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Impartial Reporter
23 Feb 2012
**Via Newshound
A survivor of the Miami Showband attack will speak at an event in Enniskillen this weekend which is to celebrate how music can bring people together and to break down mistrust.
Stephen Travers, who was seriously injured in the attack on the Miama Showband in 1975, will be guest speaker at PeaceJam: music breaking down barriers at the Westville Hotel on Saturday, February 25.
Stephen Travers
Stephen Travers will be introduced by Fr. Brian D’Arcy and a range of bands will also play.
The Miami Showband had band members from north and south of the border, from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds. They played to huge crowds in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, bringing fans from all traditions together in optimism and camaraderie. It was this courage and vision that made them a target, and in what has been described as “one of the most memorably shocking episodes of the Troubles” three of the band members were shot dead at an ambush in 1975.
Travers himself was seriously injured and in his book The Miami Showband Massacre tells of his painful recovery and his search for the truth. Recently, the Miami has been in the news once more, with the PSNI Historical Enquiries Team Report in December 2011 and on-going plans for a film of the band’s story.
Fr. Brian D’Arcy, an old friend of the Miami Showband, is to speak inspiringly of his own experiences, vision and hope for the future. Following his talk, the audience will be able to experience the power of music in action, with performances from Fermanagh bands and musicians, including the very popular Joy of Six and Benjamin and the Drones.
Doors open at 7.45pm and the event runs from 8pm to 1am. Tickets cost only £5, including a complimentary buffet, and are available from KB Music in Enniskillen, the Westville Hotel and via the website dft.ba/-peacejam. Numbers are limited, so early booking is recommended.
PeaceJam is hosted by the Fermanagh Churches Forum.
Tyrone Times
30 December 2011
A HUMAN rights group has revealed evidence linking the RUC Special Branch agent involved in the Miami Showband massacre with a string of murders in Tyrone including the Hillcrest Bar bomb in 1976.
The Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) has carried out extensive research into a loyalist death squad, infiltrated by the RUC and the UDR, which is alleged to have murdered Daniel Hughes in 1974 at Boyle’s Bar , Cappagh, Owen Boyle at his home in Aughnacloy in 1975, Francis and Bernadette Mullan in 1973 at Broughadoey, Tyrone, as well as the Hillcrest Bar bomb in 1976 which killed Andrew Small, James McCaughey, Joseph Kelly and Patrick Barnard.
Dungannon Independent Republican Councillor Barry Monteith said he hoped fresh evidence relating to the Miami Showband massacre would spark new interest in the atrocities which took place in the so-called ‘murder triangle’.
“The further evidence revealed recently about the attack on the Miami Showband shows clearly the high level of collusion between the British Forces and the UVF. At least 5 of those directly involved were serving British Soldiers and another worked for one of the British intelligence services.
“The attack has been linked to the ‘Glenanne gang’ which was responsible for over 100 murders and countless attacks against the nationalist community in East Tyrone, Armagh and surrounding areas in the mid-1970s. How many of these attacks had serving British Soldiers and British intelligence agents involved in them? Where did the orders come from? Who gave the orders?
“Attacking people socialising and places where people socialised was not a one-off. It was part of a campaign of terror against the nationalist population who were guilty only of being Irish in British Occupied Ireland. People were also killed in attacks on the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon, Hayden’s Bar in Rock, Falls’ Bar in Derrytresk, Boyle’s Bar in Cappagh to name a few.
“In any other country if state forces were found to have been involved in a murder campaign then there would be outrage. Yet Britain still successfully hides its dirty war in Ireland.”
Last week, the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET) revealed evidence which pointed to the involvement of notorious loyalist leader Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson — believed to have been an RUC Special Branch agent — as well as a number of UDR soldiers in the killing of the three showband members in July 1975.
Jackson’s fingerprints were found on a silencer attached to a Luger pistol that was used in the murders.
The Pat Finucane centre is co-operating with families in the Dungannon area whose relatives were murdered by loyalist paramilitaries operating out of Portadown, Dungannon and Armagh.
They have connected a number of killings and attempted murders in the Dungannon and Moy areas to two weapons, a .455 Revolver and a 9mm SMG.
Alan Bracknell, who is leading the research, said that the Historical Enquiries Team were in the process of investigating the activities of the death squad.
