Hundreds expected at memorial parade for UVF man killed by own bomb in Miami Showband massacre.
Fifteen bands taking part in march for Harris Boyle in Portadown
Ciaran Barnes Today at 02:22
A huge parade to commemorate the life of a UVF Miami Showband killer will take place in Portadown on Saturday. Billed as the Harris Boyle 50th Anniversary Memorial parade, more than 400 people and 15 bands are expected to take part in the event, which will tour the Killicomaine estate.
Among those scheduled to march at the memorial is the Moygashel Sons of Ulster Flute Band, which regularly commemorates the life of fellow Miami Showband murderer Wesley Somerville.
Thirty bands marched through Moygashel in April in honour of the notorious paramilitary, who blew himself up along with accomplice Harris Boyle in July 1975.
Boyle and Somerville died in 1975 while attempting to plant a bomb on the Miami Showband tour bus.
The rest of their UVF gang then opened fire, murdering singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy.
Bass player Stephen Travers and singer Des Lee were badly injured but remarkably survived.
The chart-topping band were targeted as they travelled from a gig in Banbridge to Newry.
Their minibus was stopped late at night on a rural road by UVF men posing as British Army soldiers.
The musicians were ordered to line up at the side of a verge while attempts were made to hide a bomb on their bus.
The intention was for it to explode a short time later and for the Miami Showband to be falsely accused of transporting a bomb for the IRA.
However, the device blew up prematurely as Somerville and Boyle were hiding it in the vehicle, killing both men instantly.
Miami Showband survivor Des Lee told Sunday Life last April that loyalists, even those who tried to kill him and had murdered his bandmates, have a right to commemorate their dead.
“I’m very careful about what I say. Even though I’m 79, I don’t like to get in arguments. People have a right to respect their dead, as far as I’m concerned. That’s how I look at it,” said the musician.
“I’ve very much for peace and reconciliation. It’s been 50 years. How long are we going to carry on like schoolkids?”
The Harris Boyle Memorial Parade will start at Levaghery Orange Hall at 6pm on August 2. The outward route from the Gilford Road will begin two hours later.
According to the Parades Commission website, 15 bands have registered their attendance, although “other bands may turn up on the night”.
As well as being a senior UVF figure Harris Boyle, who was from the Killicomaine estate in Portadown, was also in the UDR.
He was a suspect in the UVF 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombs that killed 26 civilians and was involved in the notorious loyalist Glenanne gang which was responsible for dozens of sectarian murders.
I’ve no time for snobs who talk down to working class, but how mad does bonfire asbestos row make us look to rest of world?
Allison Morris
Today at 01:59
Who would have known that the buzzword from this year’s eleventh night bonfires would be “asbestos”.
Those running social media accounts that transferred their sectarianism to racism around the same time as the hate riots last August, are now seemingly experts on the dangerous building material found at the site of a pyre just off the Donegall Road in south Belfast.
Asbestos was once commonly used in insulation, roofing and flooring. It wouldn’t be until the late Nineties that it was banned after research showed its fibres led to serious health problems, including cancer.
I have been covering bonfires and parades for over 20 years and in that time I have pretty much seen it all — the good, the bad and the potentially life-threatening consequences of the fires which form part of the loyalist tradition.
I’ve written about dozens of contentious pyres, visited sites where the, mainly young men, would have welcomed us and shown the media around, proud of their handiwork.
And others, when I’ve been threatened with violence because I kick with the other foot.
When I was growing up we would have had a bonfire at the top of our street on August 8, the night before the anniversary of internment.
It wasn’t one of the enormous, gravity-defying jenga-style pallet structures loyalists build, but old doors, furniture, mattresses and tyres.
There wasn’t as much — in fact any — awareness at the time of the dangers of burning hazardous materials. After all, it was the Seventies in west Belfast and there were 100 other ways to potentially die young that didn’t involve burning a tractor tyre.
If you take a look through Lost Lives, the book that documents every man, woman and child murdered here during the Troubles, you’ll see a pattern in and around August 8 and 9 every year in the Seventies and early Eighties.
People were dying, being shot in street disorder and riots associated with that time.
We don’t have bonfires anymore. The Divis and New Lodge ones, magnets for drugs and antisocial behaviour, haven’t taken place in years, thank goodness.
There is a bonfire in Derry in August that often ends in rioting and the arrest of young people. It’s for the people of that city to call time on this.
In west Belfast the success of Feile an Phobail was a game changer — the young people will dance in Falls Park to DJs whose names I’m far too old to recognise on August 8, and long may that newish tradition continue.
It could be argued republicans were not as attached to bonfires as loyalists, who see it as part of a tradition to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. And that’s fine, difference is a good thing.
The majority of the 300 fires lit on the eleventh night pass without incident, most of them small to medium-sized structures attended by families.
But there are always the predictable ones that cause issues every year.
