WATCH: Derry launch of ‘The Killing of the Reavey Brothers: British Murder and Cover-up in Northern Ireland’

Eugene Reavey Derry launched his no holds barred book ‘The Killing of the Reavey Brothers: British Murder and Cover-up in Northern Ireland’, in which he names, for the first time, the men who murdered his brothers.

The launch took place in St Columb’s Hall as part of the Bloody Sunday March Committee’s programme of commemorative events marking the 54th anniversary of the murders.

On January 4, 1976, three of Eugene Reavey’s brothers - John Martin, Brian and Anthony - were shot by the UVF at their family home in Whitecross, South Armagh.

John Martin and Brian died instantly, and Anthony, who had been making a good recovery, died in mysterious circumstances on January 30, 1976, leaving their family shattered and a community in shock.

In conversation with Jim Keyes, co-ordinator of Gaslight Media Trust, and Ken Murray, who ghost wrote the meticulously researched ‘The Killing of the Reavey Brothers’, Eugene Reavey outlined the disturbing circumstances around Anthony’s death.

It was just one of many disquieting revelations of the evening, during which the Birmingham pub bombings and the activities of the infamous Glenanne gang and British intelligence services were discussed.

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Speaking to The Derry News, Mr Reavey explained why for almost five decades, he had fought persistently for “truth and justice” for his brothers.

He said: “My father was on his death bed in 1981, five years after the shooting of his sons, during which time he had had 14 heart attacks. He just was worn out. And he said to me, ‘Do you know who shot our boys?’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t. I’ve heard bits of rumours but I don’t know’.

“‘I’m going to tell you,’ he said, ‘but first of all you have to promise me you will never tell these names because I don’t want any more shooting or anybody to die because of our boys. I don’t want that’.

“He gave me five names and I knew the five names. And he said, ‘I am only telling you this so that in years to come you will know if there is no justice’.

“And then he said, ‘Eugene will you try and get justice for the boys?’ And I said, ‘I will daddy. Don’t you worry, inside five years I’ll have sorted it out’

“Unfortunately, this year was the 50th anniversary of and I am as far on now as I was when I started,” he added, “because the [British] Government keeps shifting the goalposts, with all the legacy bodies.

“So were are back in court and when the Crown turned to court they had nothing, no documents, nothing. There had been no investigation of my brothers’ murders. There was a page and a half of a file on my brothers.

“When the HET (Historical Enquiries Team) came, they found out there were no day books in Newtownhamillton, there were none in Bessbrook and there were none in Newry - three major police stations around my area, and there were no records for January 4 (1976) or January 5 (1976) - Kingsmills.

“When we went over to Kew in London to see if we could find any documentation, there was nothing, everything was redacted - the Reavey killings, the O’Dowd killings and the Kingsmills killings.”

It was then Eugene Reavey was informed there was an 84 year embargo on his files, form day one. This also applies to Kingsmills and the O’Dowd killings.

Revealing the chilling reason he wrote ‘The Killing of the Reavey Brothers’ with Eugene Reavey, Ken Murray said he had been fascinated by the Glenanne gang since he was a 12-year-old boy back in 1974.

“My sister worked in the Department of Education in Dublin and on the evening of the Dublin - Monaghan bombings (May 17, 1974) she came out of the Department of Education and was heading up Marlborough Street.

“But for the fact she stopped to say hello to a friend of hers who was coming in the opposite direction, it’s ninety-nine percent certain she would have walked into the Parnell Street bomb,” said Mr Murray.

“I remember that night particularly well because my mother was in a terrible state. There were no phonelines into Dublin. They were all down. My sister should have been home at half six. By nine o’clock she wasn’t home. It was chaos. There was panic. There were tears. Eventually she got home but it was a scare.

“Ever since May 1974, I have been fascinated by the Dublin - Monaghan bombings because as we have subsequently learned, the UVF was able to explode bombs in Dublin and Monaghan with a firepower that was never seen before or since.

“As books and documentaries came out, it became quite clear the Glenanne gang, as it was called, was working hand in hand with British military intelligence and then details have come out about Robert Nairac.

“After the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, we had the Miami Showband massacre in July 1975. A similar story - bomb goes off and everyone is asking ‘Why would the band be targeted?’ So I have been fascinated by the Glenanne gang.

“I got to know Stephen Travers, a survivor of the Miami Showband massacre, from reporting the various campaigns undertaken by the Justice for the Forgotten organisation.

“He read the book I had written about Dana, ‘All Kinds of Everything’ and enjoyed it because it was all about the music industry. Stephen kept saying to Eugene, ‘Eugene you have to get your story down on paper’ and he recommended me to Eugene as a person who wanted to get justice for those who can’t get justice,” said Mr Murray.

Eugene Reavey and Ken Murray began writing ‘The Killing of the Reavey Brothers’ in 2017 but covid delayed the process for three years.

“The amount of research we undertook - books, documents, reports - we went through mountains of material,” said Mr Murray, “because this is one of the murkiest stories of all.

“The O’Dowd’s were killed at the same time, then the Reaveys, then Kingsmills a mile away, and as the story came to light, I realised there was something big here. So that is what drew me to Eugene’s story.”