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The Miami Showband killings (also called the Miami Showband massacre) [1] was an attack on 31 July 1975 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland.
The documentary explores the Miami Showband killings, an attack on The Miami Showband on 31 July 1975 by the loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).The Miami Showband were at the time one of Ireland's most popular cabaret bands, and in the attack five people were killed, including three members of the band.
The year after the killings, the Miami Showband regrouped and continued to perform. Des Lee fronted the band until leaving in 1978, later moving to South Africa. The group remained active until 1982, led by Charlie Chapman. They then split up and their management formed a new band, The New Miami, fronted by Caroline Allen.
Sunday Tribune journalist Emily O'Reilly noted that none of the three men convicted of the Miami Showband killings ever implicated Nairac in the attack or accused him of causing Boyle's death. [25] There is a mural and memorial plaque dedicated to Boyle in Portadown's Killycomain housing estate, where he had grown up. [26]
The popularity of the Miami Showband across the religious divide and the revulsion at the nature of their murders had initially raised questions about whether Somerville's and Boyle's funerals should receive the full paramilitary treatment but ultimately they did and both funerals attracted crowds of around 3,000 mourners. [18]
On 5 August 1975, Jackson was taken in and questioned by the RUC as a suspect in the Miami Showband killings; he was subsequently released two days later without facing any charges. [77] In October 1976, two serving members of the UDR Thomas Crozier and James McDowell received life sentences for the killings.
Jackson attended Hanna's funeral on 29 July where he was photographed standing beside Wesley Somerville, the second bomber who would be killed in the Miami Showband attack. [59] Following Hanna's killing, Mulholland and his family fled to England. [50] The RUC eventually declared the killing unsolved and closed the file on the case.
Site of the Miami Showband killings, in which the Glenanne gang was implicated. On 31 July 1975, four days after Hanna's shooting and Jackson's assumption of leadership of the Mid-Ulster brigade, [123] the Miami Showband's minibus was flagged-down outside Newry by armed UVF men wearing British Army uniforms at a bogus military checkpoint.