“A Forgotten Atrocity”
—Lest We Forget —
In memory of five innocent Protestants
slaughtered here by a Republican murder gang
on 13th August 1975
William John Gracey aged 63
Samuel Gunning aged 55
Joanne McDowell aged 29
Hugh Alexander Harris aged 21
Linda Boyle aged 17
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Bayardo Bar
Bombed
10.55pm Wednesday
13th August 1975
5 People Killed
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At this spot, on 13th August, 1975, five Protestants were killed and up to sixty injured, during a Republican bomb and gun attack on the Bayardo Bar.
The criminals who implemented this vicious attack, led by ex-trainee priest and IRA leader, Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane, a close associate of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, achieved, in part, exactly what they set out to do - to murder and maim members of our community in cold blood.
They entered the Bayardo Bar, spraying a member of the door-staff and a customer who were chatting at the time, with a barrage of machine-gun fire. They then placed a duffle-bag, which contained a bomb in the premises, giving the terrified customers within no chance whatsoever of escape.
In total,
five people lost their lives that day, including one young girl - 17 year-old Linda Boyle. This attack on our people was designed purely to inflict maximum damage and, although their mission was completed, their callous agenda failed.
For although many good friends were lost and injured on that fateful day, the people of West Belfast and, indeed, Ulster, emerged stronger and even more resolute, to defeat the pure evil that is Irish Republicanism, once and for all! We all know that Republican politicians would have us sit with them in negotiation. We all know that they would have us now believe that theirs is a message of peace, and those militants with whom they associated in the past were part of an army! But the Irish Republican Army was not an army, nor were they so-called freedom fighters.
They were a homicidal, guerrilla grouping! A criminal organisation devoid of conscience! An organisation which fouls the decency of humanity in every sense and on every level! Yes, we know the IRA for what they were, and what they remain, a sectarian murder gang whose targets were easy, innocent and vulnerable men, women and children.
How this despicable act upon the Bayardo Bar and the people of the Shankill Road could somehow further their illegitimate cause is beyond comprehension. Spanning four decades of 'The Troubles' in Ulster, there have been many atrocities like that
which occurred here on 13th August 1975.
Many innocent Protestants perished at the hands of Republican murder gangs, and we must, for all time, resolve never to forget and never to let their memories fade! There are many places akin to this all across our beloved Ulster, where Protestants have been maimed and killed, and where the fallen are remembered. Places that hold, for us all, the bitter sweet memory of loved ones and how those loved ones met their premature end - at the hands of so-called Irish freedom fighters.
But we will never forget those who lie in cold graves, the victims of the Republican Movement's vicious campaign of genocide. They waged war against the British presence in Ulster. The British presence in Ulster being you and I - the Protestant people!
Hugh Alexander Harris · Samuel Gunning
William John Gracey · Joanne McDowell · Linda Boyle
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
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