Horror at Wolfhill recalled 50 years on

FIFTY-years-ago this month over a thousand people gathered in Antrim to follow the coffins of the latest innocent victims of paramilitary terror.

Even by the standards of the day, when violent death was still very much a fact of life, the brutal murder of three women in February 1976 sent shockwaves across the province.

Mary Sloan, who ran a popular family butchers in Antrim for many years, had settled down in front of the television that Sunday evening.

It had been a tough spell for the family, just weeks after raiders had burst into their isolated farmhouse at Wolfhill near Ligoniel and made off with £1,500 - more than £10,000 today.

But the 50-year-old seemed relaxed that night as she chatted with her daughter Mary (19) and neighbour Doris McGrath (23).

And Doris was excited. Her husband, who served in the army, was due back on leave the following day.

But unbeknownst to them, word of the robbery had spread.

A witness later recalled seeing two cars travelling in opposite directions along the road near the Sloan residence. They flashed their lights, and then one of the car turned and followed the other towards the house.

A short time later both cars were back, hurtling along at high speed before going their separate ways.

In the interim, a group of ‘four or five’ men had entered the property - and they were armed and clearly had been drinking.

They forced Mary’s 20-year-old son Michael upstairs to retrieve cash, while guns were trained on the terrified women.

Michael handed over all the money they had - around £600 in notes and cheques - but the gunmen were not satisfied and demanded more, striking him with the hand gun.

They then began systematically ransacking the bedrooms, threatening an elderly aunt who was in bed.

They also barged into his 17-year-old sister’s room. Bridget had been in bed doing homework when she heard a commotion on the stairs. Seconds later a man was pointing a gun at her face.

He ordered her to pull the blankets over her head and she complied. The search complete, he left.

Back on the landing, the gunmen were grilling Michael. He was asked his religion, and when he told them he was Catholic, he was struck again.

He was then forced to lie face down on the floor and was shot in the head and back. They left him for dead, but Michael had miraculously survived - and he heard the shooting begin downstairs.

So did Bridget, and she went downstairs to witness a scene of unimaginable horror.

Mrs McGrath, who was a Protestant, had been shot five times. Mary had been hit seven times and her daughter, four.

All perished. They had been killed for just £600. Life was that cheap.

A neighbour, who had heard the shots, was on the scene within minutes and tried to raise the alarm. The phone lines, however, had been pulled from the wall so he had to break into another house to telephone for an ambulance.

For some, the triple tragedy was too much to bear.

“I have lost a daughter. I am shocked that such a terrible and horrific thing should happen,” said Mrs McGrath’s father.

Local priest James Downey, who administered the Last Rites, said the living room had been ‘splattered with blood’.

“The people who did this terrible crime should be made to see the way the family is today,” he said.

“What a terrible shock this will be for Mrs McGrath’s husband. They were to have had a family reunion today.”

Dr Arthur Butler, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, also spoke of his ‘revulsion’.

“Whatever the motive this is one of the most shameful and cowardly deeds in our long catalogue of horror,” he said.

“Many people outside Northern Ireland may already have written us off as being without any remaining vestiges of civilisation.

“Such killers as last night and people who might think of revenge must not be allowed to wield their brutal power.”

Thomas Passmore, the Belfast Orange Order leader, urged anyone with information to ‘do the right thing’.

“This latest horror spells out the need for the removal of the psychopathic gangsters from our streets,” he said.

“Until such time as these people are behind bars no man, woman or child is safe. We must help the police to help us.”

Thoughts of the ongoing police investigation were put to one side, though, while the families prepared to bury their dead.

On Wednesday, February 18 the people of Antrim turned out in their droves to offer their condolences - and their support.

Michael Sloan, in a wheelchair, was allowed out from hospital for the Requiem Mass at St Comgall’s Church.

Mass was celebrated by five priests, one of whom was a cousin - Rev Stephen Sloan, a Benedictine monk who had travelled over from Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland.

Dr William Philbin, Bishop of Down and Connor, presided over the Mass.

Doris McGrath was laid to rest that day too at Antrim Cemetery.

Michael returned to hospital to continue his long recovery - and it was he who provided the first breakthrough in the case.

During a bedside interview with police he was shown a series of photographs and there among them was a face he recognised.

The following month a 32-year-old Belfast man appeared before a special court in Antrim charged with three counts of murder.

Then in May, his sister Bridget picked a 27-year-old from the Shankill from an identification parade. It was the gunman who had visited her room.

“His face has lived with me,” she said.

Afterwards, he walked past police officers and, shrugging his shoulders, said ‘you got me’.

He too was charged.

But when the case was finally heard, the pair pleaded not guilty.

Crown counsel told the court that the UDA had ‘received most of the money’ stolen that grim night in February ‘76.

It also emerged that one of the men had told police that he had been ‘involved in a small way’ - but could not elaborate ‘because of fear of the UDA’.

One of the accused was also heard to remark: “They were only Fenians.”

The evidence continued to pile up, however, and eventually both men asked to be re-arraigned.

This time, the older man pleaded guilty to all three murders.

Sentencing him to 30 years, Mr Justice O’Donnell said he should serve the full term.

“You have pleaded guilty to murdering three innocent women. Whatever your intention was in going to this house, whether it was to commit burglary or robbery, it ended up as a massacre and had a sectarian basis.

“It was a terrible and terrifying crime.”

His accomplice was sentenced to 20 years when he admitted the manslaughter of all three women.

The judge said that there were degrees of manslaughter, but added that this was ‘one of the worst cases’ he had encountered.

Fifty years on, the Sloan and McGrath families continue to serve their own life sentences.

But local people have not forgotten - and some have taken to social media to mark the anniversary.

“Mrs Sloan was a lovely, friendly lady, who had a shop in the centre of Antrim town, opposite Bridge St,” said one.

“Back in 1970-71 Mrs Sloan gave me a ten shilling note for Bob-a-Job, for cleaning the front and back windows of the shop and told me, if I come back every Friday and cleaned the windows that she would give me the ten shillings.”

Another said that his mind often returned to the ‘brutal murder’.

He said that the Sloan family were not political, and had many friends across the community.

He also recalled that the Sloans were animal lovers, and had horses with a top breeder on the Seven Mile Straight.

He added that ‘no-one knows’ what became of Michael and Brigid. They may well have moved away - and who could blame them - but as February comes around each year, memories of the tragedy undoubtedly take them back to that dreadful night at Wolfhill.