the time. Along North Queen Street I came and turned right into Great Georges Street past the side of McGurk’s Bar. I got about another 200 yards when a huge bomb went off. At that time you had heard so many there was no question of you wondering what that big bang was. I stopped the car almost immediately. I could not have driven on for within a split second the whole air was filled with dust and smoke: I couldn’t see out of the windscreen, or indeed any window of the car. I got out of the car and walked back up toward North Queen Street where the bomb seemed to have exploded, I could see nothing with the dust filled air but I could here feet running and screams. Whether it was from people wounded in the bomb or screams of shock of people arriving at the horrific scene I couldn’t say. I got to the corner and where McGurk’s Bar stood just two minutes ago there was a waste ground with a big heap of rubble, bricks dust and protruding pieces of timber.Crowds gathered in the deserted street that I had just driven down what seemed like only seconds before. There were men and women from nearby houses and police army ambulance and firemen poured into the street from every direction only. By then we earlier arrivals had began digging with our hands and throwing bricks from the pile out onto the street behind us. On the spot where I and another guy were digging, which would have been close to where the door of the bar had been, we soon came upon one of the buried people, a man, who had obviously been in the bar at the time of the explosion. Together we lifted him out from the debris, the other fellow took his arms and shoulders and I his lower body , one arm around his waist and the other, I thought, under his legs at the knees, but I soon discovered he had only one leg, the other lay somewhere buried in the debris. The strange thing is I can’t say I was horrified by this discovery, because events and the necessity to keep digging overtook any personal feelings, thoughts or emotions. He was a young man and seemed conscious so I asked him his name, and he murmured Roddy Corley, I for some reason thought he was saying Roddy McCorley, the name of an Irish patriot who was executed back in 1798, and therefore thought he was rambling in shock. I later learned that his name was indeed Roddy Corley (Roderick McCurley in some reports); I kept in touch with him through the remainder of his short life. I witnessed a particularly sad and tragic incident while in his company about a year later, but I don’t think here is the place to tell it of it. As for the other fellow who helped me extricate Roddy from the ruins I have never met him from that day to this. Sadly I would not know him if I met him on the street. Fifteen people died in that terrible bomb explosions, often referred to as The McGurk’s Bar Massacre or The McGurk’s Bar Atrocity, but I always point out that they are two different things. The Massacre was the murder of those fifteen innocent people. The Atrocity was the hurt inflicted on the relatives of the murdered by those in authority who readily jumped to accuse one or more of them of having been responsible for the bombing: the media, British Army, RUC and even a leading Nationalist M.P. For thirty five years now the members of the victim’s families have had to live with the allegations that their loved ones could have had a hand in their own death and the deaths of the other fourteen people. That they were present in that bar when a bomb was being primed, or constructed, or waiting for collection to be planted at a target elsewhere but went of prematurely. With all the authorities’ statements pouring out from Security Sources etc is it any wonder that some people readily accepted that it was an Own Goal, a sick term given to a bomb explosion that went off accidentally among the bombers. John Taylor, a Unionist politician, in that holy of holy places, Stormont, confirmed from the government’s inquires that it was an own goal, by saying, “forensic evidence supports the theory that the explosion ... Took place within the building"In 1975, four years after the bombing, Lieutenant-Colonel George Styles, perpetuated the lie when he wrote in his book, Bombs Have No Pity:“From an examination of the wreckage we worked out an area where the explosion happened and it seemed to be well into the pub. Normally if a pub is attacked the explosion occurs fairly near the entrance. We estimated the size of the bomb at around 50lb of explosive and this would have been a fair weight to carry into a pub undetected. Thus I reckon it was another own goal.My theory was that a terrorist was instructing some I.R.A volunteers in bomb making when it went off. I pictured the scene as the terrorist and his pupils sat