Bayardo Bar attack

Last updated

Bayardo Bar attack
Part of The Troubles
Bayardo Bar attack Belfast Irland@20160528.jpg
Memorial to the victims of the attack on the site of the Bayardo Bar
LocationBayardo Bar
Aberdeen Street,
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Coordinates 54°36′14″N5°56′53″W / 54.604008°N 5.948119°W / 54.604008; -5.948119
Date13 August 1975
Attack type
shooting, bombing
Deaths5 (4 Protestant civilians, 1 Ulster Volunteer Force member)
Injured50+
Perpetrator Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade

The Bayardo Bar attack took place on 13 August 1975 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Brendan McFarlane, launched a bombing and shooting attack on a pub on Aberdeen Street, in the loyalist Shankill area. IRA members stated the pub was targeted because it was frequented by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Four Protestant civilians and one UVF member were killed, while more than fifty were injured.

Contents

According to journalists Alan Murray and Peter Taylor, it was a retaliation for the Miami Showband massacre almost a fortnight earlier when members of the popular Dublin-based band were shot dead by the UVF at a fake military checkpoint.

McFarlane and two other IRA volunteers, Peter "Skeet" Hamilton and Seamus Clarke, were sentenced to life imprisonment for perpetrating the Bayardo attack.

Background

By the year 1975, the conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, was more than six years old. On 10 February 1975, the Provisional IRA and the British government entered into a truce and restarted negotiations. The IRA agreed to halt attacks on the British security forces, and the security forces mostly ended its raids and searches. [1] However, there were dissenters on both sides. Some Provisionals wanted no part of the truce, while British commanders resented being told to stop their operations against the IRA just when they thought they had the IRA on the run. [1] The security forces boosted their intelligence offensive during the truce and thoroughly infiltrated the IRA. [1]

There was a rise in sectarian killings during the truce, which 'officially' lasted until early 1976. Ulster loyalists, fearing they were about to be forsaken by the British government and forced into a united Ireland, [2] increased their attacks on Irish Catholics/nationalists. They hoped to force the IRA to retaliate and thus end the truce. [3] Under orders not to engage the security forces, some IRA units concentrated on tackling the loyalists. The fall-off of regular operations had caused unruliness within the IRA and some members, with or without permission from higher up, engaged in tit-for-tat killings. [1]

In the early hours of 31 July 1975, the popular Miami Showband was driving back to Dublin following a gig in Banbridge. At Buskhill (outside Newry) they were stopped at a checkpoint by Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gunmen wearing British Army uniforms. Some of the gunmen were Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers. The gunmen ordered the group to line up, facing a ditch. As one gunman took the names and addresses of the band members, two others hid a bomb under the driver's seat of their minibus. However, the bomb detonated prematurely, and the two men were blown to pieces. The surviving gunmen then opened fire on the five band members, killing three and wounding two. [4] According to journalists Peter Taylor and Alan Murray, the attack on the Bayardo was retaliation for the massacre. [5] [6]

The attack

The Bayardo Bar was crowded with people of all ages on Wednesday 13 August 1975. Shortly before closing time a stolen green Audi car, containing a three-man unit of the IRA's Belfast Brigade, pulled up outside. It was driven by the unit's leader Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, a 24-year-old volunteer from Ardoyne. [7] [8] [9] Volunteers Seamus Clarke and Peter "Skeet" Hamilton got out and approached the pub's side entrance on Aberdeen Street. [10] [11] [12] One of them immediately opened fire with an Armalite, instantly killing doorman William Gracey (63) and his brother-in-law Samuel Gunning (55), with whom he had been chatting outside. [6] [13] The other volunteer then entered the pub, where patrons were drinking and singing, and at the entrance, he dropped a duffel bag containing a ten-pound bomb. Both men made their getaway back to the waiting car. [11] As panicked customers ran to the toilets for safety, the bomb exploded and brought down a section of the old brick-and-plaster building upon them. The bodies of civilian Joanne McDowell (29) and UVF member Hugh Harris (21) were later found beneath the rubble of fallen masonry. [6] Seventeen-year-old civilian Linda Boyle was pulled out alive, but died of her injuries in hospital on 21 August. [6] [14] Over 50 people were injured in the attack. [6]

A Belfast Telegraph article later stated that, as the IRA unit drove away down Agnes Street (an arterial road linking the Shankill to the Crumlin Road), they fired into a crowd of women and children queuing at a taxi rank; there were no fatalities. [6] Within 20 minutes of the blast, the IRA unit was arrested after their car was stopped at a roadblock. The Armalite that had been used to kill William Gracey and Samuel Gunning was found inside the car along with spent bullet cases and fingerprints belonging to the three IRA men. [7] [11]

