THE story of the Loughinsland Massacre and the fallout following the arrest of two journalists is the subject of a new book.
‘Shooting Crows: Mass Murder, State Collusion and Press Freedom’ by Enniskillen born journalist and documentary maker Trevor Birney was launched in Waterstones in Belfast.
Everyone knows where they were when Ray Houghton outfoxed the Italian goalkeeper in the 1994 World Cup finals. Every television in the country was tuned in to the Republic of Ireland match, and The Heights Bar in Loughinisland in County Down was no exception.
Shortly after half-time three UVF gunmen burst through the door of the bar and opened fire, spraying bullets indiscriminately. As they fled the scene, six innocent men lay dead or dying.
In 2017 Trevor Birney and former North Belfast News journalist Barry McCaffrey produced a groundbreaking documentary, No Stone Unturned, about Loughinisland and allegations of collusion between the RUC and the loyalist terrorists behind the attack.
However, it was Birney and McCaffrey, not the perpetrators of violence who then found themselves the target of PSNI attention.
The book explores their battle with legal forces as they sought the truth in the aftermath of their arrest. When the legal case was dropped by the PSNI, they paid legal damages totalling £875,000 to the two men.
Shooting Crows tells a shocking story of collusion and betrayal, and of a State still willing to corrupt justice and persecute the innocent to hide the sins of its past.
‘Shooting Crows: Mass Murder, State Collusion and Press Freedom’ by Trevor Birney, is published by Merrion Press, priced @19.99.
