29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Surviving member of Miami Showband massacre tells of guilt ahead of book launch
A surviving member of The Miami Showband massacre has said it took him five years to write a book on the heinous crime – saying he battled with survivor's guilt for many years after the attack.
Des Lee and Stephen Travers were the only two members of the hit band who survived the horrific slaughter by members of a UVF loyalist paramilitary group on July 31, 1975.
Singer Fran O'Toole, 29, 23-year-old Tony Geraghty and 23-year-old Brian McCoy were killed in the attack after the band were travelling back home to Dublin from a gig in the North.
It later emerged that the bogus British army checkpoint outside Newry was made up of UDR soldiers and members of terrorist group, the UVF.
Des has now launched his first book - My Saxophone Saved My Life: The Miami Showband Massacre and My Quest for Answers – where he details the night of the attack and who he believes is responsible for it.
He told The Irish Mirror: "To be honest, it took about five years (to write it). It was hard to work on it. Every time I picked it up, it made me cry and I put it down because it was depressing.
"But I realise, 'listen, you're coming up to a ripe old age and you didn't want to kick the bucket when the book is not finished'."
Mr Lee added: "I don't want people to think the book is depressing. The book is all about my life from when I was a young boy from Belfast and how we were treated as Catholics, back in the 50s. We got third class housing, third class education, third class jobs.
"We were kicked into the ground. When you were a Catholic, you were just a piece of rubbish. I speak about that.
"But there's a lot of comedy and humour in it, there's a lot of tear jerks. I think anyone who buys the book will have a wonderful read.
"But I want people to know that the guy who organised the Miami massacre was the top guy in the British army. A guy called Captain Robert Nairac. He was the man who organised the weaponry, the uniforms, the bomb, the vehicles. Absolutely everything.
"I want people to know all about this man, this man was evil and the British government to this day denies he was there on the night, but we have proof that he was there." The Miami Showband
Mr Lee said that the night of the Miami Showband massacre will never leave him.
"It never will till the day I die. I wake up every morning – there's photographs of Fran O'Toole in my bedroom, there's photographs of the guys from the band in my lounge, so I live with this 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"They were my three brothers; they will always be remembered. I want to keep their names alive. They were purely musicians."
He added that he suffered with survivor's guilt for many years after the attack.
"I felt sorry for the O'Toole, the Geraghty's and the McCoy family.
"We were targeted because we were the number one band in Ireland, and they wanted maximum publicity. They put the bomb in the van, tell us to get back in the van, head up to Dublin, the bomb explodes, we're all killed, there's no one to say any different.
"We would be accused of carrying weapons for the IRA. Then there would've been difficulties between the Irish Government and the English Government. That is exactly what would've happened," he added.
My Saxophone Saved My Life: The Miami Showband Massacre and My Quest for Answers is available to buy now.
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