SEFF's Advocacy for Innocent Victims Project

3 September 1973:
William D. Hamilton, 63-year-old Catholic civilian, married with a family.
Patricia McGrenaghan, 35-year-old Catholic civilian, married with five children.

Mr Hamilton and Mrs McGrenaghan were father and daughter and were killed when UVF gunmen arrived at their farmhouse off the Hightown Road. Five children were in the house at the time of the shooting. Mr Hamilton was in Australia and had just returned home because he was homesick. Another daughter who was in the house at the time survived the attack. In a television interview she said that around 6:00PM three men came to the house and shot her father. She said they followed him as he staggered to another room and shot him again. When her sister tried to telephone for help, they also shot her. The daughter said: "I ran up the hall to the phone and one of the gunmen then saw me and I dropped the phone and fell down to the floor and begged him not to shoot me. He pulled the phone out of the wall and ran out. He had the gun at my head and I was begging him not to shoot me and then he just went out and that was that". A few hundred yards away was a routine army checkpoint in which the gunmen were waved through. The coroner said the gunmen were "monsters". He said the Hamilton family was in no way connected to any political organisation. Reliable loyalist sources said the UVF was responsible for the attack. Mrs McGrenaghan was from Rathkyle Drive, Antrim and died in the Mater Hospital.

LEST WE FORGET!

3 September 1972:
Robert Cutting, 18-years-old, a soldier with the Royal Artillery was serving with 29 Commando RA. Gunner Cutting was accidentally shot by another soldier in the New Lodge area when the soldier mistook him for a sniper. The corporal who had been commanding the patrol said they had moved into the area a week earlier and that night they were carrying out a routine patrol. He said he heard shouts of "who the hell are you?" and then the shooting began. Another patrol was in Stratheden Street when the corporal leading the patrol said he saw two men further up the road. He said: "one of my men called on them to halt and raise their hands, but shots rang out". He said the other men fired first. He said he dropped to one knee and fired a shot at a man. The man was hit and as he tried to crawl away, the corporal shot him again. He said: "one of my men was hit and I didn't bother with the man I had shot because I thought he was a gunman. Later I found out that the man I had hit was a soldier". Cutting was from Manchester.

LEST WE FORGET!

3 September 1971:
Angela Gallagher, 18-month-old Catholic civilian was killed by a ricochet bullet fired by the IRA. Baby Angela died in her young sister's arms when she was hit by the bullet. She and her 7-year-old sister were playing near her grandmother's house pushing a pram together on Iveagh Street in West Belfast when an IRA gunman opened fire at a 4-man army foot patrol. A bullet passed through the 7-year-old's skirt but she was uninjured. She said: "Angela had just been learning to walk. She was holding on the pram in front of me. I saw the soldiers, and then there was a big bang. Angela fell down and I couldn't get her up. She was too heavy to lift and I started to cry. I asked a big girl who was passing to pick her up and she carried her to the corner. A lady came up and took Angela. Then my mummy arrived and took her away. When the big bang went off, I felt something pull through my skirt and there was a hole in it". The Gallagher family had four children and were from Cavendish Street on the Falls Road. Baby Angela's coffin was followed by dozens of school children who were carrying flowers and wreaths.

LEST WE FORGET!

2 September 1976:
Patrick John Cunningham, 30-year-old Catholic civilian, single lived with his parents at Dromara, Co. Down. Having been tied up with wire and severely beaten,
Mr Cunningham was fatally injured by a gunshot wound to the head. The attack took place near a block of flats at Carlow Street in the Shankill area. At 2:00 AM on 31st August he was found and taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he died in the intensive care unit. At 7:00 PM he left home telling his parents he was going to see a contractor about some work. He took a 9:00 PM bus from Ballynahinch to Oxford Street bus station. It is believed he had gone drinking in a Shankill club. The June 1978 inquest was told that detectives were working on the theory that Mr Cunningham may have been mistaken for a policeman. It was believed by police that Mr Cunningham had been taken from the club and interrogated and that he was shot when it was discovered he was a Catholic. No organisation claimed responsibility for the killing.

LEST WE FORGET!

2 September 1975:
John Cathcart, 38-year-old Protestant civilian, married with three children was at his office in Frederick Street near the nationalist New Lodge area when two gunmen entered his office and shot him. The gunmen entered the building through a side gate rather than through the front entrance thereby eluding security guards. After entering the building, they entered a back office and confronted two men and demanded money. Mr Cathcart and his colleague were ordered to lie face down on the floor. After they complied with their requests, one of the gunmen shot Mr Cathcart at least six times in the back and head. It is most likely republicans were behind the attack. A detective told the inquest the killing was sectarian. Mr Cathcart's colleague said that he being a Protestant, he too could have easily been shot. One of Mr Cathcart's relatives said that he heard Mr Cathcart had been threatened and told to leave the company because of his religion. The coroner described the case as being a mysterious one and the shooting had all the trappings of a sectarian assassination.

