Victim’s brother still seeks ‘closure’ over Teebane massacre

As relatives of the survivors and the deceased prepared last week to attend Sunday’s anniversary service which was held close to the spot where the men were murdered two decades ago, a brother of Teebane victim Robert ‘Bobbie’ Irons, said that ‘closure’ was needed by the families in the form of a full public inquiry into the atrocity.

Known as the Teebane Massacre, named after the crossroads where the IRA detonated the fatal 600lb roadside bomb, local men, Robert Irons (61) and Nigel McKee (22) were among the eight Protestant workers who died on January 17, 1992.

They were killed outright along with William Gary Bleeks (35) from Cookstown, Cecil James (Jimmy) Caldwell (37) from Cookstown, Robert Dunseith (25) from Magherafelt, David Harkness (23) from Cookstown, and John Richard McConnell (38) from Doagh, while Magherafelt man Oswald Gilchrist, died from his injuries four days later.

Six others were badly injured in the blast, which tore through the Karl Construction minibus in which they were travelling, at approximately 5.30pm.

Reports from the scene, on the main Omagh to Cookstown Road, suggested the bomb, which was heard up to 10 miles away, had been detonated by an observer who was able to watch as the van approached a culvert. It was reported at the time that police had discovered a command wire running from the culvert to a vantage point about 100 yards away.

Twenty years on and James Irons says that he still feels let down by the government over it’s refusal to hold a full public inquiry into the tragedy which took the lives of eight civilian workmen and injured six others.

The Ballymena man revealed that he sent correspondence to Owen Paterson late last year on the issue asking for his help in holding a full public inquiry into the IRA murders.

Mr Irons said: “We have been told time and time again that there will not be an inquiry into Teebane, but the fact of the matter is that these men were murdered and no-one has ever been questioned by police.

“I have confronted numerous politicians and asked them for their help over the years but it’s like hitting a brick wall.

“You only have to look at the help that the Finucane family have received from Stormont to see how different Teebane has been treated. We are the forgotten ones.”

In 2007 Mr Irons demanded a reopening of the investigation into the Teebane massacre after claims the police refused to act on viable DNA evidence. He said at the time that sweet wrappers and a detonator found at the scene of the attack obtained DNA evidence, yet no one has ever been arrested in connection with the murders.

“There were people that should’ve been brought in and questioned that weren’t,” said Mr Irons.

“That is something that needs to be looked at extensively. We want closure on the whole thing and the only way that can happen is if a full public inquiry is held into the slaughter of these innocent men”.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army‘s (IRA) Tyrone Brigade later claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying that the workers were killed because they were ‘collaborating’ with the ‘forces of occupation’.

In a statement after the murders, Prime Minister John Major expressed horror over the bombing, but added: “A policy of bombing is odious, contemptible and cowardly and will never change the Government’s policy in Northern Ireland.”