Member's statement: Lance Corporal Michael Darcy
Member's statement by Mr Tom Buchanan on .
- MLA
- Mr Tom Buchanan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 16 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Lance Corporal Michael Darcy
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5623588
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Two weeks ago, I attended a special memorial service in Castlederg to mark the 38th anniversary of the brutal murder of Lance Corporal Michael Darcy on 4 June 1988 by the IRA, the bedfellows of Sinn Féin. While the IRA, which was responsible for decades of murder, violence, intimidation and human rights violations, claimed responsibility for the murder, there is one thing that it could never claim: justification. There was no justification for the murder of Michael Darcy. Michael Darcy, who was only 28 years old, lived with and cared for his elderly mother. He was her main carer. The only reason that he, like so many others in Castlederg, was murdered was that he was a Protestant and a unionist and upheld law and order. His murder was an attack not only on him but on the rule of law, on the right to life and on every citizen in the unionist community in Castlederg. Earlier on the evening of 4 June 1988, Michael, a founding member of Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band, had attended a band parade in my village of Drumquin and then went on to Beragh. On his return home that night, as he drove his car into his backyard, a gunman stepped out from behind the trees and pumped six bullets into his back. Michael died instantly. Michael's mother — an elderly woman who depended on her only son as her main carer — was waiting for him to come home. When she heard the gunfire, she knew that something was seriously wrong. She was an elderly woman left without her only son and left without her main carer. The gruesome reality is that, were she alive today and were she to meet the so-called First Minister for all and ask her why her son was murdered, we know what the answer would be: "Mrs Darcy, there was no alternative". Of course, there is always an alternative to murder. There always was and always is an alternative to murder. Today, we honour the memory of Michael Darcy, one of Ulster's sons. We remember the entire community of Castlederg, who suffered the loss not only of Michael but of 28 other gallant men and women who stood to uphold law and order throughout our communities and lost their life as a result.
386 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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