On Saturday the 4th December 1971, loyalists from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), some believe facilitated by the British Military Intelligence, planted a no-warning bomb on the doorstep of a family-run bar in north Belfast. It led to the single greatest loss of civilian life in The Troubles until the Omagh bomb in 1998. The victims were to become the forgotten victims of a very dirty war. Official British sources immediately claimed the bombing was an IRA 'own goal'. Some believe that this was in fact a British Military Intelligence 'dirty trick', designed to show the IRA what they were up against, in the 'hope' that they would give up. In fact, this massacre precipitated an onslaught of violence on both sides and, in the minds of some, helped inspire a generation of republicans to 'resist' at all costs. For many, the McGurks Bar Massacre was a turning point in The Troubles. The bar had been raised.
