Greysteel massacre

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Greysteel massacre
location=Greysteel, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
target=Rising Sun Bar
date=30 October 1993
type=Attack by three gunmen
fatalities=8
injuries=Unknown
perps=Ulster Freedom Fighters The Greysteel massacre occurred on the evening of 30 October, 1993 when three members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, an Ulster Loyalist organisation headed by Johnny Adair, attacked a bar with firearms, killing eight people.

The massacre

Three UFF members entered the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel, County Londonderry. Inside was a Halloween party in full swing, and so the masked men were not noticed until they produced an AK-47 and an automatic pistol, and started shooting into the packed crowd. One of the men yelled "trick or treat" as he opened fire [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4397206.stm BBC Online 1 Nov 05] ] .

The bar was targeted because it was in a Catholic area, and thus represented a "Nationalist electorate", according to the UFF statement released the next day. [ [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch93.htm CAIN Project] ] In fact, two of the eight people killed in this attack were Protestants, and none of the victims had any known political role or affiliation within the Troubles.

The UFF claimed that they conducted the attack as a "revenge" killing, following the Provisional Irish Republican Army's killing of nine people in the Shankill Road bombing seven days before, in a failed attempt on the life of Johnny Adair and other senior loyalists.

The bar is still open in Greysteel, although now on the outside of the building near the door there is a memorial to those killed in the attack which says:

"May their sacrifice be our path to peace".

This period in the Troubles was associated with protracted "tit for tat" killings committed by both sides. In the week preceding the Greysteel massacre, Loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Freedom Fighters, Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association had committed six sectarian killings, all of them seemingly at random as a response to the Shankill Road bombing on 23 October.

Convictions

Shortly after the massacre, four men were arrested, tried and convicted for the attack. Three had been "shooters", one of whose gun was faulty, while the other had been the getaway driver. All three men were later released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. They are Torrens Knight, Stephen Irwin, Jeffrey Deeney and Brian McNeill. Torrens Knight received eight life sentences for the Greysteel massacre, together with four more for the murders of four Catholic workmen killed seven months earlier in Castlerock. He served seven years in prison before paramilitary prisoners were granted a general release under the Good Friday Agreement. There remain rumours that he was a paid police informer. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060218/ai_n16151804 Was this loyalist murderer in the police's pay?] ]

Stephen Irwin who had been released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, had his licence suspended after he was accused of slashing a football supporter with a knife. He was jailed in 2005 for four years for that attack and now has to serve out the eight life sentences he received for the Greysteel atrocity. [cite web | title=Greysteel killer to serve terms | work=BBC News NI (1 November 2005) | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4397206.stm | accessdate=2008-06-23] In 2006 he abandoned an appeal against the sentences. [cite web | title=Greysteel killer abandons appeal | work=BBC News NI (24 March 2006) | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4842104.stm | accessdate=2008-06-23]

In 2007, the Ulster Political Research Group responded to what they called a "two-year hate campaign" in the media against Torrens Knight, who drove the gunmen to the Rising Sun bar, and declared that he had not and never had been in the pay of MI5 or any other branch of the security services. [cite web | title=Greysteel murderer Knight was not an MI5 agent: UPRG | work=Belfast Telegraph (14 March 2007) | url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2356986.ece | accessdate=2008-06-23]

In October 2007, a Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland investigation established that police did not have any prior knowledge which could have helped them prevent the Greysteel attack. The investigators did not find any evidence that Torrens Knight was protected from the rigours of the law. [cite web | title=No evidence Greysteel could have been prevented: Nuala O'Loan | work=Police Ombudsman Press Release | url=http://www.policeombudsman.org/press.cfm?Press_ID=169&action=detail&year=2007 | accessdate=2008-06-23]

ee also

Marie Jones' play, "A Night in November", recalls the massacre and its effect on one Protestant football fan living in Belfast.
*The Troubles in Greysteel
*Directory of the Northern Ireland Troubles

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3225855.stm BBC News Report on 10 year anniversary]
* [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/photos/coderry/greysteel/risingsunbar01.htm CAIN Report photograph of the site]
* [http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/register.cgi/tablet-00266 Article on the subject of the Loyalists and Greysteel]
* [http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=565870 Belfast Telegraph article linking Johnny Adair to the massacre]