 | This articleduplicates the scope of other articles, specificallyTrevor King. Pleasediscuss this issue and help introduce asummary style to the article.(February 2019) |
| 1994 Shankill Road killings | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofthe Troubles | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Irish National Liberation Army |  UVF | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Gino GallagherHugh Torney | Trevor King † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 4 volunteers | 3 UVF members | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 3 UVF killed 1 civilian wounded | ||||||
  Ambush location within Belfast | |||||||
The1994 Shankill Road killings took place on 16 June 1994 when theIrish National Liberation Army (INLA) shot dead threeUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) members – high-ranking member of the UVF Belfast Brigade staffTrevor King and two other UVF members, Colin Craig and David Hamilton – on theShankill Road in Belfast, close to the UVF headquarters. The following day, the UVF launched two retaliatory attacks. In the first, UVF members shot dead a Catholic civilian taxi driver inCarrickfergus. In the second, they shot dead two Protestant civilians inNewtownabbey, who they believed were Catholics.[1] TheLoughinisland massacre, two days later, is believed to have been a further retaliation.[2]
The UVF had been considering calling a ceasefire soon, which they believed would be from a position of strength. TheIrish National Liberation Army had been in decline since the late 1980s after the feud withIrish People's Liberation Organization in which the loss of their best operators in Belfast 1987 had left them weak and largely inactive. But in 1992 the INLA had somewhat of a resurgence in its campaign. On 14 April 1992, aBritish Army (BA) recruiting sergeant Michael Newman (33) was shot dead by two INLA volunteers outside an army recruiting office inDerby.[3][4] It was a significant incident as Newman was the first serving member of British Armed Forces to be killed by the INLA since 1984 when they shot dead UDR soldier Colin Houston.[5] It was also significant in that this was the first person the INLA had killed in England since theAirey Neave killing.[6] Two months later, on 18 June 1992, they struck in England again with two firebombs in stores inLeeds causing £50,000 worth of damage.[7] On 14 January 1993 an INLA hit team fired rifle shots through the window of the home of UVF leaderJohn "Bunter" Graham at Belfast, seriously injuring him. In June 1993 they killed retired RUC officer, John Patrick Murphy.[8]
On 16 June 1994, high-ranking UVF Commander volunteerTrevor King was standing on the Shankill Road approximately 100 yards (91 m) from "The Eagle" ("The Eagle" was the UVF's Belfast GHQ) and he was talking to fellow UVF members, David Hamilton (43) and Colin Craig (31). A car drove past them and as it did so, INLA gunmen inside the vehicle opened fire on the three men. The car was later found burning close to Divis tower.[9] David Lister and Hugh Jordan claimed thatGino Gallagher, who was himself shot dead in 1996 during an internal dispute, was the main gunman in the attack. However,Jack Holland andHenry McDonald said that Gallagher was inside the car which was scouting the area for UVF members, and not one of the gunmen.[10] Colin Craig was killed on the spot. King and David Hamilton lay in the street, seriously wounded as panic and chaos erupted on the Shankill in the wake of the shooting.[11] Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Roy Magee was in "The Eagle" discussing an upcomingCombined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) meeting and the possibility of a loyalist ceasefire with the UVF Brigade Staff when the attack took place. He and the others raced out of the building after hearing the gunfire. He later described the scene he came upon outside.
"With some others, I ran down to where the men were. One was already dead and the others were in a very, very bad physical state. The road was in pandemonium at that stage. You could see that the leadership of the UVF was quite naturally very, very broken and disturbed about the shooting of their colleague. He [Trevor King] was a senior commander".
King was rushed to hospital where he was put on a life-support machine. The shooting had left him paralysed from the neck down. He died on 9 July with Reverend Magee at his bedside. According to Magee, King himself made the decision to turn off the machine.
The killings were a blow for theNorthern Ireland peace process and a morale boost for the INLA. The attack was the INLA's deadliest action since theDroppin Well bombing in 1982 which killed seventeen people, 11 British soldiers and 6 civilians.[12][13][14]
The following day, the UVF launched two 'retaliatory' attacks. In the first, UVF members shot dead a Catholic civilian taxi driver inCarrickfergus. In the second, they shot dead two Protestant civilians inNewtownabbey, who they believed were Catholics.[15] Two days after the killings the UVF decided to launch another revenge attack when they killed six Catholic civilians in a bar while they were watching the Ireland vs Italy1994 World Cup game opener in what became known asLoughinisland massacre.[16] The tit-for-tat attacks continued on and off for the spring and summer of 1994 until theProvisional IRA ceasefire of 31 August 1994 and the CLMC ceasefire in October. The attacks on the Shankill were the INLA's deadliest attack of the 1990s.
When interviewed forBoston College for research on the conflict,Progressive Unionist Party leaderDavid Ervine suggested the INLA might have been working in cahoots with the Provisional IRA in targeting prominent Loyalists, as the month after the Provisional IRA killed three leading UDA men,Ray Smallwoods on 11 July andRaymond Elder andJoe Bratty on 31 July.[17][18][19]