The IRA did not initially claim responsibility, However, IRA members later stated that the Bayardo was attacked because it was a pub where UVF members met and planned terrorist assaults against nationalists. [6] Martin Dillon said that the Bayardo was frequented by the UVF and that Lenny Murphy, head of the Shankill Butchers gang, was a regular customer. [15] Steve Bruce also maintained that in the early 1970s, the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) would often be found drinking in the pub, which was just around the corner from their headquarters above "The Eagle" chip shop on the Shankill Road. [16] A former IRA prisoner stated that fellow inmate Lenny Murphy told him he had left the Bayardo ten minutes before the attack and that the Brigade Staff had just finished holding a meeting there. [17]

Retaliation

Loyalists, especially the UVF, responded with another wave of sectarian attacks against Catholics. Two days after, a loyalist car bomb exploded without warning on the Falls Road, injuring 35 people. [18] On 22 August, the UVF launched a gun and bomb attack on McGleenan's Bar in Armagh. The attack was strikingly similar to that at Bayardo. One gunman opened fire while another planted the bomb; the explosion caused the building to collapse. Three Catholic civilians were killed (one of whom died on 28 August) and several more were wounded. [19] That same night, another bomb wrecked a Catholic-owned pub in nearby Blackwatertown, although there were no injuries. [20]

These loyalist attacks were responded to in kind by the IRA (sometimes using the cover name "Republican Action Force"), with the months that followed the Bayardo attack being characterised as a bloody game of tit-for-tat. This was met with disillusionment by imprisoned republicans such as Gerry Adams and Brendan Hughes, with the latter stating that sectarianism was "destroying the whole struggle". [21]

Convictions

In May 1976, Brendan McFarlane, Seamus Clarke, and Peter Hamilton were convicted in a non-jury Diplock Court and sentenced to life imprisonment inside the Maze Prison for carrying out the Bayardo murders. [5] [10] [11] Inside the Maze, McFarlane rose to become officer commanding IRA prisoners and in 1983 he led the Maze Prison escape, which was the mass break-out of 38 republican prisoners, including Clarke and Hamilton. McFarlane and Clarke then went on the run, although Hamilton was immediately recaptured outside the prison's main perimeter gate. McFarlane has never spoken about the killings, and the IRA leadership has never encouraged him to do so, considering the attack was viewed as having been "purely sectarian". [5] Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, however, told journalist Alan Murray that McFarlane "hadn't a single, sectarian bone in his body". [6] Peter "Skeet" Hamilton died of cancer in Dundalk on 25 February 2011 at the age of 57. [10]

The Bayardo Somme Association has described the Bayardo attack as "a forgotten atrocity". [6] The association erected a memorial to the victims on the site where the Bayardo Bar stood before its demolition. The large steel monument was incorporated into the remaining section of the original structure; it bears the names and photographs of the five people who were killed plus photos of the pub taken before and after the bombing. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulster Volunteer Force</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation formed in 1965

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during The Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is a proscribed organisation and is on the terrorist organisation list of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shankill Road</span> Main road leading through west Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Shankill Road is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill.

The Kingsmill massacre was a mass shooting that took place on 5 January 1976 near the village of Whitecross in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Gunmen stopped a minibus carrying eleven Protestant workmen, lined them up alongside it and shot them. Only one victim survived, despite having been shot 18 times. A Catholic man on the minibus was allowed to go free. A group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force claimed responsibility. It said the shooting was retaliation for a string of attacks on Catholic civilians in the area by Loyalists, particularly the killing of six Catholics the night before. The Kingsmill massacre was the climax of a string of tit-for-tat killings in the area during the mid-1970s, and was one of the deadliest mass shootings of the Troubles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shankill Road bombing</span> 1993 IRA attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Shankill Road bombing was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 23 October 1993 and is one of the most well-known incidents of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The IRA aimed to assassinate the leadership of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA), supposedly attending a meeting above Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road, Belfast. Two IRA members disguised as deliverymen entered the shop carrying a bomb, which detonated prematurely. Ten people were killed: one of the IRA bombers, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians, two of whom were children. More than fifty people were wounded. The targeted office was empty at the time of the bombing, but the IRA had allegedly realised that the tightly packed area below would inevitably cause "collateral damage" of civilian casualties and continued regardless. However, the IRA have denied this saying that they intended to evacuate the civilians before the explosion. It is alleged, and unearthed MI5 documents appear to prove, that British intelligence failed to act on a tip off about the bombing.

