The bombing of Britton’s pub

by Joe McVeigh

In the 1960s, Britton’s pub (also known as “the Cross” ) at Mulinagoad about 3 miles west from Pettigo in Co Donegal was a popular place especially for people from the North Fermanagh area. It did a big business on Sunday evenings as the pubs in the North were closed on Sundays. People of all religious persuasions and none from nearby Boa Island, the townland of Letter and the area known as Mulleek would go there regularly. There was music there on Sunday nights usually played by a local Protestant musician.

On Thursday night 28 December 1972 Britton’s pub was blown up by a Fermanagh based Loyalist gang closely associated with the UDA in Antrim. The bar had closed early that night as there were no customers. Fortunately, none of the Britton family who lived in the same building as the pub was killed or injured.

Regina Britton (nee Moss), who was my first cousin and her husband Hugh Britton, lived at the back of the pub with their 12 children. Most of the children were in bed upstairs when the bomb went off. Only Joseph, then 12 years of age, was in the kitchen along with his parents and another member of the family. The eldest boy, Thomas, then 14 years was staying at his uncle’s house a few miles away. Hugh Britton was sitting down at the table to have a cup of tea when the bomb exploded at the front wall at approx. 10.45pm. Doors were blown off the hinges and windows were shattered. Miraculously, nobody was physically injured but members of the family were traumatised. Immediately afterwards the family moved to their uncle’s house a few miles away. After a few days they moved to a vacant house nearby.

On that same night at around the same time loyalist bombs exploded in Belturbet and Clones. Two young people –Geraldine O’Reilly (14) and Patrick Stanley(16)were killed in Belturbet. A number of people were injured in Clones –some seriously. In the days following, a local man, McCabe, who was repairing the premises in Clones, fell from a ladder and was killed.It is important to remember that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) who was responsible for the three bombs that night was acting as a proxy for British Military Intelligence in carrying out these bombings. Back then some were naïve enough to believe that the British army was over here to keep the peace between two warring tribes. The truth we know is that the British had co-opted some in the Loyalist paramilitaries to do their dirty work.

An Antrim unit of the UDA with the help of British Intelligence was already operating alongside local loyalists in the Fermanagh area. On 16 December 1972 -just twelve days before the bombs- they murdered 26 year old Louis Leonard in his butcher shop in Derrylin. He was a native of Donagh and though never charged with anything, was suspected of being a member of the IRA and therefore considered by British intelligence as a legitimate target for assassination.

Just a few months earlier on 23 October 1973, British Military Intelligence (headed up by Captain Reece)was closely involved with the plot to kill Michael Naan on 23 October 1972 at his Aughnahinch farm near Newtownbutler. Michael was well known supporter of the Civil Rights movement and known to British intelligence. He had to be assassinated. A unit of the British army –the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders- was flown by helicopter from South Armagh to Fermanagh to carry out that assassination. They used army issue bayonets to kill both Michael Naan and his neighbour Andrew Murray. This became known as ‘the Pitchfork Murders’ to suggest that they were carried out by local Protestants

These and other incidents and the constant harassment of Catholic individuals and Nationalist communities by the RUC, the British army and newly formed local Protestant militia, the UDR, created a climate of fear and suspicion all along the border during the years 1970-1972The British government had introduced Internment without trial on 9 August 1971 in a desperate effort to stop the movement for justice and equality which had gone from strength to strength since 1968.

In the murky world of loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), the RUC and British Intelligence, plots were being hatched and rumours spread to instil fear in local border communities. The main player in British Military Intelligence in this area at that time was a Captain Reece who was based at St Angelo five miles from Enniskillen and 20 miles from the border at Pettigo.

The British army, fresh from their recent military exploits in their overseas colonies like Cyprus, Kenya and Aden were determined to put the lessons learned there into practice in ‘Ulster’. These soldiers mostly from working class cities and towns in Britain were trained to kill, to intimidate and to hate. Their chief guru was Colonel Frank Kitson who had written about how the British army should tackle insurgency in their colonies. He proposed a two-pronged approach -one military, the other propaganda.

As well as the military operations along the border and throughout the six north-eastern counties, the British were engaged in a propaganda war to put pressure on the Dublin government to seal the border. They also wanted to promote the lie that they were in the north of Ireland to keep the peace between two warring tribes. The truth was that they were sent here to instil fear in one section of the community by using the other section to help them do just that.

There are many questions which need answers about the bomb at Britton’s pub and other loyalist attacks in the border area of Fermanagh during the early 1970s. What information does the Gardaí have about those who carried out these bombings and their motives in doing so? What did the successive Dublin governments do to find out who was responsible and bring them to justice? How did the governments in Dublin respond to the British organised attacks on border towns and villages?

Hugh and Regina Britton are now dead. They got on with their lives as best they could. They returned to live in the pub a year afterwards. Their son, Thomas died of heart failure five years later while playing Gaelic football. He was just 18 years old.

Joe Britton, now in his Sixties, lives a short distance from the pub. He still has vivid memories of the night his home was bombed without warning. He says that the experience of the bomb and of being homeless left its mark on the family. “We never really got over it”, he says. The family are now scattered all over Ireland and the USA. It was for them a horrific experience that is etched in their memories forever.

The passing of the Legacy Bill in the British parliament is intended by the British government and military establishment to cover up all their murderous activities along the border and to stop the truth about their dirty war coming out in the CourtsCaptain (now retired Colonel Reece) is now retired and living in France. It is time for the Dublin government to seek the extradition of Mr Reece to account for his bloody actions in Donegal, Belturbet , Monaghan and Dublin.

Urgent Appeal