MLA Sugden commemorates Greysteel Massacre victims, survivors and families

East Londonderry MLA Claire Sugden has commemorated the victims, survivors and families of the UFF gun attack on the Rising Sun bar, known as the Greysteel Massacre, on its 30th anniversary. Credit NI World

The attack in Ms Sugden’s constituency on October 30 1993 killed eight people at the end of a week which saw the murder of 24 people, starting with the IRA’s Shankill Bomb. Ms Sugden said despite shattering the lives of so many in Greysteel, it had brought the small community even closer together rather than divide it.

“It was one of the more shocking and callous attacks of the Troubles, on a small, rural town in this constituency – one where Protestants and Catholics lived, worked and socialised together,” said the independent MLA.

“That week saw 24 lives lost, with many more injured and a huge number of family members and friends mourn sometimes multiple loved ones. The Greysteel Massacre – not to mention the other attacks that week – was such a brutal, senseless and horrifying attack that people seriously and desperately began looking for a way beyond the Troubles that had gone on for so long by this stage.

“If anything was to come out of the horror of these attacks, it was this – a real sense that people had had enough of the violence that had blighted Northern Ireland for a quarter of a century and move towards a serious peace process. My thoughts and prayers are today with the loved ones of those lost that day, those that preceded them and everyone in Greysteel.”