After uncovering new evidence, the attorney general has recommended new inquests into the McGurk’s Bar bombing, which killed 15 people in December 1971. The attack was carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), but the families of the victims have long suspected that British armed forces had obtained advanced knowledge of the attack. One person was convicted of all 15 murders in 1978.
The attorney general’s decision was based on new evidence related to the location of Army observation posts in the area of the bombing. However, due to the Legacy Act, any future inquests must be concluded before 1 May, and no further Troubles-era inquiries or civil cases can be heard. While ongoing prosecutions will continue, inquests that have already begun will end in May unless they have reached the point of delivering findings.
Dame Brenda King, the attorney general, wrote to the family of Edward and Sarah Keenan, two of those who died in the bombing, and stated that she had “considered the submissions and documents provided” and “decided that it is advisable to order a new inquest into their deaths”. In the letter, she wrote that “the investigation of the actions or inactions of the Army in the period before the bombing occurred is incomplete,” and considered that an inquest would “provide a forum in which the actions of the Army prior to the bombing could be explored.”
Ciarán MacAirt, whose grandmother Kathleen Irvine was murdered in the attack, submitted new evidence to the attorney general, which he discovered “through archive research in public records and targeted requests via the Freedom of Information Act.” Mr. MacAirt said that the families would “continue to fight for equal access to due process of the law.” Gerard Keenan, who was 13 when the bombing killed both of his parents, welcomed the attorney general’s letter but said that “the British state will not allow this inquest to go ahead” like many other bereaved
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