Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 24 minutes ago
On the 14th of November 1992, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, launched an attack on James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A gunman fired on the customers with an assault rifle, while another threw a grenade inside. Three civilians were killed and thirteen wounded. The shop was in a Catholic and Irish nationalist area, and all of the victims were local Catholics. The attack was likened to the Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting carried out by the UDA earlier that year.In the afternoon of 14 November 1992 two UDA men entered James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in a mainly Catholic area of north Belfast. One gunman, allegedly Stephen McKeag,opened fire on the customers with a vz. 58 assault rifle. Another man, reportedly C Company's second-in-command, threw a Soviet-made fragmentation grenade, shouting "Youse deserve it, youse Fenian bastards" as he did so.[5] Two Catholics, Francis Burns (52) and Peter Orderly (47) were killed outright, while John Lovett (72) died of his wounds in hospital the following day. Lovett was a Second World War veteran who had survived torture in a Japanese camp as an RAF prisoner of war, and reportedly shouted "keep your calm" during the attack.Although it was in a Catholic area, some Protestants frequented the betting shop, and one was among the several wounded in the attack. The killers escaped in a hijacked taxi which was found abandoned less than 200 metres away at Beechpark Place.The attack was reportedly followed by "a raucous celebration in a loyalist club in south Belfast with Johnny Adair occupying centre stage"
On the 14th of November 1992, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, launched an attack on James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A gunman fired on the customers with an assault rifle, while another threw a grenade inside. Three civilians were killed and thirteen wounded. The shop was in a Catholic and Irish nationalist area, and all of the victims were local Catholics. The attack was likened to the Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting carried out by the UDA earlier that year.In the afternoon of 14 November 1992 two UDA men entered James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in a mainly Catholic area of north Belfast. One gunman, allegedly Stephen McKeag,opened fire on the customers with a vz. 58 assault rifle. Another man, reportedly C Company's second-in-command, threw a Soviet-made fragmentation grenade, shouting "Youse deserve it, youse Fenian bastards" as he did so.[5] Two Catholics, Francis Burns (52) and Peter Orderly (47) were killed outright, while John Lovett (72) died of his wounds in hospital the following day. Lovett was a Second World War veteran who had survived torture in a Japanese camp as an RAF prisoner of war, and reportedly shouted "keep your calm" during the attack.Although it was in a Catholic area, some Protestants frequented the betting shop, and one was among the several wounded in the attack. The killers escaped in a hijacked taxi which was found abandoned less than 200 metres away at Beechpark Place.The attack was reportedly followed by "a raucous celebration in a loyalist club in south Belfast with Johnny Adair occupying centre stage"
