Heath Accused Over False IRA Bomb Claims

Former PM Edward Heath may have been involved in a campaign which falsely blamed the IRA for the McGurk’s bar bombing, a Labour MP has claimed.

MP Michael Connarty’s uncle was killed along with 14 others when a UVF bomb was detonated in McGurk’s in Belfast on 4 December 1971.

The attack was blamed on the accidental detonation of an IRA device.

Mr Connarty has told the Commons that the British government was instrumental in spreading the story.

Last year, the Police Ombudsman found there had been investigative bias in blaming republicans for the attack. It also found there was no collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the British government at the time.

But Mr Connarty claims a new book is casting doubt on the findings.

He told MPs: "On December 4, 1971, McGurk's Bar was blown up by a UVF bomb, killing my uncle Philip Garry plus 14 other people including two children.

"On the 41st anniversary of that, a book has been published by Ciaran MacAirt, whose grandmother Kathleen Irvine was also killed in that bomb, showing that after 20 years of investigation there are still closed files, letters not available.

"There was collusion and it was clearly the British government, possibly up to the then prime minister Edward Heath, who colluded and not only co-operated, but instructed that the false story be spread that this was a bomb carried by the people into that bar and it was an IRA bomb in transit."

Stormont home affairs minister John Taylor blamed the IRA in the aftermath of the attack. In 1978, UVF member Robert Campbell was convicted for his involvment.

Mr Connarty has called for a full investigation.

"Is it not time now for a proper investigation by the British Government into the facts of this case, with all the files being open and the Prime Minister coming here to apologise to those families and the community for the malign way in which they were, for six years, blamed for a bomb that was clearly a vicious act against them?"

Leader of the House Andrew Lansley said he would ask ministers to respond to Mr Connarty's claims.

(IT)