Pain over deaths of ‘forgotten victims’ of Troubles ‘never goes away’

The sister of a 20-year-old Buncrana woman murdered along with her fiancé by Loyalists 50 years ago has said the pain of the violent deaths of the young couple “never goes away”.

Breege Porter from Buncrana and Oliver Boyce, 25, from Clonmany, were abducted and murdered on January 1, 1973 when they were on their way to give new year’s greetings to her parents.

The couple, who were due to be married the following August, were found shot and stabbed to death near Burnfoot.

Anne McDermott, who was a 28-year-old mother of four at the time, said the murders have hung over her family since and it hurts that her parents died without anyone being brought to justice for the double killing.

The pain over the murders “never goes away,” she said. “Any death never goes away, but one like that especially. Because this was so brutal, you can’t get over why someone would do that.

“The first of January has been spoiled for us for life. The memory is very clear, it is so hard to take.”

Breege’s father Eddie died in 1985 and her mother Manie passed away in 1994.

“Both parents died without ever getting justice for her. We just know we are not going to [get justice]”.

The Barron commission of investigation into the 1974  Dublin and Monaghan Bombings found that members of A company and C company of the UDA in Derry were suspected of the murders.

“It’s so sad they could get away with murdering someone and go on and lead their own lives as if nothing happened,” Mrs McDermott said.

She said she went out of her way to ensure her sons, who grew up in Derry, would not become bitter over her sister’s murder.

The murders took place amid a campaign of Loyalist violence in the Republic which targeted border counties and Dublin.

Anne McDermott says she has very fond memories of her sister Breege Porter who was murdered along with her fiancé Oliver Boyce by members of the UDA in January 1973. PICTURE: TOM HEANEY, NWPRESSPICS

Just three days previously, a UVF car bomb in Belturbet in Co Cavan killed two teenagers - Patrick Stanley, 16, and Geraldine O’Reilly, 15 - and injured several people. On the same day, two people were injured when two UVF bombs exploded in Clones, Co Monaghan and a bombing also took place in Pettigo in Donegal which resulted in no casualties.

Earlier this month, gardaí issued a public appeal for information about the three attacks. An Garda Síochána has been asked to comment on the case.

Mr Boyce’s brother Hugo, who passed away in February 2021, told an Oireachtas hearing into the Barron inquiry in 2005 “that everybody knows” who committed the murders.

“The PSNI knows, the Garda knows, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform knows and the dogs in the street know.”

He read an extract from a newspaper report to the hearing in which the late Nationalist leader Ivan Cooper described Ms Porter and Mr Boyce as “forgotten victims of the Troubles” when calling for a review of the case.

The coroner at the inquest in Letterkenny into the murders said it was “hard to imagine that there are people within this island who would be capable of committing such a terrible crime” that had “shocked the people of Donegal”.

Ms Porter, who was the youngest of four sisters and would have celebrated her 21st birthday a few weeks after her death, worked at a shirt factory in Buncrana. Mr Porter was a carpenter who had worked in England and Dublin.

Mrs McDermott - who was living in Derry - had just given birth to her youngest son four weeks before her sister, who was godmother to the newborn, was murdered.

The couple had left the Boyce family home In Clonmany and Mrs McDermott believes they were on their way to Buncrana when they were abducted. She heard the news of her sister’s death on a radio news report the following day before a local priest visited her to inform her of her sister’s death.

After her father’s death, she and her late husband made inquiries into the progress of the investigation, but her mother was told by a garda in Buncrana that the questions should stop.

“My mother was afraid that something might happen to either me or the family, because we had young boys. We did not do anything more about it; we left it at that,” she told the Oireachtas hearing in January 2005.

Mrs McDermott, who lives at the family home in Buncrana, does not hold any grievance over how the investigation was handled. 

“I'm sure the gardaí did their best, I’m not going to criticise them. They probably did their best. with the evidence they had.” 

Recalling the day of Breege’s funeral she said “every shop in the town was closed” and “the streets were lined with people”.

“Everybody knew her. She was full of fun and loved children. She helped look after my boys - she just loved them. She was so full of fun and laid back. I had her spoilt when she was young. I have very fond memories of her.” 

She said the Boyce family were very good to her parents after the murders and the two families have kept in touch in the decades since.

A memorial Mass for Breege Porter and Oliver Boyce will be held in St Mary’s Church, Cockhill on January 1 at 7pm.