RELATIVES OF some of the 15 people murdered in the bombing of McGurk’s bar in north Belfast in December 1971 have strongly criticised a report by the Police Ombudsman into the atrocity.
The complaint made to the Police Ombudsman by some of the families of those who died in the bomb alleged police did not properly investigate the attack, that they colluded with those responsible and provided false information to suggest that rather than a loyalist attack, the bomb was an IRA “own goal”.
In response, Al Hutchinson’s findings, released just after midnight today, conclude that the bombing was not an IRA “own goal”. However, the Police Ombudsman also concluded that claims that the RUC did not investigate the bombing properly could not be substantiated. He also found there was no evidence that police or the security forces conspired with the loyalist bombers who carried out the atrocity before, during or after the incident nor any evidence of police criminality or misconduct.
A spokesman for Mr Hutchinson said: “There is no doubt that there was a desire to plant in the minds of the public the idea that the bombing was by the IRA. The documentation we have seen, which not only discusses this aim but considers how it may be achieved, was documentation between the [British] army and the government.”
He continued: “We have found no evidence that police had discussed promoting such an idea. What is clear, however, is that police let this belief go unchallenged. While it is understandable that police would not want to discuss the evidence of their investigation in public, they were at one stage in a position to refute allegations of an ‘IRA own goal’. Police Ombudsman investigators have not established why this did not happen,” he said.
However, relatives of three families who lost loved ones in the bombing, which was the worst atrocity before Omagh in 1998, have expressed concern at the Police Ombudsman’s report.
Robert McClenaghan, Alec McLaughlin and Gerard Keenan, all of whom were bereaved by the bombing, said the report contained glaring errors.
They also said the report “appears to ignore the fact that the police knew by 1977 at the latest that the UVF were responsible for the bombing”.
A report drawn up by the Pat Finucane Centre in conjunction with British-Irish Rights Watch, said Mr Hutchinson’s findings were bewildering.