He expects the official investigation will find evidence that collusion did occur and that there was a cover-up by security forces.
“The team will have access to the official documents and be able to corroborate or disprove our findings.
“I would expect them to uncover more evidence of collusion and perhaps prove that some of the connections we have made are unfounded.
“The families of the victims, who have always suspected collusion, will want to have the truth and some of them will want to have charges brought.
“Realistically, however, the chances of successful prosecutions after all this time are slight.
“The purpose of this research is to finally reveal the truth and allow our community to learn lessons from the past.”
Independent.ie
Friday December 16 2011
THE official confirmation by the Historical Enquiries Team of collusion in the Miami Showband massacre of 1975 should surprise no one. It was widely known that UDR members of the UVF were involved and there was no serious attempt at the time to cleanse the UDR of loyalist terrorists. This was an utter scandal.
But it doesn’t stop there. Most of the UVF men responsible for the Miami massacre had probably been involved in the Dublin bombings the year before. Within a week of these bombings, I met a garda detective inspector in Dublin, who showed me a list of suspects. The only surname that I remember is Somerville, belonging to two UVF brothers, unspeakably evil associates of the supremely wicked Robin Jackson. I believe he too was one of the Dublin bombers.
However, the Dublin government chose not to seek the extradition of the UVF men who had caused the biggest loss of life in the Troubles. Quite simply, the State didn’t want later to have to extradite IRA terrorists as a quid pro quo for having got the Dublin bombers. There is no documentary trail to prove this assertion, just missing files and conspicuously discreet inertia. Thereafter, the UVF felt they were immune to the rule of law; and they were right, were they not? Thus the Miami Showband massacre; in scale not the worst of the atrocities, but in its diabolical inventiveness against such a group of harmless and naïve young men, easily one of the most depraved.
Two UVF men, Wesley Somerville and Harris Boyle, were killed in the premature explosion as they put the bomb on board the showband’s bus. In the butchery that followed, three young musicians were hunted down and murdered: Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy. Brian was the son of the Orange Grand Master for Tyrone and he was buried in Caledon. Nineteen years later, Brian’s sister’s husband, Eric Smyth, a former soldier, was murdered by the IRA. She lost her brother to the UVF, and her husband to the IRA: a very model of Irish ecumenism.
I know, beyond all doubt, that senior members of the British government, army and RUC were aware of the degree to which the UVF had penetrated the UDR in the Dungannon/Portadown area. But I also know that the governments of the Republic of Ireland failed to act on the terrorism threat. Throughout this time, members of the IRA army council, such as Daithi O’Connell and Ruairi O Bradaigh, were living at home and running the IRA like a lawful business. Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy, who lived in Louth, was never once arrested throughout the Troubles. Successive governments of this Republic allowed the semi-autonomous IRA heartland of south Armagh to be extended across Cavan, Monaghan and Louth.
Over time, Shinners and their fellow-travellers sedulously created a new folklore about the Troubles, which is rapidly becoming the standard narrative of a carefully monitored, daily updated internet campaign. This runs as follows: the Troubles — “the British war in Ireland” as Gerry Adams memorably called them in ‘The Guardian’ — were either the creation of the British or of loyalists working with their collusion. In reply, the IRA conducted a largely gallant Human Rights Struggle, which was marred by a few unfortunate excesses.
No serious counter-narrative is being offered to these myths. Indeed, if anything, official amnesia now prevails. When recently giving evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal into garda collusion with the IRA in Dundalk, I testified that a garda had given information to the IRA about the investigations into the murders of the British ambassador Christopher Ewart-Biggs and the Northern Ireland Office official Judith Cooke. Counsel for An Garda Siochana subsequently took advice and later rose to rebut my allegation, declaring I had confused it with the case of a garda who had been convicted of assisting MI5. I insisted that I was right and that counsel had been misinformed, adding that the garda concerned — whose name I had forgotten — had appeared in court.
THE tribunal has now written to me, accepting that my claim was correct. But how is it that the name of Garda Patrick Kirby, traitor and fellow traveller of the IRA, who was convicted of passing on information to the IRA on January 8, 1978, is not a name that endures in infamy within the corporate memory of An Garda Siochana? Well, in much the same way that almost no one remembers that if the Dublin bombers had been extradited to this Republic, as they could and should have been, there would have been no Miami Showband massacre.
