The Story With thanks to Jimmy Harte, Anto Long and Caroline Allen Dickie's Miami (1962-1972) Few bands in Ireland have had as prolific, and tragic, a history as the Miami. [53] In a letter to the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern dated 22 February 2004, the Northern Ireland Office stated that: "The PSNI have confirmed that a 9mm Luger pistol was ballistically traced both to the murder of John Francis Green and to the Miami Showband murders. Days before the Miami attack, Robin Jackson murdered William Hanna, the UVF commander in mid-Ulster. Crime Scene Photos The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office released graphics images this week, taken in the aftermath of 27-year-old Christian Obumseli's death. Major Boyle ordered his patrol to apprehend the occupants for questioning. [58], Following the post-mortems, funerals were held for the three slain musicians; they received televised news coverage by RT, Ireland's public service broadcaster. Three UVF members are being treated for gunshot wounds after last night but not in hospital. Het ontwerp van Getty Images is een handelsmerk van Getty Images. It allows for commemoration and leaving of flowers at the location itself. 50 True-Crime Documentaries on Netflix | 2023 . On April 17, 1975, Somerville and Jackson blew up a Catholic-owned cottage which was being renovated at Killyliss between Dungannon and Ballygawley. One of the first famous crime scene photos was taken on May 5, 1903, in the home of a Parisian woman named Madame Debeinche who had been murdered. "IRA 'responsible' for killings blamed on loyalists", "Decision as to the admissibility of Application no. Everybody was respectful to Brian". [37] They had hoped to embarrass the Government of Ireland, as well as to draw attention to its level of control of the border. Jackson was never charged with the Miami atrocity. [34] Afterward, as Travers recovered in hospital, the other survivor Des McAlea gave the police a description of McDowell as the gunman with a moustache and wearing dark glasses who appeared to have been the leader of the patrol. [4] The band had no overt interest in politics nor in the religious beliefs of the people who made up their audience. [13] Dillon suggested that because there were a number of UDR members in the UVF, and were planned to be used for the Miami Showband ambush, Hanna was considered to have been a "security risk", and the UVF decided he had to be killed before he could alert the authorities. Journalist Emily O'Reilly noted in the Sunday Tribune that none of the three men convicted of the massacre ever implicated Nairac in the attack or accused him of causing Boyle's death. Miljoenen beelden, videos en muzikale opties van hoge kwaliteit wachten op u. Maak gebruik van de wereldwijde schaalgrootte, data-gedreven inzichten en het netwerk van meer dan 340.000 makers van Getty Images om voor uw merk exclusieve content te creren. Maguire recalled that the car first slowed down, then it accelerated, flashing its lights. [35], Out of sight of the band members, two of the gunmen placed a ten-pound (4.5kg) time bomb that was inside a briefcase under the driver's seat of the minibus. [35], On 22 January 1976, a second UDR soldier, Sergeant James Roderick Shane McDowell (aged 29, an optical worker, also from Lurgan) was arrested and charged with the Miami killings. Following the explosion pandemonium broke out among the remaining gunmen; shouting obscenities, they started shooting the dazed band members, who had all been blown down into the field below the level of the road from the force of the blast. Free shipping for many products! [33], A stamp was issued in Ireland on 22 September 2010 commemorating the Miami Showband. No one forced me. They had killed many Catholics together and they trusted each other implicitly," said our source. Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville were given UVF paramilitary funerals conducted by Free Presbyterian minister William McCrea, a Democratic Unionist Party politician. When they agreed he placed it on the ground, opened its case and then went back into line; however this time he stood first in the line-up closest to the minibus when previously he had been third. [34], Thomas Crozier recounted that on the night of the killings, he had driven to the grounds of a school in Lurgan where he had picked up two men. The incident had an adverse effect on the Irish showband scene, with many of the bands afraid to play in Northern Ireland. [81] Martin Dillon maintained in The Dirty War that the Miami Showband attack was planned weeks before at a house in Portadown, and the person in charge of the overall operation was a former UDR man, whom Dillon referred to for legal reasons as "Mr. No one coerced me. . But he quit when the Troubles erupted on the streets of Belfast and Derry in the autumn of 1969. It was his brother Wesley's arm," said the source. Griffin suggests that McCoy, who originally came from Caledon, County Tyrone, and had strong UDR and Orange Order family connections, was possibly approached at some stage by Jackson with a view of securing his help in carrying out UVF attacks in the Irish Republic. [86] Weir alleged the bomb used in the Miami Showband attack came from Mitchell's farm. [22][44], One of the first RUC men who arrived at Buskhill in the wake of the killings was scenes of crime officer James O'Neill. From left: Steve Travers, Tony Geraghty, Ray Millar, Brian McCoy, Fran O'Toole, Des Lee. I did what I did. The scene of the Miami Showband Killings on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland, 31st July 1975. The Miami Showband minibus with five members in all was stopped at a bogus army checkpoint in Northern Ireland and three were killed and two, including Travers, badly injured in July 1975. Organiseer, beheer, distribueer en meet al uw digitale content. "The arm belonged to John's brother Wesley, who was killed in the Miami explosion. [12] Journalist Joe Tiernan suggested that Hanna was shot for refusing to participate in the Miami Showband attack and that he had become an informer for the Garda in exchange for immunity from prosecution for the Dublin bombings. [100] He did, however, express his concern over the fact that nobody was ever charged with his attempted murder. [22] He presently resides near Craigavon. A Sunday World investigation into the Miami Showband atrocity has revealed the now deceased killer's assertion was true. Hurled in opposite directions, they were both decapitated and their bodies dismembered. [53] The judge, by sentencing McDowell and Crozier to 35 years imprisonment each, had handed down the longest life sentences in the history of Northern Ireland; he commented that "killings like the Miami Showband must be stopped". Our source also claimed John Somerville told him that in an attempt to break him, a police officer entered