Miami Showband attack was ‘worst sight anyone could ever imagine', says survivor

Independent

7 days ago

The aftermath of a loyalist ambush in which three members of the Miami Showband were killed 50 years ago was 'the worst sight anyone could ever imagine', a survivor of the attack has said.
Des Lee said he remembers 'every single thing in the finest detail' from the atrocity on July 31 1975.
'It was the most horrendous scene I have ever seen in my life, when I got up off the grass and I had to make a run up that embankment to get help.
'When I got onto the main road, it was the worst sight anyone could ever imagine,' he told the BBC Radio Ulster.
'They were my brothers, you know, three of my brothers.'
The band had been travelling to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge when they were stopped by a fake Army patrol involving the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force just outside Newry.
A bomb which was placed on the bus exploded prematurely, killing two of the attackers, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, before singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy were shot dead.
While there has been criticism of a loyalist band parade planned to take place in Portadown on Saturday to remember one of the attackers, Mr Lee said he has 'no problem with that whatsoever'.
'They are entitled to commemorate their dead as much as we are entitled to commemorate ours,' he said.
He was however critical of the UK Government over its handling of the past, saying he feels they are doing a 'dreadful job'.
'They're trying to push all the families under the carpet and hope that it all goes away, and as long as I'm alive, I will fight for Fran, Brian and Tony,' he said.
Mr Lee was speaking ahead of a number of commemorations which will take place across Thursday, including one at the roadside where the attack took place.
He said he expected it will be an 'extremely difficult day'.
'My whole philosophy in life now is forgive and forget and move on,' he said.
'I don't hold any grudge. What happened to my friends was appalling but I don't want to live for the rest of my life living in the past.
'But there's one thing we must never forget, Fran O'Toole, Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty.'
He described their only weapons as having been instruments to entertain audiences 'during that awful time' in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
'Fran had a microphone, Brian had a trumpet, and Tony had a guitar. That was the weapons that they had during that awful time in Northern Ireland, bringing two hours of peace and joy and happiness and dance and love and kindness and everything that went with it,' he said.
'That was our job to entertain those people for two hours, no matter what religion, no matter what creed.
'We were a band that were mixed, and we had never any problems regarding religion or anything. Our job was to entertain people, and that's what we did.'