| ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Stuart Sender |
| Written by | Jeff Zimbalist Michael Zimbalist |
| Starring | Stephen Travers Bertie Ahern Alan Brecknell |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre is a 2019 documentary film about the Miami Showband killings, an attack on the cabaret band The Miami Showband on 31 July 1975. [1] [2]
The documentary explores the Miami Showband killings, an attack on The Miami Showband on 31 July 1975 by the loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The Miami Showband were at the time one of Ireland's most popular cabaret bands, and in the attack five people were killed, including three members of the band. [3] [4]
The Irish showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and covers of pop music hits. The versatile music ranged from rock and roll and country and western songs to traditional dixieland jazz and even Irish Céilí dance, Newfie stomps, folk music and waltzes. Key to a showband's popular success was the ability to perform songs currently in the record charts. Some bands also did comedy skits onstage.
Captain Robert Laurence Nairac was a British Army officer in 14 Intelligence Company who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover operation and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer.
The Historical Enquiries Team was a unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland set up in September 2005 to investigate the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles, specifically between 1968 and 1998. It was wound up in September 2014, when the PSNI restructured following budget cuts.
The Miami Showband killings was an attack on 31 July 1975 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. Five people were killed, including three members of The Miami Showband, who were one of Ireland's most popular cabaret bands.
Events during the year 1975 in Northern Ireland.
The Miami Showband were an Irish showband in the 1960s and 1970s led firstly in 1962 by singer Jimmy Harte, followed by Dickie Rock and later by Fran O'Toole. They had seven number one records on the Irish singles chart.
Robert John "Robin" Jackson, also known as The Jackal, was a British soldier, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary who held the rank of brigadier in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) during the period of violent ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. He was the commander of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade from 1975 to the early 1990s, when Billy Wright took over as leader.
William Henry Wilson Hanna MM was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist who founded and led the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) until he was killed, allegedly by Robin Jackson, who took over command of the brigade.
John Francis Green, was a leading member of the North Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, holding the rank of Staff Captain and Intelligence Officer. He was killed in a farmhouse outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, by members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). According to Secret Intelligence Service operative Captain Fred Holroyd, British Army Captain Robert Nairac was involved in Green's killing. Green's was one of the 87 killings attributed by the Pat Finucane Centre to the group of loyalist extremists with suspected links to British state forces known as the Glenanne gang. No one was ever prosecuted for the killing.
The Glenanne gang or Glenanne group was a secret informal alliance of Ulster loyalists who carried out shooting and bombing attacks against Catholics and Irish nationalists in the 1970s, during the Troubles. Most of its attacks took place in the "murder triangle" area of counties Armagh and Tyrone in Northern Ireland. It also launched some attacks elsewhere in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. The gang included British soldiers from the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), police officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Twenty-five British soldiers and police officers were named as purported members of the gang. Details about the group have come from many sources, including the affidavit of former member and RUC officer John Weir; statements by other former members; police, army and court documents; and ballistics evidence linking the same weapons to various attacks. Since 2003, the group's activities have also been investigated by the 2006 Cassel Report, and three reports commissioned by Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry Barron, known as the Barron Reports. A book focusing on the group's activities, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, by Anne Cadwallader, was published in 2013. It drew on all the aforementioned sources, as well as Historical Enquiries Team investigations. The book was the basis for the 2019 documentary film Unquiet Graves, directed by Sean Murray.
Harris Boyle was an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisation. Boyle was implicated in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and took part in the attack at Buskhill, County Down when an armed UVF gang wearing British Army uniforms ambushed The Miami Showband at a bogus military checkpoint. The popular Irish cabaret band was driving home to Dublin after a performance in Banbridge. He was one of the two gunmen killed when the bomb they were loading onto the band's minibus exploded prematurely. He is sometimes referred to as Horace Boyle.
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.
William Wesley Somerville was an Ulster loyalist militant, who held the rank of lieutenant in the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade during the period of conflict known as "the Troubles". With claims that his brother and Wesley were a part of the UDR Ulster Defence Regiment which was later found to be false. Somerville was part of the UVF unit that ambushed the Irish cabaret band The Miami Showband at Buskhill, County Down, which resulted in the deaths of three of the bandmembers. Somerville killed himself, along with Harris Boyle, when the bomb they had loaded onto the band's minibus exploded prematurely. His brother, John James Somerville, was one of the three convicted murderers of bandmembers Brian McCoy, Fran O'Toole and Tony Geraghty.
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.
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.
The Central Bar bombing was a bomb attack on a pub in the town of Gilford near Portadown in County Down in Northern Ireland on 31 December 1975. The attack was carried out by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) using the covername "People's Republican Army". Three Protestant civilians were killed in the bombing.
On 14 November 1991 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, shot dead three civilians in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The three men were driving home from work at the Hyster forklift factory.
The Charlemont pub attacks were co-ordinated militant Loyalist paramilitary attacks on two pubs in the small village of Charlemont, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on the 15 May 1976. The attacks have been attributed to the Glenanne gang which was a coalition of right-wing Loyalist paramilitaries and subversive members inside the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) and the British Army.
The Bleary Darts Club shooting was a mass shooting that took place on 27 April 1975 in the village of Bleary, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) burst into a darts club frequented by Catholics and opened fire on the crowd, killing three civilians and wounding a fourth. The attack is one of many that has been linked to the Glenanne gang.
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