The aftermath of the McGurk’s bar atrocity in Belfast in 1971

VICTIMS of the deadliest Belfast bombing of the Troubles are to take legal action accusing the state of conspiracy to murder.

It is over 43 years since the loyalist McGurk’s Bar attack in December 1971 in which 15 innocent civilians were killed and 17 injured, the highest death toll from a single incident in the city during the conflict.

The bombing was carried out by the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), but had initially been presented by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an accidental “own goal” by the IRA, prompting speculation that the dead might have included republicans who were carrying the device.

That assertion has long been challenged by bereaved relatives campaigning to clear the names of their loved ones.

Solicitor Kevin Winters said: “KRW LAW is instructed by the relatives of the victims of the McGurk’s Bar bombing in issuing legal actions against a number of British government agencies including the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Ministry of Defence and the Northern Ireland Office, who, we submit, all bear responsibility for the on-going delays and failures both to prevent the McGurk’s Bar bombing and in deliberately failing to effectively investigate it and in using counter-insurgency methods to spread disinformation about the perpetrators of the bomb and the innocent victims.

McGurk’s led to a series of tit-for-tat bombings and shootings by loyalists and republicans that helped make 1972 the bloodiest year of the conflict for sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics.

Families are due at a Belfast court as part of a protracted legal battle surrounding police investigations into the killings in the New Lodge area of the city centre.

An investigation by the body that handles complaints against the police – the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland – found the RUC had exhibited an investigative bias by blaming the loyalist attack on republicans.

Mr Winters said: “In addition to an important public law challenge through a judicial review application to establish a human rights compliant investigation into the McGurk’s Bar Bombing 1971, we are now in the process of issuing writs on behalf of individuals in civil actions including conspiracy to murder, misfeasance in public office and negligence.

“These writs represent a significant tranche of litigation on behalf of our clients and their needs and demonstrates the British government’s continued intransigence to respond to demands for truth, justice and accountability over decades.”

He said new evidence uncovered by researchers at the National Archives revealed links between the McGurk’s Bar bombing and similar incidents including the The Kelly’s Bar attack on 13 May 1972 in which one man was killed and 66 civilians were injured.

“These links include failures to prevent both bombings, failures in the immediate investigations and orchestrated operations to spread disinformation about who was responsible and who the intended victims were.

“These links evidence both collusion between the British Government and loyalist paramilitary groups and a deliberate policy to use disinformation to influence public perception and to deny and distort the truth.

“The state-orchestrated campaign to deny the truth in order to spread false rumour has haunted and stigmatised the McGurk’s Bar bombing families since that fatal night.”