William Henry Wilson “Billy” Hanna (1929 - 1975)
Founder of the feared Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), proscribed by, but tacitly supported and endorsed by the British Government, Hanna served in the British military in the Korean War and later joined the Ulster Special Constabulary, known as the B-Specials, a quasi-military reserve force of the British Army which probably roughly compares to the Black-and-Tans of the 1920s. When the B-Specials were disbanded in 1970 he joined the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) the sanctioned reserve military wing of the army, In 1972 he set up the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF and is believed to have carried out, or been involved in the planning of the twin bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in May of 1974, five bombings in all which resulted in thirty-three fatalities.
With the apparent collusion of the RUC, and together with the UDA (Ulster Defence Association) and UDR, the Mid-Ulster Brigade became part of an infamous loyalist paramilitary gang known as the “Glenanne Gang” which carried out sectarian murders and bombings throughout the 1970s, and also ran a protection racket, robbed banks and stole weapons. Hanna was killed, it’s believed by Robin Jackson, the mastermind behind the Miami massacre, and who then assumed command of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The story seems to be that Hanna was remorseful about “all those children killed in Dublin” (two infants and an unborn child were among the dead, and one young girl was decapitated by the explosion, only recognisable by her platform boots which confirmed her as a female) and refused to take part in the massacre. Fearful that he would inform on them, Jackson shot him as he got out of his car in the early hours of July 27. Though never comprehensively proven, it’s believed that Hanna worked for British intelligence, and that they had been involved in the planning of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Robert “Robin” John Jackson (1948 - 1998)
Also known as “The Jackal”, he joined the UDR in 1972 but quickly seems to have drifted to the UVF, where, as mentioned above, he planned the Miami Showband killing and executed his former boss, Bill Hanna, who refused to go along with it. Also refusing, according to an unsubstantiated theory, to help was Brian McCoy, trumpeter with the Miami Showband and a protestant from Northern Ireland; approached by (according to the theory, without so far as I know any actual evidence) Jackson and asked to use his connections with the band to help plan UVF attacks in the Republic, McCoy had refused and so (again, according to the theory) Jackson had targeted him and his band for death in reprisal, believing McCoy was disloyal to the Unionist cause.
It’s widely accepted now that Jackson not only planned but helped carry out and direct the ambush, himself shooting McCoy dead when two of his comrades, Wesley Somerville and Harris Boyle, were blown up when the bomb went off prematurely. Jackson, believed to be an agent working for RUC Special Branch, later shot his brother-in-law for allegedly informing on him to the RUC. Jackson, in turn, was believed (none of this was ever conclusively proven, so I have to keep using words like that) to have been controlled by this guy.
Captain Robert Laurence Nairac (1948 - 1977)
Again, we have one of those weird little coincidences, where I note that he and Jackson were both born in the same year. Nairac was a military intelligence officer who worked both with the army and the RUC, and narrowly escaped being blown up when a car bomb detonated on the Crumlin Road in Belfast in 1973. He appears to have been something of a loose cannon, conducting unsanctioned surveillance on republican pubs and supplying loyalist paramilitaries with guns, bombs and help in planning attacks, including the Dublin and Monaghan car bombings.
Steve Travers remembers a British Army officer being at the shootings, and noted he had a very cultured, English accent. It’s believed this was Nairac, though it has never been proven. Two years later Nairac was abducted and killed by the IRA while visiting a republican pub and posing as a member of the organisation. His body has never been found.
William Wesley Somerville (1941 - 1975)
A close friend of Robin Jackson, Somerville and his brother were members of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF, and were part of the infamous Glenanne Gang. Among other crimes, Somerville and his brother were accused of kidnapping, bombing and sectarian attacks and was said to have been with Jackson when the later commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade shot Catholic trade unionist Patrick Campbell on his doorstep in 1973, though the charges were dropped on this, possibly due to Jackson’s being an alleged RUC special agent. Somerville also took part in the Monaghan bombing of 1974.
