“At this spot, on 13th August, 1975, five Protestants were killed and up to sixty injured during a Republican bomb and gun attack, led by ex-trainee priest and IRA leader, Brendan ‘Bic’ McFarlane, a close associate of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, achieved, in part, exactly what they set out to do – to murder and maim members of our community in cold blood. … although their mission was completed, their callous agenda failed … the people of West Belfast … emerged stronger and even more resolute, to defeat the pure evil that is Irish Republicanism, once and for all! … the Irish Republican Army … were a homicidal, guerrilla grouping! A criminal organisation devoid of conscience! … a sectarian murder gang. … ” Hugh Alexander Harris, Samuel Gunning, William John Gracey, Joanne McDowell, Linda Boyle. “Erected by the Bayardo Somme Association “A forgotten atrocity”” The attack was in retaliation for the Miami Showband killings and the bar was chosen because it was used by the UVF. Harris was in the UVF and Brigade Staff had been at a meeting in the bar but it had already broken up (WP).
Aberdeen Street, Belfast, on the former site of the Bayardo Bar.
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Copyright © 2009 Peter Moloney
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Peter Moloney Collection 