Focus On IRA 'Harmed 70s Bomb Probe'

Police in Northern Ireland were so focused on the idea that the IRA was behind a 1971 bar bombing in a nationalist part of north Belfast that it was not properly investigated, a report has said.

Fifteen people died in the McGurk's bar attack, the worst Troubles atrocity prior to the Omagh bomb.

Ombudsman Al Hutchinson originally intended to publish his report last summer but withdrew it after it was criticised by survivors and the families of those who died.

Its original conclusion that, on the balance of probabilities, the police conducted a "reasonably thorough investigation" was criticised by some people who called it "patently ridiculous".

In a new report published on Monday, Mr Hutchinson said the RUC's "investigative bias" undermined "both the investigation and any confidence the bereaved families had in obtaining justice".

He found that police gave selective briefings to the Government and to the media that republican paramilitaries were behind the attack.

This was followed by the then Stormont Home Affairs Minister John Taylor (now Lord Kilclooney) saying in public that he believed the IRA was responsible.

This had caused the bereaved families great distress that has continued for many years, Mr Hutchinson said as he reported on the police investigation.

He said that it had such a predisposition towards the view that the IRA was responsible for the bomb that this became an investigative bias. The report has concluded that while this fell short of collusion it precluded an effective investigation of the atrocity.

The Police Ombudsman has not found an explanation why successive RUC Chief Constables never addressed this erroneous perception.

These are among the main findings of the investigation, the details of which are contained in an 80 page Public Statement that has been presented to the families by the Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson.

The bomb at McGurk's Bar in Great George's Street, Belfast, exploded on the evening of Saturday 4 December 1971, killing 15 people and injuring more than 16 others.

The media carried speculation as to which terrorist group was responsible, including information attributed to police sources.

A complaint made by representatives of some of the families of those killed focused on allegations that the RUC colluded in the attack, did not properly investigate it and provided false information to suggest that it was an 'IRA own goal'

The Police Ombudsman's investigation has found no evidence that members of the RUC assisted the passage of the terrorists in getting to or away from McGurk's Bar.

The Police Ombudsman has acknowledged that the prevailing situation in Northern Ireland at the time presented significant challenges to policing.

In particular he has recognised that for police officers and other emergency services to come under sustained gun attack in the vicinity of the bombing, which left one man dead and others injured, frustrated the initial work of the police.

However, he has concluded that the RUC investigation was not proportionate to the magnitude of the incident, which was one of the biggest losses of life during any incident of 'The Troubles' until the bombing of Omagh in 1998.

Sinn Fein MLA for North Belfast Gerry Kelly said: "Within hours of the bombing the RUC were beginning to spin the lie that the attack was an IRA 'own goal'.

"Today's report vindicates the long campaign fought by the families of those killed for the truth," he said.

See: Apology Over 'False IRA Bomb Claims'

See: Victims of McGurk’s bar bombing remembered

(BMcC/GK)