Member's statement: Mountainview Tavern Attack: 50th Anniversary

Member's statement by Mr Brian Kingston on 7 April 2025.

MLA

Mr Brian Kingston

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

7 April 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Mountainview Tavern Attack: 50th Anniversary

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4890234

Read the official Assembly record

Text

On Saturday afternoon, I attended a community commemoration on the Shankill Road to mark the 50th anniversary of the bomb and gun attack on the Mountainview Tavern by the IRA. That attack on Saturday 5 April 1975 resulted in the death of five civilians and injuries to over 60 people. On Saturday, I spoke to various people who were injured or bereaved in that atrocity. As it was this year, that date in 1975 was Grand National day, and the bar was packed with people who had enjoyed watching the race. Republican terrorists drove to the bar, and two shot into the entrance area while another planted a bomb just inside the door and lit the fuse before making their getaway. When the bomb exploded, it blew a hole in the ground floor ceiling and brought people crashing down from the upper floor. Four people were killed in the explosion, and a fifth died later in hospital. Those killed were Joseph Bell, Alan Madden, Nathaniel Adams, William Andrews and Albert Fletcher. On Saturday, I spoke to Kenneth "Digger" Whiteside and Billy Whyte, who were injured in the explosion. Having played football that afternoon, they were upstairs when the bomb exploded and fell down as the floor beneath them was blown away. Billy Whyte sustained considerable leg injuries and spent six weeks in Musgrave Park Hospital after surgery to insert metal pins and screws. He was unable to work for seven months and was never able to play football again. Kenny Whiteside suffered neck and hand injuries in the explosion. Another survivor Dennis Larmour told me that he was working in the upstairs bar when the bomb exploded. He had five operations to help restore his hearing. Many survivors also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. To my knowledge, the IRA never claimed responsibility for that heinous, murderous, sectarian attack on a civilian target that was designed to cause multiple deaths and injury. Perhaps that is an indication that, even by the IRA's warped standards, the attack could never be justified. The getaway car was found abandoned on the nearby Springfield Road. On the Shankill, the atrocity is remembered alongside other republican bombings of civilian targets during the Troubles: at Balmoral furniture showroom and the Four Step Inn in 1971; at the Bayardo Bar in 1975; and at Frizzell's fish shop in 1993. We must never forget that atrocities took place and that they were evil and wrong. There was, of course, an alternative to that campaign of terrorism. Ultimately, what did it achieve? Only a lot of death and suffering, which endures to this day.

My thoughts, today, are with those who were killed, injured and bereaved. We will remember them.

449 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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