**Received via email today
Given all the speculation around the involvement of Robin Jackson in the Miami ambush we have now uploaded the entire 11 pages of the report relating to this issue to our website. It hasn’t been edited in any way. Anyone who has already looked at the Miami docs on our site will not have seen this pdf. We added it at lunchtime today.
Go here: http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/cases/miami/miami.html
PFC
Report on 1975 murders finds Robin Jackson was advised to lie low after his fingerprints were found on murder weapon
Henry McDonald
Guardian
15 Dec 2011
A loyalist assassin known as The Jackal received a tipoff from a senior police officer that helped him elude justice over the killing of an Irish pop band in the mid-1970s, according to a report.
The cold case police investigations unit, the Historical Enquiries Team (Het), found Robin Jackson was linked to the murders of three members of the Miami Showband in July 1975.
Miami Showband killings: Robin Jackson claimed he was tipped off that his fingerprints had been found on a silencer used in the murders. (Photograph: Kevin Boyes/Presseye)
The pop group were on their way back to Dublin when their minibus was stopped by a fake army patrol near the border. The Het report found that Jackson, a member of loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force from North Armagh, had been linked to one of the murder weapons by his fingerprints. But Jackson later claimed in police interviews he had been tipped off by a senior Royal Ulster Constabulary officer to lie low after the killings.
Jackson, who emigrated for a period of the 1980s to South Africa, has since died from cancer. In 1984 he helped organise the attempted murder of the then Sunday World northern editor Jim Campbell, who had named Jackson as the leader of the UVF in Mid-Ulster, which was responsible for shootings and bombings against nationalists in the so-called “Murder Triangle” of North Armagh.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, said Jackson claimed he was tipped off that his fingerprints had been found on a silencer attached to a Luger pistol used in the Miami Showband murders. The Het team said the murders raised “disturbing questions about collusive and corrupt behaviour”. It said the review “has found no means to assuage or rebut these concerns and that is a deeply troubling matter”.
The bogus army patrol comprised soldiers from the Ulster Defence Regiment and UVF members in Armagh. Members of the band were made to line up at the side of the road while one UVF member tried to hide a bomb on the bus. The plan was that the bomb would explode en route, killing everyone on board as it entered Dublin. But the bomb went off prematurely, killing Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, who were members of the UDR, as well as the UVF.
After the explosion the other members of the UVF gang then opened fire on the band, killing lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty, and trumpeter Brian McCoy. The bass player, Stephen Travers, barely survived his injuries.
Three members of the UDR were eventually convicted for their part in the attack. James Somerville, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell received life sentences and remained in jail until their early release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 when republican and loyalist prisoners were given a de facto amnesty as part of the peace settlement.
Commenting on the report, band member Des McAlea, who survived the attack, said: “It’s been a long time but we’ve got justice at last.” He described the Het findings as “quite shocking” and “mind-blowing”. “The fact that there was collusion in this is such a tragedy for all of us concerned,” McAlea added. “To think that people were supposed to be protecting us and they were actually involved in this terrible tragedy.”
MARY MINIHAN
Irish Times
15 Dec 2011
Fran O’Toole (standing, second from right) and members of the Miami Showband, who were attacked by the UVF in 1975
A SURVIVOR of the Miami Showband massacre has said the findings of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report represented justice for those who were killed and for their families.
Former band member Des McAlea, who escaped the 1975 UVF attack by fleeing across a field in the darkness, was overcome with emotion when he addressed a press conference in Dublin yesterday.
He praised the families of those who were killed for the “patience and dignity” they had demonstrated over the last 36 years.
“It’s been a long and winding road for all of them and for us. Justice at last – hallelujah,” Mr McAlea said.
Stephen Travers, who was badly injured in the attack, said the survivors and families of those who died would always want to know more about what happened.
“But we’re very grateful for what we’ve got today. What’s happened today is that the door has been opened . . . they can’t argue when we accuse them of colluding with the paramilitaries.”
David O’Toole, a nephew of the band’s lead singer, Fran O’Toole, who was killed, said the family was “reasonably happy” with the report.
“These dreadful murders absolutely tore apart our lives and those of our families. They left two young women without their husbands and four very young children fatherless,” Mr O’Toole said.
“We hope that this report can bring some closure to us and help us to come to terms with our terrible loss.”
