A High Court judge has ordered that a report by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET) into the McGurk's Bar atrocity be quashed in its entirety.
The ruling by Mr Justice Humphreys found that claims within the report that there was no bias in the original RUC investigation were irrational.
15 people were murdered and many more were injured when the UVF detonated a bomb in the North Queen Street bar on December 4, 1971, which caused the building to collapse.
In 2011, the Police Ombudsman identified investigative bias in how the RUC had initially conducted their investigation into the attack. But in 2014 the now defunct HET found that there was no bias on the part of the RUC investigators.
Brigid Irvine, whose mother Kathleen was among those killed in the attack, challenged the HET’s findings.
The court heard in 2015 that the PSNI were no longer disputing the findings of the Ombudsman, but Ms Irvine’s legal team pressed on, determined to see the HET ruling quashed in law.
Mr Justice Humphreys said the HET conclusions were “wholly ill-founded, unsustainable and illogical”.
He went on: “Having carefully considered the competing positions, and recognising that there is much in the HET report which is uncontroversial, I have nonetheless concluded that the proportionate and efficacious remedy is for the court to quash the HET report in its entirety."
Brigid Irvine’s sister Pat said their family are delighted with the ruling.
“I was 14 at the time of the explosion in McGurks Bar. I attended the scene not knowing that both my parents were lying under this scene of total destruction. I cannot even begin the describe the horror of what I saw,” she said.
“My mother (Kathleen (Kitty) Irvine) was killed. My father (John Irvine) was pulled from the rubble and survived.
“Our lives were totally destroyed by this. All the family members of those killed in McGurk's not only suffered the loss of their loved ones, but this loss was compounded by the stigma of having their family members labelled as being responsible for the explosion.
“All the families have endured over 50 years of suffering along with the lies, the denials and the delays in finding the truth.”
Ms Irvine continued: “The HET report into McGurk's has now been quashed, but this could have been done much earlier.
“The Chief Constable has continued to defend this case for almost eight years, and stood over a HET report that he must have known could never have been acceptable to the families of those killed in McGurk's.”
North Belfast SDLP Councillor Paul McCusker welcomed the quashing of the police report.
“I welcome the High Court’s ruling today which confirms what the families of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar bombing have known all along – that this horrifying attack was the work of loyalist paramilitaries and that the initial RUC investigation into the bombing that killed their loved ones was muddied by claims of IRA involvement," he said.
“The Police Ombudsman’s 2011 investigation showed that there was bias shown by the RUC in their investigation of this case and it’s deeply regrettable that this was disregarded by the HET investigation, which the judge ruled was 'illogical' and 'irrational'. I welcome the families’ bravery in challenging this and I hope they feel vindicated by today’s ruling.”
Cllr McCusker added that this ruling by the High Court cannot be the end of the case.
“The families of those killed in this bombing have waited over 50 years for truth and justice and we need to see a new inquest ordered into what happened at McGurk’s Bar to establish exactly what took place on that night in December 1971,” he continued.
“The McGurk’s Bar families, just like thousands of families across the North and elsewhere on these islands, have the right to know the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths, what led up to them and who was involved and the British government have no right to deny these families, or any other, their right to truth and justice.”
Speaking after the hearing, Paul Pierce, solicitor at KRW Law, said: “It is now established that the HET failed to properly conduct a full and comprehensive review of the RUC investigation into this atrocity.
“The HET ignored fundamental concerns raised by the victims’ families over ‘investigative bias’, which from the outset attempted to blame those killed in McGurk's as being responsible for the explosion.
“The challenge brought by the Irvine family against the Chief Constable of the PSNI has succeeded, and represents an unprecedented outcome in which a HET report has been quashed in its entirety.”
