Greysteel massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Greysteel massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Greysteel, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland |
| Date | 30 October 1993 |
| Attack type | Attack by three gunmen |
| Deaths | 8 |
| Injured | Unknown |
| Perpetrator(s) | 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.
Contents |
[edit] 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[1].
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.[2] 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.
[edit] 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.[3]
[edit] See also
Marie Jones' play, A Night in November, recalls the massacre and its effect on one Protestant football fan living in Belfast.
