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Rescuers dig with their bare hands in the rubble of McGurk's bar shortly after the bomb exploded.
# Cold Case
75-year-old man arrested over deadly UVF bomb at Belfast pub in 1971
Fifteen people died in the bomb at McGurk’s Bar in north Belfast more than four decades ago.
A 75-YEAR-OLD MAN has been arrested over a bomb at a Belfast pub in 1971 which killed 15 people.
The man was arrested in east Belfast this morning and is being questioned by police at Antrim police station. The families of the people killed in the bomb have been informed of the arrest.
The chief constable of the PSNI promised to carry out a review of the attack on McGurk’s Bar in north Belfast more than forty years ago after a report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in 2011 into how the case was originally investigated found that it had been biased.
The attack was carried out by loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
The officer in charge of the renewed investigation said that the PSNI is looking to investigate possible lines of enquiry as thoroughly and quickly as possible, even with the years that have passed since the attack.
“Despite the passage of time, there remain a number of opportunities to make progress,” said Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway.
He asked for anyone who knows who was involved in the attack to talk to the police.
“Much has changed in the four decades since this terrible atrocity but the families of the victims and survivors continue to suffer,” said DCI Galloway. “I would ask that anyone with information or suspicions about this bomb attack to come forward”.
One man was convicted of all 15 murders in 1978.
Read: Tánaiste admits ‘on-the-runs’ controversy has derailed progress in the North >