around a table with the devise on the floor between them... We could never be certain that is what happened but it is the theory that fits all the known facts”There was no wide wave of sympathy for the families of the victims as there was and still is for the more recent outrage, the Omagh Bombing, nor indeed was there to the family of the Quinn family whose little boys were incinerated by a loyalist fire bomb at Ballymoney, which at times points to a sick and manipulative society. Yes I dare say a politically manipulated society that can be so selective in their condemnation in offering of sympathy. Recall that in the case of the Quinn Family outrage, only the driver of the vehicle, just like the McGurk’s Bar case, was presented in court!One well-informed reporter even said, from information from a reliable source, that a Catholic man found shot dead in the Market area of Belfast a few days after the bombing had been executed by the Provisional I.R.A because he had been the man who failed to turn up at McGurk’s Bar to pick up the primed bomb. Of course this turned out to be rubbish, and to be fair, the first reporter to rubbish this further attempt to perpetuate the own goal theory was David McKettrick of the Irish Times He also placed the blame fairly and squarely at the feet of the U.V.F, this was years before a guy called Campbell had been charged and admitted he was the driver of the car that brought the loyalist bomb squad to McGurk’s Bar, the bombers themselves never were caught, or should I say, arrested (there is a difference). At one point a shadowy group called the Empire Loyalists, a name of convenience known apparently to have been used by the U.V.F at one point claimed responsibility, but it was strangely dismissed as a claim?. Campbell was also charged with the shooting dead of John Morrow, a Protestant, on the 22nd January 1976.When one considers Lt. Col. Styles', he is plainly saying since none of the survivors were charged with involvement then four or five of the victims of the McGurk’s bombing were involved with the bombing conveniently among the dead were the guilty! And the dead can not defend themselves against the scurrilous and malicious remarks, and their loved were ones left to carry guilt.The media, years later and to this day defend their stance by saying they only acted on information given by them by reliable authorities sources, this is investigative journalism?It may all now be accepted that a grave error was made although the flood of apologies to the families from all concern do not match the ready flow of accusations heaped on those fifteen innocent people.Never once were the other strange circumstances surrounding the bombing ever published or aired in the media. Look back to the events in Belfast that evening of 4th December 1974....Consider how easily that loyalist bomb was delivered to the bar... On that night security was at its highest, due to the fact that three top republican prisoners, Martin Meehan, Dutch Doherty, and Hugh McCann had escaped from Crumlin Road Prison. These were no low key republicans, they were major figures in the fight for Irish Independence and as such the British had pulled out all stops to counteract the propaganda value of the escape by quickly attempting to catch the three, as I am sure anyone would agree they would try. One could not drive 400 yards without running into a road check and having the vehicle thoroughly searched and yet a loyalist car containing four men and a 50lb bomb, was able to cruise through all that security to plant its deadly luggage, then returned safely to their base. Not one description was gathered of any of the other men in the car, not even from the driver? It seems the U.V.F were invisible that night. Is it any wonder people suspected collusion between the security forces and the Loyalists?Recently I was interviewed by an English detective attached to the Police Ombudsman Office here in Belfast, a polite man, but he left me with little doubt that despite any the goodwill from that office in investigating the mass murders little will every occur to bring justice to the memory of those innocent people who perished in that evil bombing.Justice will never be seen to be in practice until the so-called "authorities" in this corner of Ireland present the truth about the McGurk Bar Massacre... AND THEY KNOW THE TRUTH..!!!Mr. Joe Graham, Belfast, IrelandEditor of Rushlight: The Belfast Magazinewww.rushlightmagazine.comI read your website with interest and sympathy and fully support your quest for truth and justice. There have been many cowardly injustices perpetrated in the name of the state, either directly or through their agents. This is one of those.Aside from the media, which tends to go for