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Poignant gesture for Loughinisland victims at European Soccer Championship 18.5.2012 | Irish Republican News
Irish national soccer squad will wear armbands to mark the 18th anniversary of the Loughinisland massacre. Six Catholics
were shot dead in Loughinisland, County Down, on June 18, 1994, by Loyalist death squad as they watched the Irish team
playing Italy in the World Cup. Families demand the truth about involvement of the British state in the massacre.
A decision by the Irish national soccer squad to wear armbands to mark the
18th anniversary of the Loughinisland massacre has been widely
welcomed.
Six Catholics were shot dead in the sectarian massacre in the Heights
Bar in Loughinisland, County Down, on June 18, 1994, as the Irish team
played Italy in the World Cup at Giants' Stadium in New York.
A loyalist death squad burst in and opened fire indiscriminately,
killing six men and seriously injuring five others.
The six dead were Adrian Rogan (34) Malcolm Jenkinson (53), Barney
Greene (87), Daniel McCreanor (59), Patrick O'Hare (35), and Eamon Byrne
(39).
Mr Green, aged 87, was the oldest victim of the conflict.
Despite 16 people being arrested over the years no one has been
convicted of the murders. Questions remain over possible collusion in
the atrocity, which came at the height of the peace process and boosted
public support for an end to the IRA's armed campaign. The Provisional
IRA declared a ceasefire just ten weeks later.
John Delaney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland
(FAI), said the commemoration was particularly poignant as Ireland will
be playing Italy on the anniversary.
“What happened in Loughinisland in 1994 was an awful tragedy and deeply
moving for all football fans." He also thanked the UEFA competition
organisers for assisting in commemorating the atrocity.
Mr Rogan's daughter, Emma Rogan, welcomed the FAI's gesture.
"We are very touched that the FAI and UEFA have seen fit to commemorate
the murder of our loved ones at the upcoming European championships,"
she said.
"It is emotional and poignant that Ireland play Italy on the exact
anniversary and we feel proud and privileged that a memorial will be
conducted on such an international stage."
It emerged earlier this year that a key eyewitness to the attack, who
provided the police with a description of the gang’s getaway driver
within hours of the massacre, was never called to identify the killers.
Instead, the police passed her details to a relative of the man she
believes was the loyalist getaway driver.
Ms Rogen said she hopes the gesture will put fresh pressure on
authorities to reveal all they know about the atrocity.
"Our campaign is one of social justice," she said. "The atrocity that
happened at Loughinisland is representative of so many others that
happened through out the Troubles and evidence of state collusion with
paramilitaries is only now beginning to seep out."
First published in: Irish Republican News
May 18th 2012
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See also: LOUGHINISLAND MASSACRE 1994: Collusion and cover-up?
An Phoblacht, April 14th 2011
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