1976 Massacre in N.Irleand - RUC Implicated - Recent Report

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Wednesday 14 December 2011 The Guardian
Miami Showband killings: police tipoff helped suspect elude justice, says report

Report on 1975 murders finds Robin Jackson was advised to lie low after his fingerprints were found on murder weapon.
A loyalist assassin known as The Jackal received a tipoff from a senior police officer that helped him elude justice over the killing of an Irish pop band in the mid-1970s, according to a report.

The cold case police investigations unit, the Historical Enquiries Team (Het), found Robin Jackson was linked to the murders of three members of the Miami Showband in July 1975.

The pop group were on their way back to Dublin when their minibus was stopped by a fake army patrol near the border. The Het report found that Jackson, a member of loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force from North Armagh, had been linked to one of the murder weapons by his fingerprints. But Jackson later claimed in police interviews he had been tipped off by a senior Royal Ulster Constabulary officer to lie low after the killings.

Jackson, who emigrated for a period of the 1980s to South Africa, has since died from cancer. In 1984 he helped organise the attempted murder of the then Sunday World northern editor Jim Campbell, who had named Jackson as the leader of the UVF in Mid-Ulster, which was responsible for shootings and bombings against nationalists in the so-called "Murder Triangle" of North Armagh.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, said Jackson claimed he was tipped off that his fingerprints had been found on a silencer attached to a Luger pistol used in the Miami Showband murders. The Het team said the murders raised "disturbing questions about collusive and corrupt behaviour". It said the review "has found no means to assuage or rebut these concerns and that is a deeply troubling matter".

The bogus army patrol comprised soldiers from the Ulster Defence Regiment and UVF members in Armagh. Members of the band were made to line up at the side of the road while one UVF member tried to hide a bomb on the bus. The plan was that the bomb would explode en route, killing everyone on board as it entered Dublin. But the bomb went off prematurely, killing Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, who were members of the UDR, as well as the UVF.

After the explosion the other members of the UVF gang then opened fire on the band, killing lead singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty, and trumpeter Brian McCoy. The bass player, Stephen Travers, barely survived his injuries.

Three members of the UDR were eventually convicted for their part in the attack. James Somerville, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell received life sentences and remained in jail until their early release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 when republican and loyalist prisoners were given a de facto amnesty as part of the peace settlement.

Commenting on the report, band member Des McAlea, who survived the attack, said: "It's been a long time but we've got justice at last." He described the Het findings as "quite shocking" and "mind-blowing". "The fact that there was collusion in this is such a tragedy for all of us concerned," McAlea added. "To think that people were supposed to be protecting us and they were actually involved in this terrible tragedy."

Miami Showband Massacre dec 2011 reports

MIAMI SHOWBAND FAMILIES RESPOND TO THE HISTORICAL ENQUIRIES TEAM REPORT

PRESS RELEASE Justice for the Forgotten - The Pat Finucane Centre

The bereaved families and survivors of the Miami Showband attack have received a report from the Historical Enquiries Team into the murders of their loved ones: Tony Geraghty, Brian McCoy and Fran O'Toole.

The murders occurred in the early hours of 31st July 1975 as the Miami showband was returning home to Dublin following a gig in the Castle Ballroom, Banbridge, Co. Down. They were flagged down at a bogus British military checkpoint at Buskhill on the main road to Newry.

Tony Geraghty was 24 years old and a native of Crumlin, Dublin. He was lead guitarist with the band.
Brian McCoy was 32 years old and was married to Helen. They had two young children, Keith and Cheryl. They lived in Raheny, Dublin but Brian was a native of Caledon, Co. Tyrone. He was trumpeter and singer with the band.
Francis O'Toole was 28 years old and was married to Valerie. They had two young daughters, Rachel and Kelly. Fran was a native of Bray, Co. Wicklow. He was organist and lead singer with the band.

The Historical Enquiries Team was established by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to re-examine all deaths attributable to The Troubles between 1968 and 1999

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The Voice of The Irish World dec 31st 2011
Irish World Newspaper, Irish World Hse, 934 North Circular Rd NW2 7JR

Hand over showband files

The findings of the HET NI into the murders of three members of the Miami Showband carried out by the UVF in 1975 is a significant step along the path to justice and closure for those killed and bereaved in this despicable act.
We must pay tribute to the dignity displayed by the families of the Miami Showband victims and by the surviving members during their 37 years of campaigning for justice – not revenge- and for some form of acknowledgement of the pain and hurt inflicted – not recrimination.
Such dignity is in stark contrast to the vileness of the act involved and of those who carried it out.
A most disturbing aspect to this case is the revelations by the HET that a number of those involved in the killings were serving British soldiers and also included an RUC special agent.
The findings implicate clearly British state security forces operating in Northern Ireland in the murders of Irish citizens.
Calls made repeatedly by the Irish Govt. for Britain to release files in its possession, identified by the Barron Report, which might be of assistance in bringing to justice those involved in theses horrific murders – and, indeed, those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, have been consistently ignored.
Imagine the situation if the Irish government had in its possession files which might be of assistance in identifying those responsible for the Birmingham and Guildford pub bombings in Britain in which 21 innocent people lost their lives and more\than 180 were injured.
What would happen if following a request from Britain for the Irish Government to release such files and the Irish Government declined the request? The British Government and the British people would be rightly outraged.
The pursuance of justice for the victims of the\Miami Showband massacre and in Dublin and Monaghan bombings is no less worthy a cause than the pursuance of justice by the British government for those killed and bereaved at Lockerbie in Scotland, for example.
Nor is it any less a worthy cause than pursuance by the US government of the perpetrators of the attack on the Twin Towers in New\York 2001.
the British government must hand over relevant documents relating to those murders. The Irish government must not accept a lower standard of justice for its citizens who have been murdered abroad than the British or US governments are prepared to accept on behalf of the citizens of their respective countries.