a one off story with no guarantee of them having the will to examine the issues, the Ombudsman's office is a platform for the voices of those whose lives were taken by the state. There is no guarantee that the State will provide the support or information necessary to establish truth but don't give up!I will watch your campaign with interest. Good luck to you.Joe Campbell, IrelandFrom a daughter of Kitty Irvine.I would like to thank my nephew, for all the work he and my brother, Sam, and my sister, Pat, have put into this website. Looking through it just breaks my heart but it is a fitting tribute to all the innocent victims, not only those murdered in McGurk's Bar, but those who have been victims throughout the 'Troubles'.The Truth Will Out.Marie Irvine, daughter of Kitty Irvine, Belfast, IrelandNothing will replace the lives taken away, but I hope that all the families involved will find peace and that justice will prevail.Annelies Hofmeyr, South AfricaI would like to extend my continuing sympathy to all of the families for their ongoing feelings of loss and anger as a result of the atrocity 35 years ago. You are all particularly in my thoughts on this anniversary.David CestaroA Child's MemoryI had this web page address emailed to me and can only say that the faces and ordinariness of the people who were massacred on that night will haunt me for some time to come. Faces that were happy, just trying to get through this life as best they could, no big agendas - a pint with your friends or family on a Saturday night laughing and smiling - as only Northern Ireland people can and thank goodness still do. I am so full of sadness I have no words to describe how I feel.On that night (I was just ten years old) I stayed with my aunt and grandmother in Dawson Street. In the morning when I went to get the milk from the window sill there was blood on the door and doorstep. My aunt wouldn't let me tell my granny about the blood because it would upset her ... but what must have occurred was that someone had stopped - to try to understand, to catch their breath, to cry, to contemplate what they had just been involved in, who knows, but the blood dropped from their hands onto the doorstep (obviously trying to get bodies out from the rubble) and left an indelible memory on a child's mind. I wish peace to all the relatives left holding only memories and faded photographs.With Light & Love,Bernadette Holden, (Originally Belfast) Monaghan, Ireland.I will pray for you this Christmas that you may finally know the truth. Never give up hope.Take care and God Bless to you all,Jim Lynch, Ontario, Canada.My thoughts and my prayers are with you. I read through the site and am appalled at the way in which this atrocity was allowed to happen.With all my heart I hope that peace will come to you and your Ireland.Leah Cummings, Newfoundland, CanadaJust recently in The Washington Post there was an article about police collusion in Belfast. It was not about the McGurk's bombing, but all the same, illuminating. I was completely taken aback when I read the story of the bombing and the follow-up.I would very much like to hear from you. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.Margaret Henry, Virginia, USA.I was 15 years old at the time of these murders but I still remember my parents talking about it. We are Protestants living in east Belfast and I remember well my father saying that he was ashamed to be a Protestant. My brothers and sisters were brought up to respect people, no matter their religion. Even 35 years on I feel thoroughly ashamed of what happened that night and I hope that the families know that there were many protestants who at the time were sickened by the bombing.I sincerely hope that the families get justice and that the evil, cowardly thugs who carried this out are brought to book for their crimes. That also goes for the people who tried to cover it up.Mr. J Molloy, Belfast, IrelandFrom a great niece of Roderick McCorley who was horrifically injured in the blast.I pray there will be justice. You are all in my prayers.Julia McCorleyMy sincerest condolences for what happened on that dreadful night. I cannot begin to imagine the pain it has caused you.May all of you be assured that your family and friends who had their lives taken that day are now somewhere beautiful watching over you.Martin, County Cork, IrelandAfter reading your website I fully support your quest for the truth and justice.I would like to express my sincere condolences to all the victims' families.Jacinta Casey, Dublin, IrelandGrowing up in Australia, I never had to endure such atrocities and could not understand the struggle. After reading of this and hearing numerous other incidents perpetrated, at least in part, by the