The findings came too late for the O’Hare family as Willie passed away just three weeks ago

The findings came too late for the O’Hare family as Willie passed away just three weeks ago

15 June 2016

THE start of the summer in 1994 was a happy time for the close-knit O’Hare family.

Annie and Willie had six children who were so close to one another. I can’t think of another family who saw as much of each other, living just 500 yards apart they met every day.

“Mummy’s house is where we call in for a cup of tea and a chat,” they would always say.

There was no jealousy, no fallouts, no friction – just a happy family who grew up in their Drumaness home surrounded by love from two kind and caring parents.

Marie was their eldest daughter, followed by Geraldine, Bernadette, Patricia and Roisin. Patsy was their only son.

For sports-loving Willie, the year was turning out to be a memorable one. Although he moved to Drumaness because of the love he had for gentle Annie, he was always a Loughinisland man at heart. 

The grandfather was happy doing the simple things in life, whether it was going to watch Loughinisland senior gaelic football team or getting to O’Toole’s on a Saturday night for a couple of quiet drinks.

Willie’s eldest child Marie (the girls used to laugh that she was his favourite) had just given birth to her fourth son; Ireland were playing their first match in the World Cup; and a Loughinisland man was starring for Down as they planned their assault on Croke Park for the second time in four years. Life was good.

However, things changed forever on June 18 – evil was lurking in the darkness outside The Heights Bar.

It was my mum and dad who took Patsy to meet his dad at O’Toole’s that fateful night to watch Ireland take on Italy in a World Cup game at the Giants Stadium in New York. Irish hopes were high as the team assembled by Jack Charlton was packed with seasoned professionals who could beat any team on their day.

Marie and Eamon Byrne were out for a Chinese meal that evening to celebrate their newborn. At the end of the meal they decided to join Willie and Patsy in the country pub.

However, Marie only stayed a short time. Leaving O’Toole’s shortly after 10.10pm, she drove the three miles home. Unknowingly passing the killers on her way, little did she know her loving husband was dead by the time she reached her front door.

Less than five minutes after Marie left, gunmen burst into the bar, sprayed bullets around the room trying to kill everyone and anyone. 

Willie fell onto the ground and one of the balaclava-clad gunmen stood over him, looked directly into his eyes, pointed the weapon at him and pulled the trigger. 

Fortunately for Willie the gun had run out of bullets. The gunmen then fled.

Others weren’t so fortunate.

Eamon died at the scene and Patsy passed away in the ambulance on the way to the Downe Hospital.

At home my mum was watching the match when the phone rang. When she answered Willie was on the other end. 

He said: “Ann, is Hugh there? I need him round [at O’Toole’s] as there’s been a shooting, I think Eamon’s dead and Patsy is dying.”

The days that followed were a blur. A joint wake in Annie and Willie’s house, with the constant flow of people calling to pass on their heartfelt sorrow to the families. Then there was a joint funeral and burial in Loughinisland graveyard.

The family say Annie was never the same again, while Willie struggled to live with the memories of that day.

Every year Willie went to Downpatrick police station to find out if there were any updates in the investigation. When he heard the probe hadn’t uncovered any new leads, his family say he walked away more upset and his heart broken a little further each time.

But in 2011 Al Hutchinson’s findings on the shooting were to be published. Willie was there standing beside a plaque of the six victims alongside family members of the other victims.

But the optimism about the truth over that terror attack turned to heartbreak again when the report wrongfully concluded there was no collusion between the security forces and the Loyalist gunmen. 

The family saw a glimmer of hope when the findings were quashed and a new review of that terrible night was underway.

Sadly the findings published by the Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire on Friday, which uncovered there was collusion in the deaths of six innocent men, came too late for the doting parents.

Annie passed away in April, 2012, aged 79, without finding out the truth about the atrocity.

Willie had to live with the memories of that night. He didn’t like any kind of loud noises or banging after the shooting — it was a reminder of the gunfire which peppered around that small country pub.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last year and passed away just three weeks ago, aged 84.

However much comfort these findings give to the O’Hare family, it is bittersweet that their much-loved mum and dad died without knowing the truth about that summer’s night in 1994 which changed their family for ever.