The South Armagh Republican Action Force(SARAF) shortened simply to the Republican Action Force(RAF) for a small number of attacks in Belfast was an Irish republican paramilitary group that was active from September 1975 to April 1977 during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Its area of activity was mainly the southern part of County Armagh. According to writers such as Ed Moloney and Richard English, it was a cover name used by some members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. The journalist Jack Holland, alleged that members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were also involved in the group. During the same time that the South Armagh Republican Action Force was active the INLA carried out at least one sectarian attack that killed Protestant civilians using the covername "Armagh People's Republican Army". According to Malcolm Sutton's database at CAIN, the South Armagh Republican Action Force was responsible for 24 deaths during the conflict, all of whom were classified as civilians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestant Action Force</span> Front group during the Troubles

The Protestant Action Force (PAF) was a front group used by Ulster loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland when claiming responsibility for a number of attacks during the Troubles. First used in 1974, attacks by individuals claiming to be members of the PAF killed at least 41 Catholic civilians. The PAF was most commonly used by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). All of the attacks claimed by the PAF in Armagh and Tyrone counties from 1974 to 1976 have been linked to the Glenanne gang, which was a group consisting of members of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade along with rogue Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. A six-year period of no attacks claimed by the PAF ended in 1982; during the 1980s, the PAF claimed 15 attacks in the Belfast area and two in County Armagh. UDR soldiers were convicted of two attacks in Armagh. The PAF claimed its last attacks in the early 1990s, all of which were in north Armagh and were alleged to involve members of the security forces.

The Reavey and O'Dowd killings were two coordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O'Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O'Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain haemorrhage almost a month later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade</span> Paramilitary unit

The Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA was the largest of the organisation's brigades, based in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Marchant (loyalist)</span> Northern Irish loyalist

William "Frenchie" Marchant was a Northern Irish loyalist and a high-ranking volunteer in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He was on a Garda list of suspects in the 1974 Dublin car bombings, and was allegedly the leader of the Belfast UVF unit known as "Freddie and the Dreamers" which hijacked and stole the three cars which were used in the bombings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tullyvallen massacre</span> Mass shooting near Tullyvallen, Northern Ireland

The Tullyvallen massacre took place on 1 September 1975, when Irish republican gunmen attacked an Orange Order meeting hall at Tullyvallen, near Newtownhamilton in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The Orange Order is an Ulster Protestant and unionist brotherhood. Five Orangemen were killed and seven wounded in the shooting. The "South Armagh Republican Action Force" claimed responsibility, saying it was retaliation for a string of attacks on Catholic civilians by Loyalists. It is believed members of the Provisional IRA carried out the attack, despite the organisation being on ceasefire.

UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade formed part of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland. The brigade was established in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1972 by its first commander Billy Hanna. The unit operated mainly around the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Subsequent leaders of the brigade were Robin Jackson, known as "The Jackal", and Billy Wright. The Mid-Ulster Brigade carried out many attacks, mainly in Northern Ireland, especially in the South Armagh area, but it also extended its operational reach into the Republic of Ireland. Two of the most notorious attacks in the history of the Troubles were carried out by the Mid-Ulster Brigade: the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the Miami Showband killings in 1975. Members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were part of the Glenanne gang which the Pat Finucane Centre has since linked to at least 87 lethal attacks in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1971 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing, Shankill</span> 1971 terrorist attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Balmoral Furniture Company bombing was a paramilitary attack that took place on 11 December 1971 on Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, resulting in four deaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor King</span> British Ulster loyalist; Ulster Volunteer Force commander (1953–1994)

James Trevor King, also known as "Kingso", was a British Ulster loyalist and a senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). He was commander of the UVF's "B" Company, 1st Belfast Battalion, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. On 16 June 1994, he was one of three UVF men gunned down by the Irish National Liberation Army as he stood on the corner of Spier's Place and the Shankill Road in West Belfast, close to the UVF headquarters. His companion Colin Craig was killed on the spot, and David Hamilton, who was seriously wounded, died the next day in hospital. King was also badly injured; he lived for three weeks on a life-support machine before making the decision himself to turn it off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramble Inn attack</span> Shooting carried out by the UVF near Antrim

The Ramble Inn attack was a mass shooting at a rural pub on 2 July 1976 near Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is believed to have been carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary organisation. Six civilians were killed in the attack—five Protestants and one Catholic—and three others were wounded.