Moygashel, with that gruesome image of a boat full of brown-skinned mannequins dressed to look like migrants, has to the be the worst I’ve seen in my time. The ‘Irish patriots’ — the growing far right across the border — thought they’d found their kindred spirits among the Ulster loyalists.
The ‘Coolock says no’ squad’s night in the Royal Bar in Sandy Row last year led them to believe they were all ‘besties’, united in a joint cause of hating anyone who looks or sounds a bit foreign.
The boat of migrant effigies also included a large tricolour, just to remind the naive racists in the south that they may not be public enemy number one anymore, but they do come a close second.
Despite all the warnings, the south Belfast bonfire went ahead.
We won’t know how many people breathed in deadly asbestos fibres — it’ll be a wee surprise for them during a lung scan in 20 years’ time when the fun of the bonfire is long forgotten. What it does show is just how dysfunctional this place is, how insane we must look to outsiders.
I’m not a big fan of the snobby ‘school prefect’ types preaching to working-class communities about how they should act and behave.
I wouldn’t have taken kindly to them wafting in and out of my community 20 or 30 years ago, patronising the people.
But I do know that each generation should strive for better, should hope that the children who come behind them enjoy more opportunities and a better life than they did.
There are victories like your child winning a medal at sports day, scoring a goal, or being the first generation accepted to university, maybe even securing a good job and getting on the property ladder.
What isn’t a win, what isn’t a big victory for loyalism, is ignoring all the warnings to have a bonfire in a waste ground littered with asbestos.
Mary Lou McDonald says Northern Ireland ‘not economically viable’ as a territory as she calls for border poll on British TV
The Sinn Féin leader appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday
Mary Lou McDonald said the children are being failed
Mary Lou McDonald made the comments during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Monday.
By Mark Robinson
July 14, 2025 at 10:44am BST
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said that the north was “not economically viable” as a territory and put its financial struggles down to partition as she called for a border poll during an appearance on British TV.
Ms McDonald made the comments in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, where she made the case for a referendum in the next five years.
The TD for Dublin Central’s appearance on the show comes amid growing speculation that she is gearing up for a potential presidential run.
While initially ruling herself out of this year’s presidential election, last week she said that the party’s candidacy was “a moving picture”.
On Monday, presenter Richard Madeley asked the Sinn Féin leader why she was advocating for reunification when the north was economically “running at a loss”.
“Why do you want Northern Ireland still so badly? Because, economically, I think it’s fair to say it’s close to being a basket case at the moment,” he said.
“This country pays it a huge amount in terms of subsidies to Ulster – far more than we get back.”
Ms McDonald said that the reason for the north’s consistent economic difficulties was down to partition.
“It’s six counties of the historic nine-county province of Ulster, it’s cut off from its natural political, social and economic hinterland,” she responded.
“Since the peace agreement was signed in 1998, the value of the all-Ireland economy has multiplied six-fold.
“The natural economic activity for a small island like Ireland is the entire island – it makes no sense to partition.”
Ms McDonald added that it had been 27 years since the Good Friday Agreement and that reunification was the “next chapter”.
“I think we have made enormous strides, all of us, and I think Ireland and Britain and all the political leaders and the people deserve great credit for that,” she said.
“Now we’re at a point where we say, ‘What’s the next chapter?’.
“For us, logically, in economic terms, in social terms, in democratic terms, Irish unity makes sense.”
Mural of Hooded Man Kevin Hannaway erected in west Belfast after PSNI return seized artwork.
Police seized the mural, which had been separated into a number of parts, from a house in the Rodney Drive area in west Belfast on Friday.
A mural of Hooded Man Kevin Hannaway was erected on Hugo Street in West Belfast on Sunday.
By Conor Coyle
July 13, 2025 at 4:55pm BST
A mural of Hooded Man Kevin Hannaway was erected in west Belfast on Sunday after it was returned following a seizure of the artwork by the PSNI.
Police seized the mural, which had been separated into a number of parts, from a house in the Rodney Drive area in west Belfast on Friday. A man was arrested and later charged with drugs offences after police say class A drugs were found at the same property.
Mr Hannaway died in January after a short illness. He was one of 14 Catholic men who were subjected to state-sanctioned torture when they were interned in 1971.
Mr Hannaway was convicted of knowingly rendering assistance to the ‘IRA’, and assisting in interviewing people involved in ‘IRA’-organised activities in 2015.
A number of other items were also seized during the searches, which the PSNI say were connected to an investigation into dissident republican group the New IRA.
However, it emerged on Sunday police were forced to return the mural to the homeowner, with footage emerging on social media of officers unloading it from a vehicle and returning it to the house.
Later on Sunday, the mural was erected and is now in display on Hugo Street in the city. Around 250 people were in attendance at an event to mark the unveiling of the mural.
A solicitor acting for the homeowner said she had threatened legal action against the “unlawful seizure” of the mural by the PSNI.
