The legacy of the Miami Showband is about more than just music, it is bringing people together, a survivor of the loyalist ambush which targeted the group’s members has said.
Singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy were shot dead on a roadside close to Newry, Co Down, on July 31st, 1975, after being pulled over at a bogus security checkpoint.
Two loyalist terrorists from the Ulster Volunteer Force were also killed in the incident when a bomb they placed on the bus exploded prematurely.
Survivors Des Lee and Stephen Travers were among those who gathered at the roadside where the atrocity happened on Thursday to remember their bandmates.
RM Block
It was the first of a series of events, including in Newry and Dublin, being held on Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary.
Mr Travers said 50 years of tears have dried up and they want to tell the whole world of the legacy of the Miami Showband.
“It’s far more than a band at this stage because bands come and go, and music comes and goes, and styles change, and if you were to ask anybody under 50 years of age to name all of the members of the Rolling Stones, I’m sure they’d have a problem,” he said.
“These things come and go, but the legacy of the Miami Showband is one that I am enormously proud of, and it is simply this: when people came to see us, whether they were Catholic, Protestant, unionist, nationalist, they left sectarianism outside the door of the dance hall and they saw each other as human beings, and they danced with each other, and sometimes they even fell in love.”
It was the most horrendous scene I have ever seen in my life, when I got up off the grass and I had to make a run up that embankment to get help. When I got on to the main road, it was the worst sight anyone could ever imagine ... They were my brothers, you know, three of my brothers
— Des Lee
Fr Brian D’Arcy opened the commemoration at the site on the Buskhill Road, describing the survivors as proof “that music and goodness survives”.
“That’s what we’re celebrating today, the survival of good, music and peace, and joy and bravery,” he said.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill was unable to attend the event, but in a message said the incident was “deeply traumatic” for everyone and “remains a painful reminder of our troubled past”.
“I commend you all for your commitment to remembering your friends by celebrating their lives and the joy of music they brought to so many in their tragically short lives. I truly hope that while never forgetting the pain of the past we continue to move forward as a society towards a peaceful, inclusive and better future for all of our people,” she said.
Earlier, Mr Lee said he remembered “every single thing in the finest detail” from the atrocity 50 years ago.
“It was the most horrendous scene I have ever seen in my life, when I got up off the grass and I had to make a run up that embankment to get help,” he said.
“When I got on to the main road, it was the worst sight anyone could ever imagine ... They were my brothers, you know, three of my brothers.”
While there has been criticism of a loyalist band parade planned to take place in Portadown on Saturday to remember one of the attackers, Mr Lee said he has “no problem with that whatsoever”.
“They are entitled to commemorate their dead as much as we are entitled to commemorate ours,” he said.
He was, however, critical of the UK government over its handling of the past, saying he feels they are doing a “dreadful job”.
“They’re trying to push all the families under the carpet and hope that it all goes away, and as long as I’m alive, I will fight for Fran, Brian and Tony,” he said.
PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher on Thursday expressed hope for a new agreement on how to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s troubled past.
Speaking following the Miami Showband commemoration, he said: “Everybody knows my position on legacy, I think transparency and openness are critical. The report that I did on Operation Kenova reflects that, and I am very alive to and aware of national security issues.
“I think we may be close to coming to a position, and certainly I hope we are, where there will be a new agreement around what the future of legacy looks like, and I’m keen to hear the fruits of the recent talks between the two governments.”
He said it was time “to get legacy right”, noting that a lot of people did not trust police or security forces at the time when many of the unsolved cases happened.
“The volume of things that were happening, the murders, the attacks, meant that the security forces couldn’t deal with them,” he said. “There was then without doubt failures within a number of those investigations. We have now got to put that right.” – PA
