Attack On The Heights Bar
On the evening of 18 June 1994, about 24 people were gathered in The Heights Bar watching the Republic of Ireland v Italy World Cup football match.
At 10:10pm, two UVF members wearing boiler suits and balaclavas, and armed with assault rifles walked into the pub and opened fire on the crowd. Six men were killed outright, and five other people were wounded. Witnesses said the gunmen then ran to a getaway car, "laughing". The dead were Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (52), Barney Greene (87), Daniel McCreanor (59), Patrick O'Hare (35) and Eamon Byrne (39), all Catholic civilians. O'Hare was the brother-in-law of Eamon Byrne and Greene was one of the oldest people to be killed during "the Troubles".
The getaway car was found abandoned between Crossgar and Ballynahinch, while one of the rifles used was later recovered in Saintfield. The UVF claimed responsibility for the attack. Journalist Peter Taylor suggested in his book Loyalists that it was not entirely certain that the UVF Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) had sanctioned the attack, and that it was instead carried out by a local UVF unit. In the event of an "enemy" attack, these UVF units were granted autonomy to retaliate against what they considered to be appropriate targets. Taylor had been told by an unnamed UVF member that the UVF had received faulty intelligence which had claimed Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers would be present in the Heights Bar that evening. The Brigade Staff later assured Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leader David Ervine that there would never again be another attack such as Loughinisland.
Read more about this topic: Loughinisland Massacre
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