The daughter of a man killed in a loyalist gun attack in Derry 50 years ago has called for the police investigation to be re-examined.
Michael McGinley was one of five men – four Catholics and a Protestant – were shot and killed in Annie’s Bar on 20 December 1972.
His daughter, Gillian McElholm, said reopening the case could help to bring justice for the men and their families.
No one has ever been brought to justice for the shootings.
The five men – Michael McGinley, 37; Charles McCafferty, 32; Charles Moore, 31; Frank McCarron, 58; and 26-year-old Bernard Kelly – had been watching a football match when UDA gunmen opened fire with a sub-machine gun and a pistol.
Four other people were wounded in the sectarian attack.
Some of the victims’ families met with the PSNI district commander for Derry City and Strabane Chief Supt Nigel Goddard last week.
Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle, Ms McElholm said she was just seven months old when her father was killed as he sat in the bar.
She said her family described him as “a lovely man” who was “very approachable”.
“He was actually playing with me the night before he actually went to the bar,” Ms McElholm said.
“I never got the first Christmas with him, he never got that first Christmas with me.”
Ms McElholm said that “everything was ripped away from their family” when her father was killed.
She said she would love to find out who killed her father and wants to know how anyone “could actually feel going in and doing that, knowing they had ripped so many lives apart”.
Ms McElholm said she now wants the investigation into the killings to be reopened by the police.
She also said she is against the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill.
The legacy bill offers a conditional amnesty to those accused of killings and other Troubles-related crimes.
The bill was first introduced to the House of Commons in May and passed its second reading in the House of Lords in late November.
Ms McElholm believes if the bill is brought into law, she fears their family and other victims’ families “may not get closure”.
Ms McElholm added that a lot of families need closure, particularly as relatives are getting older.
“My uncle, he sits and thinks about it all the time, that was his brother.
“He saw his brother dying… that is the last memory of his brother and he will go to his own grave with that memory.”
In a statement, the police said that the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) completed a review into the murders at the Top of The Hill Bar on the Strabane Old Road on December 20, 1972.
“No new investigative opportunities were identified as a result of that review,” they said.
“While the case does not form part of the current caseload of Legacy Investigation Branch, any new information about these murders should be brought to the attention of police.
“Where credible investigative lines of inquiry are identified, capable of leading to the identification and prosecution of suspects, these will be considered.”
Nigel Goddard and members from the Legacy Investigation Branch (LIB) met with relatives of four of the men killed in Annie’s Bar.
The senior officer said they “would endeavour to have open lines of communication” and have agreed to meet again in the new year.
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