Yesterday the British state effectively admitted their guilt in one of the most cynical massacres in their Dirty War here in Ireland.
Survivors and relatives of those murdered in the Miami Showband massacre in July 1975 will receive nearly £1.5m in total damages to settle claims over suspected collusion with the loyalist terrorist murderers.
The resolutions reached in their legal actions against the Ministry of Defence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were announced at the High Court in Belfast.
A fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers, and Ulster Volunteer Force members stopped them at the bogus checkpoint outside Newry, Co Down.
The plan was to place a bomb in the band’s van and then let them travel south into the Republic.
The device was timed to detonate when they were across the border.
It would then have been put out via the Brits’ Stenography Corps in the media that the Miami Showband were in the bomb transporting business for the IRA.
This was a SAS type operation.
Slaughter And Slander.
However, the device prematurely exploded, killing two of the terrorists.
The remaining gunmen, some of them serving British soldiers, then decided to kill the entirely innocent musicians.
They murdered lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy.
Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers were also injured but survived the atrocity.
Full disclosure, I share the same publisher as Stephen, and we have spoken in the past about his search for justice.
The proceedings yesterday resulted from the writs issued against both the MoD and Chief Constable on behalf of four band members.
They sought damages for assault, trespass, conspiracy to injure, negligence and misfeasance in public office.
Here is Stephen’s powerful victim impact statement which was read to the court.
This is what Stephen put on Twitter after the court hearing in Belfast yesterday.
Fran O’Toole’s daughter, Rachel O’Toole, travelled from her home in Vancouver, Canada for the hearing.
In a statement read by her barrister, Brian Fee QC, she told how her family was left “broken” by the killings.
“The Miami Showband were lured on their way home into an insidious trap, leaving three friends murdered
“The fact he was killed by UVF terrorists who knew nothing about him, causes my family even deeper anguish when we learn the extent to which security forces colluded in the events which led to his death.
“The plan to plant a bomb on the band’s minibus, and detonate it once they crossed the border, to cause even more innocent people’s deaths, and re-write the Miami Showband’s identities as terrorists, is heinous.”
Heinous indeed.
Dear reader, that is the dark soul of the British state.
I recently read that when someone finally reveals themselves you should always believe them.
Well, the British state showed their true nature on that Irish roadside in July 1975.
They KNEW that the Miami Showband’s members were entirely innocent.
However, for the people who invented the Concentration Camp in order to beat the Boers and also firebombed Dresden, it was a mere detail.
Of course, both of those war crimes were deliberately aimed at innocent civilians.
There can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person that it was the state that was the author of this very British atrocity.
Moreover, the relative lack of coverage in the Brit media about this court case is rather concerning.
It is worth noting that the current British Government is currently planning to give an amnesty to all those who committed crimes for the Queen in their Dirty War here in Ireland.
Lest we forget.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Absolutely shocking…just like the Omagh bombing in 1998…
Another atrocity with British intelligence involvement.
That’s certainly the view of some of the bereaved families.
Robert Nairac’s handiwork, by some accounts.
Good work Phil. We must keep getting the truth out there – we gotta beat the ‘history thieves’.
A beautiful piece of writing Phil you have done Stephen and the lads proud here! I remember going to see the Miami Showband as a teenager in Donegal. We all loved them, Fran O’Toole was quite the heartthrob! When I read he had been shot multiple times in the face I cried and thought you dirty jealous bastard determined to destroy that lovely boy! Yet another reason why we don’t wear poppies!
A terrific article Phil. I will however take issue with you on one fairly major point. This is a point I’ve brought up on numerous occasions in the past. The British did NOT invent Concentration Camps in South Africa. They were invented by the USA in the form of “Indian Reservations” decades before the Boer war.
This is NOT a point that can be debated by ANY historian.
The term “Concentration Camp” was coined during the Second Boer War.
I would refer you to Simon Webb’s excellent book “British Concentration Camps”.
THAT is no more than an argument over wording. The reservations WERE concentration camps, whether they were called that or not.
Exactly the same racist, humiliation, brutality and starvation tactics were employed.
Facts are made of realities, not words or titles.
I’ve provided you with the appropriate reference (Webb).
It’s up to you to educate yourself.
Phil, on the subject of Native Americans, I have been educating myself for well over fifty years. North, which I know more about, and South Americans. Their treatment at the hands of Europeans and THEIR descendants, is among the worst recorded in human history. The fact that someone used the term, “Concentration Camp” fot the first time in the Boer Wars does NOT negate the fact that they existed before that.
Although I’m not a massive student of Nazi Germany, I’m NOT completely without knowledge. And the camps in Germany and Eastern Europe had many names and titles and alleged purposes. I can’t recall any that were labeled “Concentration Camps” by the Germans.
I really do NOT want to fall out with you here Phil, but the treatment of Native Americans is a subject that has been close to my heart since I was a small boy and I have studied it deeply.
Please understand where I’m coming from here.
Straw man argument.
I made no statement or claims about the extermination campaign waged by the USA against Native Americans.
The historic fact remains extant the concept of the Concentration Camp is a British Invention.
Read Webb’s book.
Off topic to this discussion, but I saw the Miami Showband in the Butt Hall in Ballybofey in the early 70’s. I’d love to be able to say I thought they were brilliant and I’ve been asured that they were. The truth is I was in my my mid-late teens and had been plied with so much drink by well meaning but older and more experienced cousins that my memories of the night are sketchy at best. A missed opportunity.
And they call them heroes on the slopes of ibrox
Heartbreaking