The brothers were part of the hit squad that night, but Wesley was blown up when the bomb he was trying to plant on the Miami Showband’s van exploded. All that was left of him was an arm with a tattoo, which was how he was later identified as having been one of the bombers. His brother would later be arrested for his part in the attack, but serve only seven years of a life sentence before being released. Wesley Somerville and his accomplice, Harris Boyle, were both given paramilitary funerals by the command of the UVF, who maintained they had acted to defend themselves and Ulster against Catholic bombers (somehow ignoring the fact that half of the band were Protestant).
Harris Boyle (1953 - 1975)
Believed to have been second-in-command of the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF when Billy Hanna was in charge, he held the rank of major and was involved in the Dublin and Monaghan car bombings too. In fact, the bomb used in the Monaghan attack was said to have been assembled in his own house before being transported across the border. He was also believed to be an agent being run by Captain Nairac, and is generally accepted to have been in charge of the ambush on the Miami Showband. He was the second UVF man blown to kingdom come when the bomb went off, but unlike his compatriot, there was nothing left of him to identify him. Nevertheless, he, along with Wesley Sommerville, received a paramilitary funeral by the UVF and was hailed as a hero and a martyr to the Unionist cause.
It was alleged that Nairac - whose presence at the attack has never been confirmed, and much evidence has apparently been presented to show that he was nowhere near it - deliberately made sure the bomb went off, as he wanted to eliminate Boyle due to his role in the killing of Provisional IRA man John Francis Green that January, afraid Boyle was going to inform on him.
In the wake of the attack, the best the fledgling Irish government could do was to summon the British ambassador and convey, in the strongest possible terms, their outrage at the killings and at the failure of the British to prevent their citizens being murdered in the course of entertaining the people of Northern Ireland. I'm sure Sir Arthur Galsworthy, the ambassador at the time, lost a lot of sleep over that dressing-down.
I began this account by calling the Miami Showband massacre a watershed moment, but I suppose that's just me being a little hyperbolic. It's not as if this was an event that brought peace to Northern Ireland, had people out on the streets (except of course in the Republic, mad with anger and grief) or forced new legislation to, I don't know, guarantee the safe passage of bands over the border. In point of fact, nothing changed. The massacre was, surely, forgotten at the time as new attacks were made, reprisals carried out and the bodies piled up as the cycle of violence went on for another twenty years or more. Stark evidence that the revenge killings would not end soon came with the murder of Brian McCoy's brother-in-law Eric Smyth by the IRA, as late as 1996.
However ten years later, a form of reconciliation was enacted as Steve Travers went back to Ulster to meet a UVF paramilitary commander known only as "The Craftsman", who apologised for the attack, telling him that his men had panicked when the bomb went off that night. Appropriately or horribly not so, the meeting took place in a church. Sadly, Thomas Crozier was not so willing to meet Travers, leaving him standing at his door while he refused to answer.
One year later, a memorial to the slain band members was unveiled in Dublin's Parnell Square. Both surviving members attended, as did the Taoiseach. In 2011 journalist Kevin Myers noted of the massacre that
"in its diabolical inventiveness against such a group of harmless and naïve young men, it is easily one of the most depraved [of the Troubles]".
The subsequent HET (Historical Enquiries Team) report, published in 2011, raised questions about the possibility or indeed probability of collusion between the RUC, the British Army and loyalist paramilitary groups like the UVF, though nobody was ever charged based on their findings. For the families of the band, it was at least some vindication that they had been set up, and that the authorities had not only let it happen, but covered it up too.
But though we've had to read an account of horror and death, betrayal and the loss of innocence, murder and sectarian hatred, let's try to end on a slightly positive note. You might expect, that with half of them dead, the band would have folded, but actually the Miami continued gigging - obviously with new members replacing those killed - until 1986, and reformed in 2008. They're still playing today.
So, without meaning in any way to cheapen the loss of life, the meaningless and horrendous and blameless deaths of three young men who had their whole lives ahead of them, I suppose in the end, you might say that no matter what you do, you can't kill the music.