The McGurk's Bar Bombing: Collusion, Cover-Up and a Campaign for Truth

In the early evening of Saturday 4th December 1971, British extremists of the Ulster Volunteer Force planted a no-warning bomb on the doorstep of a family-run bar in north Belfast. They killed 15 men, women and children - the country's most devastating massacre of civilians since the Nazi Blitz. Nevertheless, the innocent victims were to become the forgotten victims of a dirty war.

British Government, military and RUC police sources immediately stated that the bombing was an IRA "own-goal" even though the full weight of evidence, including a witness who saw the bomb being planted, proved otherwise. As the families buried their loved ones, the State drip-fed black propaganda into the intelligence stream and the media. Since then the families have fought tirelessly and constitutionally to clear their names. For many, the McGurk's Bar Massacre was a turning point in the conflict.