government upon its citizens, anger and sadness overwhelm me. I cannot imagine the pain and betrayal felt by the victims and their families. The fact that you go about your daily lives in a manner of goodwill and peaceably seek the truth is a testament not only to yourselves but to the Irish spirit.I wish you all the luck in the world in the hope that justice prevails, the victims names are cleared and the people involved at every stage are brought to task.Clint Jury, Copacabana, AustraliaI admire your dedication to this project and wish to express my support, and sympathy to the families of the victims.Genevieve Ann Woods, Belfast, IrelandMay Justice prevail. May you find peace of mind and satisfaction that the deaths of your loves one are not in vain. May God forgive those who carried out this terrible carnage of the innocents. May Ireland be free of British misrule and have ever-lasting peace.God Bless.Turlough Brennan, Vancouver, CanadaWe cannot begin to express how much strength and succour we draw each day from your messages or thoughts, so thank you on behalf of all of the victims' families.In no small way, therefore, you too have become part of their campaign for truth. If you wish to link your site to ours, please contact us at:[email protected] should be noted that if you do not use Microsoft Outlook as your email service, you ought to copy and paste the above address into your own mail provider. Otherwise we will not receive your message.Below are some of the websites we utilised when developing our own.CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet):www.cain.ulst.ac.ukThis site contains information and source material on 'the Troubles' and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present. There is also information on Northern Ireland society. New material is added regularly and there are also frequent updates, so information on particular pages may change.British Irish Rights Watch:www.birw.orgBritish Irish Rights Watch is an independent non-governmental organisation that has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and latterly the peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990.The Pat Finucane Centre:www.patfinucanecentre.orgInformation on the fight for human rights in Ireland and social change.Justice for the Forgotten:www.dublinmonaghanbombings.orgJustice for the Forgotten was formed in January 1996 with the aim of campaigning for truth and justice for the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974. Its membership includes the overwhelming majority of the bereaved families and many wounded survivors. In January 2001 the bereaved families and survivors of the Dublin bombings of 1 December 1972 and 20 January 1973 joined with those of 1974 and amalgamated into a united organisation demanding to know the truth as to why all their loved ones died and so many were maimed.Relatives for Justice:www.relativesforjustice.comRelatives for Justice is a Belfast based NGO support group working with and providing support to relatives of people bereaved, and injured, by the conflict across the North of Ireland including border regions in the 26 counties. They work primarily with those people affected by state and state-sponsored violence.LOST LIVES17 May 1974 Dublin & Monaghan Bombings:Patrick Askin (44) Co. Monaghan Josie Bradley (21) Co. Offaly Marie Butler (21) Co. Waterford Anne Byrne (35) Dublin Thomas Campbell (52) Co. Monaghan Simone Chetrit (30) France Thomas Croarkin (36) Co. Monaghan John Dargle (80) Dublin Concepta Dempsey (65) Co. Louth Colette Doherty (20) Dublin Baby Doherty (full term unborn) Dublin* Patrick Fay (47), Dublin & Co. Louth Elizabeth Fitzgerald (59) Dublin Breda Bernadette Grace (34) Dublin and Co. Kerry Archie Harper (73) Co. Monaghan Antonio Magliocco, (37) Dublin & Italy May McKenna (55) Co. Tyrone Anne Marren (20) Co. Sligo Anna Massey (21) Dublin Dorothy Morris (57) Dublin John (24), Anna (22), Jacqueline (17 months) & Anne-Marie (5 months) O'Brien, Dublin Christina O'Loughlin (51), Dublin Edward John O'Neill (39), Dublin Marie Phelan (20), Co. Waterford Siobhán Roice (19), Wexford Town Maureen Shields (46), Dublin Jack Travers (28), Monaghan Town Breda Turner (21), Co. TipperaryJohn Walsh (27), Dublin Peggy White (44), Monaghan Town George Williamson (72), Co. Monaghan *Baby Doherty was recognised as the 34th victim of the Bombings by the Coroner for the City of Dublin during the course of the Inquests held in April and May 2004Dublin Bombing - 1st December 1972:George Bradshaw, (30) Co. Tipperary Thomas Duffy, (23) Dublin and Co. MayoDublin Bombing - 20th January 1973:Thomas Douglas, (21) Stirling, Scotland.Background Photo By IrishViews.com
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