A SPECIAL Mass will be held this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of three Catholics murdered by the UVF at a North Belfast garage.
Brothers Sean and Ronnie McDonald and their teenage apprentice Anthony McGrady were brutally killed in a UVF gun and bomb attack on their Cliftonville Road workplace on August 25, 1973. After shooting the three colleagues dead, the killers planted a bomb beside their bodies before fleeing.
Sean (50), a father-of-eight from Slievetoye Park in North Belfast, and brother Ronald (55), a father-of-one from La Salle Park in West Belfast, opened their car repair shop on the Cliftonville Road after being forced to leave their former North Belfast premises in Perth Street by loyalists in 1969.
Anthony (16) was from St James' Place in West Belfast.
Over 2,000 mourners attended the funeral Mass at St John's Parish on the Falls Road just days later as the three coffins were carried side-by-side.
Loyalist William Crockett was the only person convicted for the attack, receiving a seven-year sentence and being released after serving just three in 1981.
In October 1990, Crockett died in mysterious circumstance – his charred body being found in the remains of a burned hut in the docks area of the Belgian port of Antwerp.
On Saturday (August 26), a special Mass will be said, organised by Anthony's brother, Liam. It will be held in St John's at 6pm, 50 years after the three coffins were lined up in front of the altar. Fr Martin Magill will officiate.
Earlier this year, Liam wrote two extensive pieces for the Belfast Media Group about Anthony's death and the impact it had on his family, especially his mother. They can be read here and here.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Liam said: "I often wonder if my life would have been different if Anthony had have still been alive.
RIP: Anthony McGrady (16)
"There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about him.
"Only when it happens yourself, you can’t put it into words as my mother always said.
"I often wonder what was running through Anthony's mind when he came face-to-face with his killers and what his last moments on this earth must have felt like.
"He was only a child and so cruelly murdered. It was a horrific incident. Anthony, Sean and Ronnie got a terrible death.
"The killers were not content with just shooting them. They had to place a bomb and blow them up as well.
"I remember going back to school straight after Anthony's murder as it was the end of the summer holidays and the start of the new term.
"I never got time to grieve. It probably allowed my parents their time to grieve so it was probably the right thing to do in sending the rest of us to school.
"I would like to invite everyone to come along on Saturday evening and remember my brother Anthony as well as Sean and Ronnie McDonald."
