McGurk’s Bar

On Saturday 4th December 1971 the loyalist UVF left a no-warning bomb outside the door of McGurks bar. The bomb ripped through the pub killing fifteen people, including two children.

1971
McGurks Bar, Belfast
Collusion

54.6061208, -5.9260522

In the aftermath of the bombing the RUC asserted that a bomb had exploded prematurely while being handled by IRA members inside the pub, wrongly implying that the victims themselves were partly to blame.  In 1977, UVF member Robert Campbell was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the bombing and served fifteen years.

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http://mcgurksbar.com/

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Related content

  • CJI to investigate how PSNI deals with Ombudsman Findings - Fallout from Mc Gurk’s controversy

    Press Release
    17 January 2012
    The Policing Board is to ask the Criminal Justice Inspectorate "to carry out an investigation which will examine the relationship between the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman" following a complaint against the Chief Constable lodged on behalf of two NGOs, British Irish Rights Watch and the Pat Finucane...

  • Chief Constable again rejects Mc Gurk’s Report

    Press Release from the Mc Gurk’s Bar Bombing Relatives, British Irish Rights Watch & Pat Finucane Centre
    01 September 2011
    In a joint statement issued ahead of today’s meeting of the Policing Board the Mc Gurk’s Bar Bombing relatives, British Irish Rights Watch & the Pat Finucane Centre have urged the Board to ‘remind the Chief Constable that it is the role of the Police Ombudsman, not the Chief Constable, to...

  • Statement from the McGurk's Bar Bombing families

    Press Release
    02 June 2011
    Following the publication in February of the PONI report into the RUC investigation of the Mc Gurks Bar Bombing the Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, rejected key aspects of the Ombudsman’s findings. He tried to suggest that the hurt caused to the families was as a result of ‘confusion’ and was not the...

  • Statement on behalf of the families bereaved by the Bombing of McGurk's Bar on

    Press Release
    21 February 2011
    We, the families of the McGurk’s Bar bombing on 4th December 1971, wish to honour the memory of those who died and all the many others who were injured. They are always in our thoughts and prayers. They were innocent victims whose memory was besmirched for many years by the slur that they were...

  • Joint Statement from the Pat Finucane Centre and British Irish Rights Watch

    PFC, BIRW
    21 February 2011
    We are deeply disappointed and angered at the statement issued this afternoon by the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott, in the wake of today’s Ombudsman’s report on the McGurk’s Bar explosion in which fifteen innocent people lost their lives. Mr. Baggott’s statement falls very far short of...

  • New Police Ombudsman report into the Mc Gurks Bar bombing

    Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
    15 February 2011
    A report by the Police Ombudsman's Office has found that while there is no evidence that the RUC assisted those responsible for the UVF bombing of McGurk's Bar in Belfast in 1971, the police investigation had such a predisposition towards the view that the IRA were responsible for the bomb that this...

  • Police Ombudsman has agreed to pull the report into the Mc Gurks Bar bombing

    Statement from some of the families, British Irish Rights Watch and the Pat Finucane Centre
    08 July 2010
    The families of some of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar Bomb, 4 December 1971, supported by British Irish RIGHTS WATCH and The Pat Finucane Centre are extremely disappointed by the actions of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, whose behaviour, with regard to his report into the bombing, has...

  • British Government apology for disinformation campaign following McGurks Bar bombing

    UK Parliament
    14 July 2008
    Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab): I have asked for this debate on behalf of only one person, who is a relative of the people killed in the McGurk’s bar bombing on 4 December 1971—Mrs. Eileen Killin. I still refer to her as my aunt, and she is the sister of one of the people who...

  • Britain Lied to Irish Government and European Commission About McGurk’s Bar Massacre-Feb 2017

    McGurksBar.com
    22 February 2017
    As late as 1976, the British state and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) lied to the Irish Government and European Commission on Human Rights about the McGurk’s Bar Massacre, and claimed that the explosion was the result of “an IRA bomb which had exploded prematurely whilst in transit to its intended...

  • Victims claim documents contain evidence of collusion

    The Irish Times
    09 December 2016
    Family members of some of 15 killed in 1971 loyalist blast meet with police watchdog

  • Documents show security services knew bomb planted at door

    Connla Young, The Irish News
    04 November 2016
    RELATIVES of victims of the McGurk’s Bar bomb say they have made a “ground-breaking discovery” which proves the British Army knew the UVF attack was not an IRA 'own goal'.

  • MCGURK’S BAR BOMBING – LOSS OF INNOCENCE

    Northern Visions
    03 March 2017
    Relatives of those who were killed and injured in the McGurk’s Bar bombing talk of that night and its aftermath. On 4 December 1971, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), exploded a bomb at McGurk’s Bar in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The explosion caused the building to collapse, killing fifteen...

  • NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs, 2003/17/406, Extract from Report of the ECHR: Ireland v UK, 25 January 1976

    A deliberate decision was taken by the RUC, the British Army and politicians to present the bombing of McGurk's Bar, Belfast on 4 December 1971 as an IRA 'own goal' despite reliable evidence, both eyewitness and forensic, to the contrary in the immediate aftermath. It is an entirely credible proposition that the disinformation campaign that emerged in the aftermath of...