Victoria Haddock of Phoenix Law, said: “There was no lawful basis for the seizure of this mural which police have now agreed to return to my client following the issue of emergency pre-action correspondence.”
A PSNI spokesperson said the mural had been removed “to establish whether the possession of the item constituted any possible offence”.
“Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Serious Crime Branch carried out a search at a residential property in Rodney Drive, west Belfast, on Friday, 11th July,” the spokesperson said.
“During the search, a number of items were seized.
“A billboard was removed from the property while it was established whether the possession of the item constituted any possible offence.
“Following review, the billboard was returned to the property yesterday, Saturday 12th July. “
Irish born Monsignor Edward Flanagan went on to found Boys Town in the US BoysTown.org
Today we remember the rebellious and kind Monsignor Edward Joseph Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, Nebraska, who was born on July 13, 1886.
Born in Co Roscommon, Monsignor Edward Joseph Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, was a lone voice in condemning Ireland’s industrial schools back in the 1940s and the treatment afforded to orphans and those born outside marriage generally. He was viciously castigated by the Irish Church and the Irish government for doing so.
His treatment at the hands of clergy and politicians makes it very clear that both powerful arms of the state were determined to stick to secrets and lies, and cover-ups when it came to the mistreatment of youths and babies.
When he came back to America, Flanagan, addressing the Irish clergy and political leaders, said: “What you need over there is to have someone shake you loose from your smugness and satisfaction and set an example by punishing those who are guilty of cruelty, ignorance, and neglect of their duties in high places . . . I wonder what God’s judgment will be with reference to those who hold the deposit of faith and who fail in their God-given stewardship of little children.”
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However, his words fell on stony ground. He wasn’t simply ignored. He was taken to pieces by the Irish establishment. The then-Minister for Justice Gerald Boland said in the Dáil (Ireland’s parliament) that he was “not disposed to take any notice of what Monsignor Flanagan said while he was in this country because his statements were so exaggerated that I did not think people would attach any importance to them.”
Flanagan was a devout Catholic, a man who Catholics and non-Catholics worldwide had deemed a hero. He was the Mother Theresa of his day.
Flanagan was born on July 13, 1886, in the townland of Leabeg, Co Roscommon, to John (a herdsman) and Honoria Flanagan. In 1904, he immigrated to the United States.
Unlike many others, Flanagan became a priest after he had arrived in America. He was ordained in 1912. In 1917, he was living and working in Omaha, Nebraska, when he hit upon the idea of a “boy’s town,” which would offer education and a home for the poor and wayward boys of Omaha.
However, demand for the service was so great that he soon had to find bigger premises. Boys Town, built on a farm 10 miles from Omaha, was the result.
The center was open to all. There were no fences to stop the boys from leaving. Fr. Flanagan said he was “not building a prison.”
“This is a home,” he said. “You do not wall in members of your own family.”
Boys Town eventually became so well-known – and so well-respected – that Hollywood and the U.S. President came calling. Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney starred in the 1938 movie “Boys Town,” and it made a national hero out of Fr. Flanagan. He was internationally renowned as “the world’s most foremost expert on boys’ training and youth care.”
When World War II ended in 1945, President Truman asked Flanagan to tour Asia and Europe, to see what could be done for the many children orphaned and made homeless by the war.
Flanagan decided to return to the land of his birth in 1946 to visit his family and to visit the “so-called training schools” run by the Christian Brothers to see if they were “a success or failure.”
The success of the film “Boys Town” meant Flanagan was treated like a celebrity upon his arrival. His visit was noted by the Irish Independent, which said that Flanagan had succeeded “against overwhelming odds,” spurred on by the “simple slogan that ‘There is no such thing as a bad boy.’”
But Flanagan was unhappy with what he found in Ireland. He was dismayed at the state of Ireland’s reform schools and blasted them as “a scandal, un-Christ-like, and wrong.” And he said the Christian Brothers, founded by Edmund Rice, had lost their way.
Speaking to a large audience at a public lecture in Cork’s Savoy Cinema he said, “You are the people who permit your children and the children of your communities to go into these institutions of punishment. You can do something about it.” He called Ireland’s penal institutions “a disgrace to the nation,” and later said, “I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character.”
Despite that, the Irish church and the Irish government felt comfortable ignoring Fr. Flanagan, ignoring the fact that he was considered to be an expert in the matter of providing for the education and upbringing of boys who were otherwise considered to be “lost causes.” Again, his efforts fell on stony ground.
What was it about the Irish church and the Irish government that made them so insular that they felt comfortable dismissing someone of Fr. Flanagan’s stature? Even though Fr. Flanagan was a popular hero to many Irish people, his words had no sway with those in authority, whether in the government or the church.
And, once those who endorsed the industrial school model survived Fr. Flanagan’s broadsides, they must have known that no one would challenge them again. They were right, for 50 years anyway.