The Hillcrest Bar bombing, also known as the "Saint Patrick's Day bombing", took place on 17 March 1976 in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a car bomb outside a pub crowded with people celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. Four Catholic civilians were killed by the blast—including two 13-year-old boys standing outside—and almost 50 people were injured, some severely.

On 5 April 1975 Irish republican paramilitary members killed a UDA volunteer and four Protestant civilians in a gun and bomb attack at the Mountainview Tavern on the Shankill Road, Belfast. The attack was claimed by the Republican Action Force believed to be a covername used by Provisional IRA (IRA) volunteers.

On 2 October 1975, the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) carried out a wave of shootings and bombings across Northern Ireland. Six of the attacks left 12 people dead and around 45 people injured. There was also an attack in a small village in County Down called Killyleagh. There were five attacks in and around Belfast which left people dead. A bomb which exploded in Coleraine left four UVF members dead. There were also several other smaller bombs planted around Northern Ireland but other than causing damage they did not kill or injure anyone.

The Strand Bar Bombing was a bomb attack on a pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 12 April 1975, during the Troubles. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, threw an improvised bomb into a pub frequented by Catholics in the Short Strand neighbourhood, killing six civilians and injuring about fifty others. It took place during a spate of tit-for-tat attacks by loyalists and Irish republican paramilitaries. The attack was claimed by the UVF unit known as the Red Hand Commando (RHC).

The Stag Inn attack was a sectarian gun attack, on 30 July 1976, carried out by a group of Belfast IRA Volunteers using the cover name Republican Action Force. Four Protestants, all civilians, the youngest being 48 years old and the eldest 70, were all killed in the attack with several others being injured. Three Catholics were killed the previous day in a Loyalish bomb, part of a string of sectarian attacks in Northern Ireland by different paramilitary organizations.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Extracts from The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA by Kevin J. Kelley. Zed Books Ltd, 1988. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
  2. ↑ Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p.142
  3. ↑ Taylor, Peter. Brits: The War Against the IRA. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2001. p.182
  4. ↑ Taylor, pp.147–149
  5. 1 2 3 Taylor, p.149
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Bayardo murders lost in rubble of McGurk's". Belfast Telegraph. Alan Murray. 10 March 2011 Retrieved 8 November 2011
  7. 1 2 "McFarlane – The Inside Story". Magill magazine. Derek Dunne. April 1986. In an unsigned statement which was read at his trial, McFarlane admitted he had driven the car used in the Bayardo attack.
  8. ↑ Bishop, Patrick Joseph & Mallie, Eamonn (1987). The Provisional IRA. London: Heinemann. p.223
  9. ↑ "Sinn Fein on the brink of new era of openness". Belfast Telegraph. Liam Clarke. 7 October 2011 Retrieved 10 November 2011
  10. 1 2 3 "Last vote for dying IRA chief; he backs Adams in election". The Mirror (London). Maurice Fitzmaurice. 2 March 2011
  11. 1 2 3 4 O'Malley, Padraig (1990). Biting the Grave: the Irish hunger strikes and the politics of despair. Boston: Beacon Press. p.68
  12. ↑ Note: Seamus Clarke is the younger brother of Terence "Cleaky" Clarke, Gerry Adams' former bodyguard, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for the assault of Corporal Derek Wood in 1988.
  13. ↑ McKittrick, David (1999). Lost Lives. UK: Mainstream. p.560
  14. ↑ CAIN Web Service Sutton Index of Deaths – 1975 Retrieved 8 November 2011. CAIN gives Linda Boyle's age as 19.
  15. ↑ Dillon, Martin (1989). The Shankill Butchers: the real story of cold-blooded mass murder. New York: Routledge. p.7
  16. ↑ Bruce, Steve (1992). The Red Hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. Oxford University Press. p.190
  17. ↑ Stevenson, Jonathan (1996). We Wrecked the Place: contemplating an end to the Northern Irish troubles. Free Press. p.54
  18. ↑ Brian Hanley & Scott Millar. The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party. Chapter 8: Brothers Fighting Brothers. Penguin UK, 2010
  19. ↑ McKittrick, David. Lost Lives. p.565
  20. ↑ "Northern Ireland expects violence". Rome News Tribune. 24 August 1975
  21. ↑ Taylor, Peter (1998). Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin. London: Bloomsbury. p. 195
  22. ↑ CAIN Bayardo Bomb memorial
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.