Outrage at attack on Bookies families

Léargas: A Podcast by Gerry Adams

On the 5th of February 1992, five people were brutally murdered, with a further seven injured in a massacre carried out by the UDA. Each year the relatives and friends and the local community hold a remembrance ceremony at the site of the attack. This year, in keeping with Covid restrictions only relatives attended. They wore masks and were socially distanced.

Video footage of the event shows disturbing evidence of a heavy handed PSNI intervention. This resulted in relatives being left deeply distressed and one man Mark Sykes – who was shot four times in the original 1992 attack – being manhandled by the PSNI, handcuffed and arrested. The video footage and the actions of the PSNI have caused widespread and justifiable anger.
Those of you who are familiar with this sad story will know that the Police Ombudsman’s report into the original mass killing has been delayed.

This has been in part because information relating to the 1992 attack, that had never been disclosed to the Police Ombudsman’s investigation, was discovered on PSNI computers. So the PSNI had information about the massacre under their computers and this was not given to the Police Ombudsman.