Keith McCoy, son of Brian McCoy, who was also killed, said: “We the families of Tony [Anthony Geraghty], Brian and Fran, as well as survivors Stephen and Des, have waited a very long time, over 36 years in fact, to learn the circumstances surrounding the deaths of our loved ones, who were shot down so brutally and so callously in the early hours of a summer morning.”
John O’Dowd, the Sinn Féin MLA for Upper Bann, focused on the report’s findings relating to the potential involvement of Robert “Robin” Jackson, sometimes referred to as “The Jackal”.
“It was well known that Robin Jackson was an agent for the British state, that he was allowed to kill Catholics with impunity throughout Mid-Ulster and beyond, and that some of these killings were actually facilitated by the forces of the State,” Mr O’Dowd said.
SDLP MLA for Upper Bann Dolores Kelly said the party’s sympathies were with the families of those who died and were injured in the atrocity.
“There has been a long-held belief that there were people in the security forces, including the RUC, who were involved in brutal crimes. This report confirms that and is a vindication of the families’ campaign.”
Independent TD Finian McGrath attended the press conference in Dublin yesterday and expressed his “strong support and sympathy” for the families.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern was one of those thanked by Mr McAlea “for giving us his full support and unveiling the Miami monument in Parnell Square”.
He also thanked Margaret Urwin of Justice for the Forgotten and representatives from the Pat Finucane Centre.
Alliance justice spokesman Stewart Dickson MLA described the findings of the report as “extremely troubling”.
Spectre of collusion in Miami Showband killings
By Cormac O’Keeffe
Irish Examiner
Thursday, December 15, 2011
THE spectre of police collusion and corruption in the murders of three young men in The Miami Showband massacre over 36 years ago has been raised by an internal report of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The gun attack on July 31, 1975, occurred as a minibus carrying the band was stopped at a bogus checkpoint outside Newry, Co Armagh.
The group was returning from a gig in Banbridge, Co Down, to Dublin.
Three men were killed: Tony Geraghty, 24, from Crumlin, south Dublin; Brian McEvoy, 32, a married father of two originally from Tyrone but living in Raheny, north Dublin; and Fran O’Toole, 28, a married father of two from Bray, Co Wicklow.
Fellow band member Stephen Travers was seriously injured in the attack, while a fifth member, Des McAlea, was also injured.
Details of a report into the massacre, carried out by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team, were released by the families of victims and survivors at a press conference in Dublin organised by Justice for the Forgotten and the Pat Finucane Centre.
The internal special investigative unit said the murder was a pre-planned attack carried out by the UVF loyalist terror gang, including members of the Ulster Defence Regiment, part of the British army.
The gang had intended to plant a bomb to detonate at a later stage, allowing some elements to claim the band was carrying bombs for the Provisional IRA. However, the bomb detonated prematurely killing two terrorists, Harris Boyle and Wesley Sommerville.
The band members had already been told to get out of the bus and, when the bomb exploded, six other gunmen opened fire.
Three men were later convicted of murder.
The team raised particular concern about the possible involvement of a notorious loyalist terrorist Robert Jackson, known as The Jackal, after a gun linked to the atrocity was found to have his fingerprints on it.
There was no evidence that this information was passed on to the Miami investigation team. Jackson also claimed he was tipped off about the fingerprint evidence by senior RUC officers prior to being arrested.
No evidence of an internal investigation in these allegations was found.
Travers, the band’s bass player, who survived by pretending to be dead, said the finding was alarming.
“We believe the only conclusion possible arising from the HET report is that one of the most prolific loyalist murderers of the conflict was an RUC Special Branch agent and was involved in the Miami Showband attack.”
The HET found Jackson’s “stark” claims that he was told to lie low were passed on to RUC headquarters and the force’s complaints and discipline department but there were no records of any further investigation.
“To the objective, impartial observer, disturbing questions about collusive and corrupt behaviour are raised,” it concluded.
“The HET review has found no means to assuage or rebut these concerns and this is a deeply troubling matter.”
The report has been sent to the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland.
Mr Travers, Mr McAlea and families of the deceased all said they were “reasonably happy” with the report, although Mr McAlea said he wanted the PSNI chief constable and the DPP to tell him why nobody was charged with his attempted murder.
