Loyalist pub bombing to be raised in UK parliament

A security force cover-up of a loyalist pub bombing that killed 15 people in 1971 is to be raised at Westminster in the UK tomorrow.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward has already apologised in a letter to Scottish MP Michael Connarty whose great uncle was killed in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack on McGurk’s bar in north Belfast.

Investigators from the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) probing cases from the North's Troubles discovered British military officials at the time falsely claimed the explosion was an IRA ‘own-goal’.

Speaking ahead of the case being raised in the British House of Commons, Mr Woodward said his apology reflected his concern for all those who died in the Troubles.

“The tragedy of the Troubles is that any of those people died and one of the things that politicians have to get much better at is actually taking on their responsibility as a secretary of state and saying, I’m sorry.

“Michael has a relative who was in that bar. I am sorry his relative died.

“I am sorry for the extraordinary additional pain they suffered from the descriptions at the time of who was behind the bomb.”

Two children and three women were among those killed in the no-warning bomb attack.

Eye-witness evidence pointed to loyalist involvement, but the British army claimed the blast was caused when an IRA bomb being prepared in the pub exploded prematurely.

The accusation angered bereaved families who have campaigned for decades to clear the names of those killed.

Documents recently emerged to show that British military advisers told politicians the bomb was in the hands of one of the customers and urged them to make this public.

But the HET dismissed the army comments from the time: “It was an irresponsible and inaccurate piece, which could not be based on facts but instead reflected a desired outcome.”

Seven years after the attack a member of the UVF received 15 life sentences after he was convicted for the bombing.

It is understood the British government does not see Mr Woodward’s comments as being linked to wider talks between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on the future of the North's Assembly.

But his apology forms part of continuing efforts to deal with the legacy of years of violence.

The Secretary of State said the focus should be on the report due later this year from the Consultative Group on the Past, co-chaired by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley.

The group has met politicians and members of the public in its efforts to deal with the impact of the Troubles and to help victims.

There has been speculation the Eames-Bradley report could contain shocking details on the scale of British security force collusion with paramilitaries – sparking unionist concerns the impact of terrorist violence is being lost.

But the Secretary of State said efforts to deal with the past must be balanced, with any new way forward securing the support of both nationalists and unionists.

Mr Woodward said: “I believe that we have responsibility to people who lost their loved ones and I don’t think that we would serve them well by pretending that we can just somehow draw a line and leave them behind.

“We can’t. Those who lost their loved ones in the past have a part, absolutely, to play in the present, not least because if we can live healthily with the mistakes of the past, we may not repeat them.”

He added: “Learning to say sorry is an important part but I like to see this in the context of what Eames and Bradley provide for us at the end of the year.

“Because there will be a huge amount of soul searching if they manage to produce the radical report which they have indicated it might be.”