Loughinisland massacre
| Loughinisland massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles | |
The Heights Bar (white building)
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| Location | The Heights Bar, Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland |
| Coordinates | 54°20′17″N 5°49′30″W / 54.33806°N 5.82500°WCoordinates: 54°20′17″N 5°49′30″W / 54.33806°N 5.82500°W |
| Date | 18 June 1994 10:10pm (GMT) |
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Attack type
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Mass shooting |
| Weapons | Assault rifles |
| Deaths | 6 civilians |
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Non-fatal injuries
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5 civilians |
| Perpetrator | Ulster Volunteer Force |
The Loughinisland massacre took place on 18 June 1994 in the small village of Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, burst into a pub with assault rifles and fired on the customers, killing six civilians and wounding five. The pub was targeted because it was frequented mainly by Catholics, and was crowded with people watching the Republic of Ireland team playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It is thus sometimes called the World Cup massacre. The attack was claimed as retaliation for the killing of three UVF members by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Allegations persist that police (Royal Ulster Constabulary) double agents or informers were linked to the massacre and that police protected those informers by destroying evidence and failing to carry out a proper investigation.
At the request of the victims' families, the Police Ombudsman investigated the police. The Ombudsman concluded that there were major failings in the police investigation, but no evidence that police colluded with the UVF. However, the Ombudsman did not investigate the role of informers and the report was branded a whitewash. Ombudsman investigators demanded to be disassociated from the report because their original findings "were dramatically altered without reason", and they believed key intelligence had been deliberately withheld from them. This led to the report being quashed, the Ombudsman being replaced and a new inquiry ordered. In June 2016, a new Police Ombudsman report was released indicating that there had been "collusion" between the police and the UVF, but that the police had no advance knowledge of the attack.
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