Mass held in St Columbs Church in Watersside for victims of Annie’s bar massacre. No one has ever been brought to justice for the sectarian murder of five men in the pub just a few days before Christmas in 1972
THE widow of a man murdered in a loyalist gun attack in Derry over four decades ago has called for the investigation into the case to be reopened.
Bernard Kelly, 26, was one of five men shot dead by a loyalist death squad in Annie’s Bar on December 20, 1972.
The naked sectarian attack has become known as the ‘forgotten massacre’ of the Troubles.
His widow said reopening the case could bring “justice for five lives that should never have been taken”.
No one has ever been brought to justice for the killings.
The five men – Michael McGinley, 37, Charles McCafferty, 32, Charles Moore, 31, Frank McCarron, 58, and Bernard Kelly – had been watching a football match when loyalist gunmen opened fire with a sub-machine gun and a pistol.
Mrs Kelly, who was pregnant when her husband was killed, told BBC Radio Foyle: “It is just like yesterday.
“It is something you are always reminded of especially at Christmas.
“It was just mayhem. A friend of mine said ‘your Barney is alright, he walked out of the bar, and he walked out of the bar and into an ambulance’.
“I thought he must be just injured. It was when we went to the hospital that we found out it was all internal injuries he had.”
She said she now wants the RUC investigation into the killings to be reopened.
“There are plenty of cases like ours that people have not found out anything at all. At least then you would know that justice has been done for five lives that should never been taken.
“It is horrendous that there are people out there who know, but I always say they have to live with it. It must be on their mind all the time,” she said.
The 45th anniversary of the attack was marked with a service at St Columb’s Church in Derry’s Waterside on Tuesday.
Afterwards, a candlelight procession made its way up Chapel Road to the memorial stone outside the bar.
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