LEST WE FORGET!

1 September 1994:
John O'Hanlan, 32-year-old Catholic civilian, single with one child, was shot at 10:05 PM by UDA/UFF gunmen. Mr O'Hanlon was helping a friend change the wheel of a car when the gunmen opened fire from a passing car on Skegoneill Avenue in North Belfast. Mr O'Hanlan was known as "McNabb" and lived on Cedar Avenue. Local people said that Mr O'Hanlan was a regular visitor at the friend's house because he helped him work on cars. The friend's girlfriend said: "my boyfriend nearly hung himself on the washing line trying to get away. He doesn't think it was John they were after; he thinks it was him". A friend of Mr O'Hanlan's said: "he never did anybody any harm or had a bad word to say about anybody, and he certainly didn't deserve to be murdered. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. What is the price of peace? How many people have to be killed before both sides sit down and give peace a chance? I think he will just be forgotten like the rest of them. He will be a statistic like all the others". Mr O'Hanlan was the father of a 2-year-old son.

LEST WE FORGET!

1 September 1993:
Jim Bell, 49-year-old Catholic civilian was from Chemical Street in the Short Strand area of Belfast. Mr Bell was loading a van with ice cream outside a dairy when the UVF shot him in the back with a 9mm pistol. The same pistol was used in June 1993 to shoot a prison officer. Around eleven shots were fired in which Mr Bell was hit three times in the back, once in the left forearm and once in the right wrist. In a statement issued by the UVF, they claimed that Mr Bell was a prominent republican. The RUC said the motive for Mr Bell's killing was sectarian.

LEST WE FORGET!

1 September 1993:
James Peacock, 44-year-old Protestant, married with five children, was a Prison Officer at the Crumlin Road jail. Mr Peacock was fatally injured in a UVF gun attack at his home on Joanmount Park in North Belfast. He was originally from Liverpool. A sledgehammer was used by the gunmen to force themselves into his home. Upon gaining entry into his home, they shot Mr Peacock in the back. His wife said she heard "an almighty thud and glass breaking". He had gone to the kitchen to make his wife a night-time drink and she found him lying slumped by the microwave oven. He was taken to hospital where he died an hour later. Mr Peacock's killing occurred on a Wednesday night. A year after her husband's killing, Mrs Peacock said: "I have not slept on Wednesday night since then". Mr Peacock was on sick leave for several months and had been threatened by both loyalists and republicans. The UVF issued a statement in which they threatened to kill more prison officers if the Maze dispute was not resolved. Mr Peacock's relatives said that his killing made them "ashamed to be Protestant". Mrs Peacock received a number of letters of condolence. One of those letters came from a republican prisoner in which he described her husband as "a giant among men". Mrs Peacock made her intentions of leaving Northern Ireland known. She said: "I would not live in a country with terrorists in government. I don't think the British people would like terrorists in their government, so why should I be asked to put up with it"?

LEST WE FORGET!

1 September 1987
William Henry, 32-year-old Protestant, married, was a Prison Officer. He was the assistant governor at Magilligan prison and he shot himself on the pitch of a Belfast rugby club whilst heavily intoxicated. The inquest was told he had become paranoid about personal security after threats from the IRA. His widow told the coroner this manifested itself in violent rages and excessive drinking bouts. He was from Thornleigh Park in Londonderry.

LEST WE FORGET!

1 September 1982:
James Galway, 34-year-old Protestant civilian, was a part-time barman from Shankill Parade. Lenny Murphy, the leader of the Shankill Butchers gang shot Mr Galway for unknown reasons. In March 1987 a part-time UDR member was jailed for twelve years for the manslaughter of Mr Galway. The court was told that the UDR man was a member of an intelligence unit in the UDR and that he had used his position to obtain information on republicans for the UVF. He and four other UDR members became involved with a Ballymena UVF unit. The other four members were jailed for four years each after they admitted offences that included UVF membership, armed robbery, possession of fi****ms and burglary. The court heard that Mr Galway's body was found in November 1983, ten feet underground on a building site. The chief defendant in the case said he was asked by Lenny Murphy where he could dump something. He said he went to a building site with Lenny Murphy and James Galway when suddenly Murphy pulled out a gun and shot Mr Galway at point blank range in the head. The court was also told that Mr Galway was well known in the Shankill area where he occasionally worked as a barman in a loyalist club.

LEST WE FORGET!