Tour turns to terror
THE Miami Showband were one of the Ireland’s most popular live bands throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The group, originally known as Downbeats Quartet, were formed in 1962 under Tom Doherty.
With seven number one songs, including There’s Always Me and Simon Says, the band enjoyed a large following as they relentlessly toured Ireland.
On July 31, 1975, the showband was returning from performing at a dance in Banbridge, Co Down, when their minibus was flagged down by men dressed in British army uniforms on the road to the border town of Newry.
Band members were told to line up in a ditch while UVF members posing as Ulster Defence Regiment members tried to plant a bomb on the minibus, which they hoped would explode later on as the musicians headed home to Dublin.
As the gang loaded the bomb, the musicians were asked for their names and addresses, but it exploded prematurely, killing UVF members Harris Boyle and Wesley Sommerville.
After the explosion, the UVF gang was ordered to open fire on the band, killing Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy. Stephen Travers was seriously injured yet survived by pretending he was dead, while the explosion blew Des McAlea clear of the immediate danger, and he escaped with scratches and severe shock.
Later that year Mr McAlea and Mr Travers reformed the band, but both men soon left, leaving the New Miami to tour, eventually disbanding in 1986.
The Miami name returned once again in 1996, this time fronted by Gerry Brown, brother of singer Dana.
The band performed on the 30th anniversary of the atrocity, with Mr McAlea and Mr Travers reuniting on stage at a Miami Showband Memorial Concert at Vicar Street in 2005.
Herald.ie
14 December 2011
Cold case detectives unable to rule out state collusion in the Miami Showband massacre have admitted the allegations are deeply troubling.
Survivors and families of the victims of one of the most shocking atrocities of the Troubles said suggestions a police agent was involved has devastated them.
Three members of the Miami Showband were killed in July 1975 at a bogus checkpoint set up on the main Belfast to Dublin road
Three members of the hugely popular band were killed in the July 1975 Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack at a bogus checkpoint set up on the main Belfast to Dublin road, in Co Down.
The loyalist gang, including a number of serving Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers wearing British Army uniforms, gunned down the musicians after a bomb they tried to attach to their minibus exploded prematurely.
The Historical Enquiries Team (HET) – a unit which reports to Northern Ireland’s chief constable Matt Baggott on cases during the conflict – tried but could not refute suspicions of security force involvement.
New evidence in the case centres around the involvement of notorious loyalist leader Robin “The Jackal” Jackson – believed to have been a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch agent – as well as the role of soldiers in the British Army’s UDR.
Jackson’s fingerprints were found on a silencer attached to a Luger pistol used in the murders.
The cold case unit found evidence he was tipped off by an RUC detective superintendent and a detective sergeant and was warned “to clear as there was a wee job up the country that he would be done for.”
Stephen Travers, the band’s bass player, who survived by pretending to be dead, said the finding was alarming.
“We believe the only conclusion possible arising from the HET report is that one of the most prolific loyalist murderers of the conflict was an RUC Special Branch agent and was involved in the Miami Showband attack,” he said.
IAIS
14 Dec 2011
Ulster Volunteer Force member Robin Jackson – who claims he was beaten into confessing to involvement in the Miami Showband Massacre in 1975 – was warned by police that his fingerprints had been found on a gun used in the killings, the Historical Enquiries Team has found.
The families of those killed have released conclusions from a review, after cold-case investigators said it was “deeply troubling” that British Army involvement in the attack could not be ruled out.
Three members of the Showband were killed on July 31, 1975, as they travelled back to Dublin after playing a gig in Banbridge, Co Down.
They were flagged down at a bogus army checkpoint at Buskhill, near Newry, in the early hours.
The review found: “To the objective, impartial observer, disturbing questions about collusive and corrupt behaviour are raised. The HET review has found no means to assuage or rebut these concerns.”
The gunmen, who were wearing UDR uniforms, instructed the band members to line up at a ditch and state their names and addresses.
Two of the attackers were killed when a bomb unexpectedly exploded as they placed it in the back of the band’s van.
The remaining gunmen then opened fire on the Miami Showband – shooting Tony Geraghty eight times in the back, while Brian McCoy was shot nine times and Fran O’Toole was shot as he lay on the ground face up.
Other band members pretended to be dead in order to escape being murdered.