the interrogation room carrying a severed human arm in a plastic bag. Three band members were taken from their tour bus and shot . The dead bombers were named by the UVF, in a statement issued within 12 hours of the attack. At about 2:30am, when the band was seven miles (11km) north of Newry on the main A1 road, their Volkswagen minibus (driven by trumpeter Brian McCoy with bassist Stephen Travers in the front seat beside him) reached the townland of Buskhill. [5] Their fears were slightly grounded in fact, as the MI6 officer Michael Oatley was involved in negotiations with a member of the IRA Army Council, during which "structures of disengagement" from Ireland were discussed. By this time the gunmen had left the scene, assuming everyone else had been killed. According to loyalists who knew him, Somerville turned down countless RUC Special Branch offers to work as a police agent. He added that had the death penalty not been abolished, it would have been imposed in this case. In a rare interview with the BBC Spotlight programme before his death of kidney cancer in 2015, Somerville spoke only once and very briefly about the Miami Showband Massacre. The Miami Showband's surviving members Des Lee, Ray Miller and Stephen Travers Credit . "They also hoped he would one day take over the leadership of the organisation in mid-Ulster when Robin 'The Jackal' Jackson either stood down or was executed.". This meant that both it and the UDA were legal organisations. Updated / Monday, 13 Dec 2021 22:28. [62] The attack was blamed on loyalists; Lost Lives an account of every death in the conflict states that reliable loyalist sources have confirmed the UVF was responsible. Tests done on the glasses, which were eventually traced back to McDowell, revealed that the lenses were of a prescription worn by just 1 in 500,000 of the population. [66] RUC officer John Weir claims that UDR corporal and alleged UVF member Robert McConnell was involved in the attack. [47] The UVF gunmen had worn green UDR berets, whereas the other man's had been lighter in colour. [7] At the time of the attack the Mid-Ulster Brigade was commanded by Robin Jackson, also known as "The Jackal". 2023 Getty Images. [67][clarification needed], A number of suspects were arrested by the RUC in early August 1975. 34575/04 by Sean McCartney against the United Kingdom: The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section)", "John Weir's Affadavit, Statement by John Weir 03.01.99", "On this day 15October: 1976: UDR men jailed for Showband killings", "Miami Showband massacre survivor shakes with anguish as he remembers his slain friends 40 years on", "Evidence clears Robert Nairac of murders he has been linked to: author", "MoD documents link Robert Nairac to Miami Showband massacre", "Statement of Miami Showband families and survivors in response to the findings of the Historical Enquiries Team into the murders of Anthony Geraghty, Brian McCoy and Francis O'Toole", "Day of 'The Jackal' has finally drawn to a close", "Robert Nairac in command at massacre says Miami guitarist", "Miami Showband Killer Dies at 70; UVF murderer Somerville found dead of cancer in his squalid flat", "Memorial to victims of Miami massacre to be unveiled in Dublin", "Miami Showband killings: Police tipoff helped suspect elude justice, says report", "Miami Showband massacre: HET raises collusion concerns", "Netflix fails to make sense of the Miami Showband Massacre", 'Remastered: The Miami Showband Massacre' On Netflix Unmasks a Conspiracy and False Flag Attack, Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, "Interim Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings [The Barron Report]", "Interim Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk", Interim reports (more detail than final reports) of Irish parliamentary inquiries, Ceasefires of the Provisional IRA, UVF, UDA and RHC, Murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine, Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miami_Showband_killings&oldid=1142010371, Improvised explosive device bombings in Northern Ireland, People killed by security forces during The Troubles (Northern Ireland), Articles with dead external links from April 2012, Articles with dead external links from May 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Articles with dead external links from February 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 01:35. A long battle for justice for three members of a popular Irish music group, Miami Showband, who were murdered during The Troubles in Northern Ireland received a huge boost this week with. [43], Ballistic evidence indicates that the 10-member gang took at least six guns with them on the attack. [83] Journalists Kevin Dowling and Liam Collins in the Irish Independent however, suggested in their respective articles that Jackson had been the leader of the unit. [59] Two days later, Portadown disc jockey Norman "Mooch" Kerr, aged 28,[60] was shot dead by the IRA as he packed up his equipment after a show at the Camrick Bar in Armagh. [50], The stolen Ford Escort belonged to a man from Portadown, who according to Captain Fred Holroyd, had links with one of the UVF bombers and David Alexander Mulholland the driver of the bomb car which had been left to explode in Parnell Street, Dublin, on 17 May 1974. Near the anniversary of the killings, a temporary plaque is placed at the location of the killings. Verzamel, beheer en geef commentaar bij uw bestanden. The Officers and Agents of the Ulster Central Intelligence Agency commend the UVF on their actions and tender their deepest sympathy to the relatives of the two Officers who died while attempting to remove the bomb from the minibus. The UVF maintains regular border patrols due to the continued activity of the Provisional IRA. [101], A Netflix documentary titled ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre was released 22 March 2019, highlighting the efforts of Steve Travers to track down who authorized the attack, for what purposes, and to get an admission of culpability.[102][103]. The UVF man, who identified himself only as "the Craftsman", apologised to Travers for the attack, and explained that the UVF gunmen shot the band because they "had panicked" that night. [5] This move made loyalists apprehensive and suspicious that a secret accord was being conducted between the British government and the IRA, and that Northern Ireland's Protestants would be "sold out". [77] However, Ministry of Defence documents released in 2020 contain suggestions that Nairac acquired equipment and uniforms for the Miami Showband killers, and that he was responsible for the planning and execution of the attack itself. Note: Initially it was believed that the bomb had been placed in the rear of the minibus and that the closure of the door had triggered the blast.
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