Miami survivor repeats claim Nairac was at massacre scene

Miami showband massacre survivor Stephen Travers has repeated claims that British army officer Robert Nairac was at the scene and helped organise the ambush of the band in an incident that caused widespread shock throughout the country in 1975.

The showband was ambushed near Buskill, Co Down by a gang of loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Volunteer Force and serving members of the Ulster Defence Regiment wearing uniforms and operating a bogus checkpoint.

Three members of the band Brian McCoy, Tony Geraghty, and Fran O’Toole were shot dead and two of the attackers also died as they attempted to load a bomb on to the showband’s van.

It was widely believed that the ambush was a planned event with the intention that the bomb would explode as the band entered the Republic, supporting false claims that bands from the Republic were smuggling explosives. Two band members, Stephen Travers, who was badly wounded and Des McAlea were the only survivors.

Nairac (28), an undercover officer, operated widely in the South Armagh and Down area until he was abducted on 14th May 1977 from outside a pub at Dromintee, Co Armagh by the Provisional IRA.

His body has never been recovered. Stephen Travers believes Nairac was involved in setting up the Buskill ambush and sharply criticised RTE and BBC for “lazy journalism” in their failure to expose his role and for “almost canonising him”..

A large audience gathered at the Riverbank Bar and Restaurant, Killanny, Carrickmacross for a book signing (The Bass Player published by New Island Books) by Stephen Travers and to hear him participate in an interview conducted by Pat McGinn.

He told the audience that the incident, one of many in the Troubles that drew worldwide attention, had at the age of 24 “ruined my life and my wife’s life”.

He said that he couldn’t get a job with any showband because they took the attitude that people going out on a night to enjoy themselves did not want to be looking at someone onstage who was associated with such tragedy.

He has sought out a second life as a survivor, challenging State collusion incidents in Northern Ireland but also working as a campaigner for peace and reconciliation.

He has fond memories of his early days in music, recalling how he was amazed seeing hundreds of people walking towards the Pavilion Ballroom in Blackrock where the Miami had a gig and also at the ballroom in Galway.

He said that in the showband era, which lasted from 1962 to about 1978-9, it was a time when more Irish musicians were in full-time employment than ever before.

Although he recalled his minute-by-minutes of the horrific Buskill incident when he was badly wounded, ending up pretending he was dead at the bottom of a ditch, he also recalled the exciting early days when the words The Miami conjured up images of all that was the best in showband music that brought thousands of young people to throng ballrooms around the country, North and South.

Asked by Pat McGinn how his childhood had been moulded and what had sparked his interest in music the Carrick-on-Suir Tipperary man said that every kid in his town got a guitar for Christmas “because our parents thought we might be the next Clancy Brothers” who were all the rage at the time.

He himself played his guitar from when he was 11 although he had no great interest in it until one day a neighbour, Noel Kelly looking for a bass player.

His former bass player was selling his instrument for a fiver. “If you can get half the fiver we’ll give you the other half”. From then on he was immersed in music and a brilliant career lay ahead – until the fateful night in 1975.

Among the audience at the event were Sinn Fein TDs Matt Carthy and Ruairi Murphy, and Cllrs Noel Keelan (Monaghan), Michael Gallagher (Meath), Pearse McGeough (Louth).