PSNI-HET Report Was Another Cop Cover-Up

Be in no doubt, the PSNI-HET report into the McGurk's Bar Massacre was another attempted police cover-up.

The families of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre re-issue our simple challenge to the Chief Constable of Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI), Simon Byrne, after a High Court judge ruled that the PSNI/Historical Enquiries Team report into the atrocity was irrational and must be quashed: substantiate the police lies about our loved ones or admit that the police fabricated them.

15 civilians including 2 children were murdered in the Loyalist no-warning bomb attack of McGurk’s Bar on 4th December 1971. Within hours, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) briefed the media and government that the bombing was the result of an Irish Republican Army (IRA) “own-goal”.

We now know that this was an egregious lie and that the British armed forces knew that then.

The families tracked this disinformation back to a secret agreement between the British Army’s Brigade Commander of Belfast, then Brigadier Frank Kitson, and the RUC just over 4 hours after the explosion. Kitson ordered Brigade staff:

“RUC have a line that the bomb in the pub was a bomb designed to be used elsewhere, left in the pub to be picked up by Provisional IRA. Bomb went off and was a mistake. RUC press office have a line on it – NI should deal with them."

Then, on 16th December 1971, RUC Chief Constable Graham Shillington and his head of Special Branch lied directly to the Northern Ireland Prime Minister and General Officer Commanding of the British Army at a Joint Security Committee meeting in Stormont:

“Circumstantial evidence indicates that this was a premature detonation and two of those killed were known IRA members at least one of whom had been associated with bombing activities. Intelligence indicates that the bomb was destined for use elsewhere in the city.”

CHIEF CONSTABLE SNUB

Despite this clear evidence of British Army and RUC collusion, Chief Constable Simon Byrne has snubbed our families over the last few months, leaving us out in the cold at a Policing Board protest to mark the 50th anniversary of the massacre, and denying us a face-to-face meeting.

He has failed to offer a substantive response to the challenge although the PSNI has since admitted that it is withholding critical evidence relating to the provenance of police lies in 1971.

The families fought PSNI in court for over 7 years before PSNI finally admitted that its conclusions were “irrational.” This week, Mr. Justice Humphreys ordered the quashing of the report in its entirety and recorded: “It is rare for a public authority to admit that it behaved irrationally.”

Chief Constable Simon Byrne had failed to quash the irrational PSNI-HET report before Mr Justice Humphrey's ruling and instead forced our families to attend court again.

Whilst we welcomed the quashing of this failed, irrational, and therefore illegal police report, it remains a disgrace that PSNI dragged us through the courts for such a long time.

PSNI did little except re-traumatize our families and delay our campaign for truth and justice. In the meantime, a number of our family members died. It did not take account of the evidence we discovered which proved that the British Army and RUC fabricated lies about our loved ones and allowed mass murderers walk free.

We have discovered much more since then which proves that the British Army, General Sir Frank Kitson, and the RUC colluded hours after the attack to disseminate disinformation. This irrational report was yet another police attempt to cover up the true circumstances of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre and hide police involvement.

The Police Service Northern Ireland under Chief Constable Simon Byrne is withholding critical evidence and perverting the course of justice to this very day and I believe that is why he has failed to answer our simple challenge: substantiate the police lies about our loved ones or admit that the police fabricated them.