From Pat Irvine, the youngest child of Kitty.

Pat Irvine, daughter of Kitty

From Mr. Michael Connarty, Labour M.P. and Nephew of Philip Garry

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.

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 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, Ireland

I 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, Ireland

After 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 Zealand

On 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, USA

A Personal Memory by Joe Graham

It was on the evening of the 4^th 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 22^nd 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 4^th 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, Ireland

Editor of Rushlight: The Belfast Magazine

www.rushlightmagazine.com

Joe Campbell, Ireland

Marie Irvine, daughter of Kitty Irvine, Belfast, Ireland

Annelies Hofmeyr, South Africa

David Cestaro

A Child's Memory

I 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, Canada

Just 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, Ireland