Chlorane Bar attack
| Chlorane Bar attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of The Troubles | |
| Location | Chlorane Bar, 23 Gresham Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Coordinates | 54°36′06.36″N 5°55′57.28″W / 54.6017667°N 5.9325778°WCoordinates: 54°36′06.36″N 5°55′57.28″W / 54.6017667°N 5.9325778°W |
| Date | 5 June 1976 22.00 (BST) |
|
Attack type
|
mass shooting |
| Weapons | 2 .45-revolvers, 1 9mm pistol, 1 .22 pistol |
| Deaths | 5 civilians (3 Catholic, 2 Protestant) |
| Perpetrator | UVF |
The Chlorane Bar attack was a mass shooting at a city centre pub on 5 June 1976 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation, apparently in retaliation for the Provisional IRA bombing attack on the Times Bar on York Road, in which two Protestant civilians were killed. In the Chlorane attack, five men were killed; three Catholics and two Protestants. The gunmen were from the UVF Belfast Brigade's Shankill Road battalion. The assault was a joint operation by the platoons based at the Brown Bear and the Windsor Bar, drinking haunts in the Shankill Road district frequented by UVF members.
On 5 June 1976, a bomb exploded at the door of the Times Bar on York Road, killing two Protestants. The pub was frequented by members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a legal loyalist paramilitary group.Irish republicans were blamed for the bombing. Shortly after, the UVF Brigade Staff (its Shankill Road-based leadership) decided to hit back by attacking the Chlorane Bar. It was a hastily arranged operation devised by its military commander (whom investigative journalist Martin Dillon refers to as "Mr F"). The Chlorane Bar was located at 23 Gresham Street in Belfast's city centre, near Smithfield Market. Its clientele was mixed (Protestant and Catholic), which was unusual during The Troubles. On 17 August 1973, the Chlorane Bar had been firebombed; however, nobody was injured as the pub was closed at the time of the attack. Later that same month, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) claimed responsibility for a car bomb which exploded in Gresham Street. Although there were no human casualties, a pet shop located near the bomb's epicentre was damaged in the blast and a number of animals inside the building were either killed or injured.
The attack was planned and executed by the UVF platoons based at the Brown Bear and the Windsor Bar respectively. These were two pubs located on the Shankill Road and regularly frequented by UVF members. Dillon has referred to the former platoon as the "Brown Bear Team" because the members generally met at that particular pub, which faced Shankill Library on the corner of Mountjoy Street. To carry out the attack, along with the procuring of weapons and masks, a black taxi was hijacked by two young men outside the Long Bar on the Shankill to transport the gunmen to the Chlorane. Taxi driver Mark Hagan and a passenger were held hostage at the Windsor Bar.
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