DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: Victims forgotten amid weeks long PSNI row

The five victims of the Sean Graham Bookmakers massacre. From left, top left to bottom right, Jack Duffin, Peter Magee, William McManus, James Kennedy and Christy Doherty.

Forgotten amid controversy around disciplinary action wrongfully taken against two PSNI officers for the arrest of a man during a commemoration of the Sean Graham Bookmakers massacre in 1992 were Christy Doherty, Jack Duffin, James Kennedy, Peter Magee and William McManus.

Chief Constable Simon Byrne was forced to resign after High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Schofield, ruled the officers were unlawfully disciplined following the incident. Condemnation was swift and loud.

For weeks the situation dominated the news cycle. Five innocent men shot dead by the Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters on the Ormeau Road on February 5, 1992, seemed an afterthought amid the fulmination.

It is worth remembering the victims were among over 80 – including the Greysteel victims – murdered with weapons imported by loyalists in December 1987.

Sean Graham Bookmakers after loyalists shot dead five men and boys in 1992.

This, Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson found in her Operation Achilles report of last year, was in spite of the RUC receiving intelligence from the upper echelons of the UDA/UFF and closely surveilling those involved in distributing the arms.

VZ58 Czech assault rifles from the shipment were used on the Ormeau Road, at Greysteel and Loughinisland.

Ms. Anderson voiced concern at the failure of the RUC to investigate the people involved in the importation.

Her report did not generate a fraction of the column inches or airtime of the recent controversy over the commemoration in 2021 and what followed. We choose our priorities in this place.