Walker's Bar attack

Walker's Bar attack
Part of the Troubles
Location	Lyle Hill Road, Templepatrick, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54°10′22″N6°36′53″W / 54.172836°N 6.614594°W / 54.172836; -6.614594
Date	25 June 1976
Attack type	Mass shooting
Weapons	Automatic rifle, grenade or bomb
Deaths	3 [1]
Injured	6
Perpetrator	Republican Action Force

The Walker's Bar attack, also known as the Store Bar shooting, was a mass shooting which took place on 25 June 1976 at Walker's Bar (also known as the Store Bar) on Lyle Hill Road in Templepatrick, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Republican Action Force. The attack, in which three people were killed, was one of several "tit-for-tat" mass shootings, during The Troubles, in mid-1976.

Attack

Three weeks after the Ulster Volunteer Force undertook a gun attack on the Chlorane Bar in Belfast, ^[2] a Republican Action Force group attacked Walker's Bar in County Antrim.

At the time of the attack, a Friday evening, a cabaret show was taking place, ^[3] and the bar contained approximately 40 people. ^[4] The attackers sprayed the pub with an ArmaLite AR-15 assault rifle.^{[ citation needed ]} While some sources suggest that a grenade was thrown into the bar before the attackers escaped, ^[4] contemporary news sources state that a bomb was left behind. ^{[5] [6]}

Three people were killed and approximately six were injured. Those killed, all Protestant civilians from the same extended family, ^[7] included Ruby Kidd (28), Francis Walker (17) and Joseph McBride (56). ^{[8] [9]}

The "West Belfast Republican Action Force" subsequently claimed responsibility for the shooting, stating that it was "carried out in retaliation" for the Chlorane Bar attack earlier in June 1976. ^[10]

Aftermath

A week after the gun attack in Templepatrick, the UVF carried out a gun attack on a Catholic-owned pub, the Ramble Inn. ^[11] While described as a "reprisal" for the Walker's bar attack, ^[12] five of the six people killed in the Ramble Inn attack were Protestants, while the other victim was Catholic. Considered a failure or "own goal" by the UVF, the attack was carried out because the bar owners where Catholics and the gunmen expected that the patrons would mainly be Catholic. ^{[13] [14]}

See also

• Mountainview Tavern attack
• Tullyvallen massacre
• Stag Inn attack

References

1. "Three Dead in Antrim Pub Raid". Cork Examiner . 26 June 1976. p. 1. Two men and a woman were shot dead in a terrorist gun attack on a Co. Antrim pub last night.
2. McDonald, Henry; Cusack, Jim (2016). UVF - The Endgame. Poolbeg Press. ISBN   978-1842233269. The Shankill UVF unit killed five customers when they machine-gunned the Chlorane Bar in the Smithfield area of Belfast city centre on June 5, 1976. Three weeks later the IRA, using the cover name Republican Action Force, shot dead three customers in the Protestant-owned Walker's Bar at Templepatrick. A week later, the UVF shot dead six customers in a Catholic-owned pub, the Ramble Inn, outside Antrim
3. "Pub Gunmen Kill Three" . Evening News (London) . 26 June 1976. p. 4 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. The terrorist raid was on the lonely Walker's Bar near Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, where a cabaret show was taking place. The three who died were a woman in her twenties, a middle-aged man and a youth of 17
4. Wharton, Ken (2015). "1976". Wasted Years, Wasted Lives Volume 1: The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975–77. Helion and Company. p. 31. ISBN   9781910777411 – via bookreadfree.com.
5. "Gunmen Kill 3 in Pub" . The Scotsman . 26 June 1976. p. 1 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Gunmen burst into the bar and opened fire, apparently indiscriminately, on the drinkers. It is believed the left a bomb in the bar before escaping
6. "Three Die In Savage Gun Attack" . Belfast News Letter . 26 June 1976. p. 1 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. The killers had arrived at the Protestant-owner bar in a car - and police said they may have planted a bomb before they fled
7. Rubin, Barry; Rubin, Judith Colp, eds. (2015). "1976". Chronologies of Modern Terrorism. Routledge. ISBN   9781317474647. At Walker's Bar in Antrim, IRA terrorists assassinate three Protestants, including a woman, her teenage brother, and their cousin, who had been working as a security guard at the pub
8. "Victims - Chronolgical Listing: 1976". Conflict Archive on the Internet . Retrieved 13 May 2025.
9. "Nine died in spiral of violence". Antrim Guardian. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
10. "Bar shooting was 'tit-for-tat'" . Belfast News Letter . 28 June 1976. p. 1 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. The West Belfast Republican Action Force has claimed responsibility for the shooting at Walker's Bar near Templepatrick, on Friday night in which three people died. In a statement the West Beifast Republican Action force said the attack was carried out in retaliation for a shooting and bombing of the Chlorane Bar in Gresham Street
11. Dudley Edwards, Ruth; Hourican, Bridget (2004). An Atlas of Irish History. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN   1134469667. allegedly in retaliation for the IRA murder of three Protestant civilians [..] in Walker's Bar , Templepatrick , a week earlier, one Catholic male civilian and five male Protestant civilians died after a UVF gun attack on the Catholic-owned Ramble Inn near Antrim town.
12. "Selfless heroism amidst 'cold-blooded slaughter'". Antrim Guardian. 23 September 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
13. "Chronology of the Conflict: 1976". Conflict Archive on the Internet . Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
14. McKittrick, David (2001). Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles . Mainstream. p. 660. ISBN   9781840185041. Ramble Inn was Catholic owned but had a strong Protestant clientele. It was reported the attack was in retaliation for an IRA attack on Walker's Bar in the same area the previous weekend [..] The gunmen were said to have believed they would kill mainly Catholics in the attack