Annie’s Bar massacre: relatives ‘still being ignored by British government’

The bar was crowded and the mood was festive. Shortly after 10.30pm, the bar door opened and two men, armed with a sub-machine gun and a pistol, entered. The gunmen sprayed the room indiscriminately with bullets. The attack reportedly took just seconds, but it left five men dead and four injured.

Those who lost their lives were Charlie McCafferty, Frank McCarron, Charles Moore, Barney Kelly and Michael McGinley.

The attack was carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and is believed to have been in retaliation for the murder of a UDR man and father of one, George Hamilton (28), who had been killed by the IRA earlier that day.

Although clearly a sectarian attack, among the dead was one Protestant, Charles Moore (31), a nursing assistant who had two daughters. A third daughter was born just three weeks later.

Charlie McCafferty (31) had seven children - five stepchildren and a son, Kevin, (2) and a daughter, Lisa (10 months).

Barney Kelly (26) was expecting his first child with his wife, Marie. The couple had married just three months earlier.

Frank McCarron (58) was a widow and had six daughters and a son.

Michael McGinley (37) had played with his seven month old daughter earlier that night.

Eileen Doherty, Charles McCafferty’s stepdaughter, has issued a plea for those with information about the murder to come forward.

She said: “This year has been so hard for so many people, particularly those who have lost loved ones during the pandemic. This Christmas will be so different for these families and for families that can’t be together. It is always a difficult time for our family and the others whose fathers and brothers were violently taken from us just days before Christmas. But we really hope and believe that those with information about what happened that night will come forward. Charlie was the most amazing father - we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have him in our lives even for a short time. It is hard to describe the pain caused by such a senseless, violent act. I believe that Christmas 2020 is a time for reflection and I am appealing to anyone with information to clear their conscience before it is too late.’

Sara Duddy, from the Pat Finucane Centre, added: ‘The families of those murdered in the Annie’s Bar massacre continue to be ignored by the British government which refuses to investigate what happened. Like so many families bereaved during the conflict, they are left in limbo as Brandon Lewis and his colleagues do everything in their power to delay and obfuscate their duty, both legal and moral, to deal with the past. This was made clear by Lewis’ statement in March, just as the pandemic took hold, that clearly showed the government wanted to close cases and bury the truth. We can’t let this happen. It is disgraceful that, 47 years on from the Annie’s Bar murders, bereaved families continue to be ignored by the Tories.”