SURVIVORS of a loyalist gun attack on a Co. Down pub 34 years ago have today received a multi-million pound settlement.
Peter McCormack, 42, was shot dead and three others were injured when the UVF attacked the Thierafurth Inn in Kilcoo on November 19, 1992 during a charity darts tournament.
While the exact amount of compensation has not been disclosed, it will be paid by the PSNI and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), who will also cover legal costs.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald welcomed the judgement, saying it came 'against huge resistance from the British State'.
The legal action came in the wake of a 2016 report from the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland (PONI).
The report said the RUC failed to disrupt the activities of the UVF gang responsible despite previous attacks in the area and criticised the failure to circulate intelligence.
It also said the gang had used British Army intelligence material to plan the attack while there was intelligence suggesting that one of the suspects was a member of the army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).
Meanwhile, in 2022, the High Court ruled that the police had failed to carry out an effective investigation into the attack.
Three people were arrested in 2024 in connection with the incident but were subsequently released and no one has ever been charged.
While welcoming today's settlement, Ms McDonald said it did not compensate for the failure to secure justice for the victims and their loved ones.
"The families have remained undeterred in pursuing truth and legal accountability," she said.
"While compensation has rightly been awarded by the PSNI and MoD, the UVF perpetrators have not been held to account before the law.
"I wish to extend solidarity to the survivors of the attack and the family of Peter McCormack who was sadly murdered."
'Evidence of state collusion is overwhelming'
Party colleague Chris Hazzard, MP for South Down, similarly praised the survivors and families for their determination to achieve accountability for the attack.
"Today's settlement by the Ministry of Defence with the families of the Thierafurth Inn attack is a landmark victory for truth over decades of state concealment," he said.
"Above all, I pay tribute to the dignity, courage and determination of the families and survivors. For almost 34 years, they have carried the burden of this campaign with extraordinary resilience.
"While no settlement can ever bring back Peter McCormack or erase the trauma suffered by those present that night, today represents a powerful public vindication of their pursuit of truth.
"The British Government has been forced into this settlement because the evidence of state collusion is overwhelming.
"What happened at the Thierafurth Inn in November 1992 was not an isolated failure, it was part of a wider, institutionalised system of collusion.
"The facts expose the reality of Britain's dirty war in our community.
"The weapon used came from the 1987 Ulster Resistance South African arms shipment, while the RUC Special Branch had intelligence that loyalists were targeting the Thierafurth Inn.
"The impunity afforded to those responsible helped create the conditions for the Loughinisland massacre less than two years later, with the same weapons, protected agents and institutional cover-up linking both atrocities.
"For years, successive British governments used every mechanism available, from public interest immunity certificates to the Legacy Act to block truth and shield state agencies from accountability. Today, the families have broken through that wall of secrecy.
"I stand in solidarity with the families. Their perseverance has shown that no matter how long the truth is suppressed, it cannot be buried forever.
"We will continue to support them, and all families, in their pursuit of truth, justice and accountability."
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