Attack on James Murray's bookmakers

James Murray bookmakers' shooting
Part of the Troubles
Location	Oldpark Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Date	14 November 1992 14:20 (GMT)
Attack type	Mass shooting
Deaths	3 civilians
Non-fatal injuries	13
Perpetrator	Ulster Defence Association

On 14 November 1992, the Ulster Defence Association launched a gun and grenade attack on James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One gunman opened fire on the customers, whilst another threw a grenade into the shop. The shop was in an Irish nationalist area and all of the dead were local Catholic civilians.

1992 had witnessed an intensification in the campaign of violence being carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) under their UFF covername. In February the UDA South Belfast Brigade had shot dead 5 Catholic civilians in Sean Graham's bookmakers on the lower Ormeau Road, in retaliation for the 8 Protestants killed in the Teebane bombing by the IRA the previous month. The UDA West Belfast Brigade, led by notorious UFF commander Johnny Adair, had been particularly active throughout the year, killing several Catholic civilians, including young mother Philomena Hanna, who was shot dead at the chemist where she worked on the Springfield Road, and 18 year old Gerard O'Hara, who was shot dead in front of his mother at his home in the New Lodge. In the same month as the Gerard O'Hara killing, the brigade also sprayed the Dockers club in the Sailortown area of Belfast, wounding three Catholics. Major loss of life was averted because one of the doorman managed to close the door before the gunmen were able to get fully inside the club. On 13 November, an IRA van bomb had exploded in the centre of the predominantly unionist town of Coleraine, causing extensive damage.

In the afternoon of 14 November 1992 two UDA men entered the shop, which was situated on the Oldpark Road, in the Republican Bone area but just metres away from the peaceline with the Loyalist lower Oldpark. One man, allegedly Stephen McKeag, opened fire on the customers with a Vz58 assault rifle and another volunteer, reportedly C Company's second-in-command, threw a Soviet-made fragmentation grenade, shouting "Youse deserve it, youse Fenian bastards" as he did so. Two Catholics, Francis Burns(52) and Peter Orderly(47) were killed instantly, and a third John Lovett(72),who succumbed to his injuries in hospital the following day. During the attack, Lovett, who was a Second World War veteran who had survived torture in a Japanese camp as an RAF prisoner of war, reportedly shouted "keep your calm". Although it was situated in an Nationalist area, Protestants also frequented the betting shop, and one, who almost died, was among the several others injured in the attack. The killers escaped in a hijacked taxi which was found abandoned less than 200 metres away at Beechpark Place in the lower Oldpark area. The attack was reportedly followed by "a raucous celebration in a loyalist club in south Belfast with Johnny Adair occupying centre stage".