Hours after the shootings, the UVF released a statement which said the loyalist paramilitary organisation was “justified” in taking action and “the killing of the three Showband members should be regarded as justifiable homicide”.
Jackson – also known as ‘The Jackal’ – was arrested and questioned about the massacre and he claims that, during a police interview, he was told to “clear as there was a wee job up the country I would be done for”.
One of the survivors, bass player Stephen Travers, said: “The most alarming finding concerns the involvement of Robin Jackson, aka ‘The Jackal’ – a notorious UVF member.
“The HET found disturbing evidence that Jackson was tipped off in May 1976 that his fingerprints had been found on a silencer attached to the Luger pistol used in the Miami murders.”
Jackson was arrested at an early stage in the inquiry, but was released without charge.
Three members of the UDR were convicted for the massacre.
Thomas Crozier, James McDowell and James Somerville all received life sentences, but were later released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Survivor Des McAlea said he was disappointed no one was ever charged with his attempted murder and he would pursue that with the Public Prosecution Service and the PSNI.
Both Mr Travers and Mr McAlea said one of the gang on the night was more authoritative than the others and spoke with a “posh English accent”.
Although the HET believes that man was McDowell, the survivors remain adamant the man was from England.
The families also said they want the issue of Robert Jackson’s involvement particularly to be pursued.
Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd said figures like Robin Jackson stand in the way of an independent truth commission.
“It was well known that Robin Jackson was an agent for the British state, that he was allowed to kill Catholics with impunity throughout Mid-Ulster and beyond and that some of these killings were actually facilitated by the forces of the state.”
“This speaks volumes about the British state’s involvement in the conflict and rather than claim, as they did, that they were impartial observers or some sort of peace keeper, they were in fact up to their necks in facilitating and possibly encouraging sectarian killings and much more.”
The HET report has been described as “vindication” for the families of the Miami Showband members by SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly.
“It again confirms what many people suspected; that there were very serious failures in the RUC in terms of investigating serious crimes in the past.”
“The enormous question about why Robin Jackson was allowed to carry out this terror and inflict so much pain on victims over such a long period of time must be answered by the State as we cannot help but think if he had been put behind bars some people’s lives may have been spared,” she added.
The report has been submitted to the Police Ombudsman, and Alliance Justice spokesperson Stewart Dickson said he believes it serves as a “wake up call” for the Secretary of State to put in place talks on how to address the past.
“The findings of this report are extremely troubling, though we have to acknowledge the reforms to policing that have been made since that time.”
“I also believe that it is absolutely crucial that we have a comprehensive process in place to address the legacy of the past. We need an overarching strategy to help meet the needs of victims and survivors and help build a shared future,” he added.
Justice for the Forgotten — The Pat Finucane Centre
13 Dec 2011
MIAMI SHOWBAND FAMILIES RESPOND TO THE HISTORICAL ENQUIRIES TEAM REPORT INTO THE MURDERS OF ANTHONY GERAGHTY, BRIAN MC COY AND FRANCIS O’TOOLE
The bereaved families and survivors of the Miami Showband attack will host a press conference in Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin on Wednesday, 14th December at 11.00 am. The families have recieved a report from the Historical Enquiries Team into the murders of their loved ones: Tony Geraghty, Brian McCoy and Fran O’Toole.
The murders occurred in the early hours of 31st July 1975 as the Miami showband was returning home to Dublin following a gig in the Castle Ballroom, Banbridge, Co. Down. They were flagged down at a bogus British military checkpoint at Buskhill on the main road to Newry.
Tony Geraghty was 24 years old and a native of Crumlin, Dublin. He was lead guitarist with the band.
Brian McCoy was 32 years old and was married to Helen. They had two young children, Keith and Cheryl. They lived in Raheny, Dublin but Brian was a native of Caledon, Co. Tyrone. He was trumpeter and singer with the band.
Fran O’Toole was 28 years old and was married to Valerie. They had two young daughters, Rachel and Kelly. Fran was a native of Bray, Co. Wicklow. He was organist and lead singer with the band.
The main documents that will be made available at the Press conference tomorrow may be accessed on the Pat Finucane Centre website from 11a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, the 14th December. These documents include the conclusions from the Historic Enquiries Team’s report. The entire contents of HET reports are never made available as these are confidential to families.
PFC
PFC website: www.patfinucanecentre.org
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