Dail to Debate British Collusion

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Dail to Debate British Collusion

December 13, 2007

By Paddy Clancy

THE Dail (parliament) is to debate collusion by British security services in murderous atrocities during the Troubles in the North.

Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern told fans and relatives of murdered members of the Miami Showband that the debate will take place in February.

“But that is for another day,” he said at the unveiling of a special memorial in Parnell Square, Dublin, to the memory of the band which was murdered by Loyalist extremists 32 years ago. Ahern added, “Today is about remembering the Miami Showband in words and music.”

Fran O’Toole, 28, Brian McCoy, 32, and Tony Geraghty, 24, were shot dead by suspected Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitaries as the band returned from a show at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, Co. Down, on July 31, 1975.

It was a massacre which ended entertainment in the North by bands from the Republic for almost 20 years.

Ahern, who led tributes to the dead men, said the murders were “an atrocity” which had a profound impact on everyone on the island of Ireland. The attack was remembered with sadness to this day.

Two survivors of the atrocity, Des Lee and Stephen Travers, were among 200 members of the entertainment industry, family and friends for the unveiling of the memorial outside the former National Ballroom.

Ahern referred to the presence in the crowd of others whose family members had been murdered in the Troubles. He said their suffering was sharpened by the clear evidence of collusion by the British security forces in many of the murders, as had been made clear by several reports over the years.

Former presidential candidate and Eurovision song contest winner Dana Rosemary Scallon and her brother Gerry Browne sang “Love Is,” a song co-written by Fran O’Toole and released posthumously.

O’Toole’s widow, Rose, and Brian McCoy’s son Kevin were at the unveiling.

O’Toole thanked the Justice for the Forgotten group, which had campaigned for the memorial. McCoy asked that the men be remembered “for the sense of happiness they would have shared” and as “three very fondly missed entertainers.”

Lee, who had flown in from South Africa for the event, said it was hard to believe it was more then 30 years since the atrocity, but added that the names of the slain would now be “etched in stone, never to be forgotten.”

Travers, who was seriously injured in the attack, said the memorial would be “a constant antidote to the poison of the bigots.”

Dublin Lord Mayor Paddy Burke said it was “fitting that one of this country’s greatest showbands should be commemorated in this way.”

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