The Troubles in Bleary

The Troubles in Bleary Northern Ireland recounts incidents during, and the effects of, the Troubles in Bleary, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Incidents in Bleary during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities:

1972

• 18 June 1972 - Arthur McMillan (37), Ian Mutch (31) and Colin Leslie (26), all members of the British Army, were killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army booby trap bomb in a derelict house in Bleary.

1975

• 27 April 1975 - Joseph Toman (45), John Feeney (45) and Brendan O'Hara (40), all Catholic civilians, were shot and killed during a Protestant Action Force gun attack on Bleary Darts Club. Ten other civilians were wounded in the attack. None of those killed had any known connection with paramilitaries. No one has ever been arrested for the murders.

1993

• 28 October 1993 - Gerard Cairns (22) and Rory Cairns (18), both Catholic civilians, were shot and killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force at their home, The Slopes, Bleary. This was in the same week as the Shankill Road bombing and the Greysteel massacre. In October 2007, a report from the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland found no evidence of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in these killings. The Police Ombudsman did, however, find that the RUC investigation was not conducted thoroughly and was "unacceptably flawed". The RUC investigation only lasted three months and no one was ever arrested in connection with the murders.