Daughter of Greysteel massacre victim 'had to try to turn into adult overnight'

A daughter of one of the victim of the Greysteel massacre said the smell of the blood in the air on the night of the killings has stayed with her ever since.

Jillian Burns was 14 when her father John was murdered in the attack on the Rising Sun bar. On Monday the community came together to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1993 loyalist attack.

The attack occurred on the eve of Halloween 1993, when gunmen entered the bar and opened fire.

The Greysteel massacre took place a week after nine people were murdered in the IRA’s Shankill bomb, while six more were killed in other attacks.

Among the victims of the attack were Mr Burns, Moira Duddy, Joe McDermott, Victor Montgomery, James Moore, John Moyne, Stephen Mullan and Karen Thompson.

Thirteen more were injured, including Mr Burns’s wife, Nellie.

Speaking ahead of the anniversary Jillian Burns recalled shopping with her dad on the day of the attack: “I remember that we went to H. Samuels where he bought me a wee chain that said: ‘Daddy’s little angel'.

"For some strange reason, and I really don’t know why, but all day I thought something was going to happen."

Jillian explained that her family moved from Greysteel after a series of attacks on their home every marching season, because of their religion, causing them to move frequently.

She continued: "Every Saturday night, my mum and dad went out to the Rising Sun bar at Greysteel for a drink with their friends. It was only time mum and dad drank or socialised, it was their escape for a few hours a week."

Just like a usual Saturday, her parents headed out while Jillian went to her friend Mandy's house.

She recalled a knock on the door, with one man saying 'Jillian, get to the house; there has been a mass shooting in the Rising sun'.

"My first reaction was what the ****, but bolted out the back door to make my way over to the house.  

"I met Mandy, and she told me that both my parents had been shot. I dropped to my knees.

"Mandy and me rang a local taxi man, when the taxi arrived, George immediately told us that daddy was dead, which made me run back to the house where I threw up for a solid hour."

Jillian then got to the hospital, meeting a chaotic scene as emergency services tended to the dead and injured.

"There was the smell of blood in the air and it has stuck with me ever since, there was the sound of screaming and gunshot wounds everywhere," she said. 

"My world had been torn to pieces at the age of just 14, and it didn’t stop there as mummy had also been shot at the scene. She was critical in intensive care.

"It was a strange time for me, having lost my daddy, murdered in cold blood, and knowing that mummy was fighting for fighting for her life."   Jillian attended her mother's bed side twice a day, refraining from telling her about her dad's passing.

"She was too sick to be told and had she known, it would have killed her. 

"She could only communicate with us by writing on a board as she had tubes going down her throat, preventing her from speaking.

" I remember her writing down a message asking how daddy was, but all I could tell her not to worry as someone was sitting with him.

"I think that she knew though, because she lifted her arms in the air and then dropped them on the bed, it broke my heart."

Jillian having not slept since the day of the attack, described herself a "a child on auto mode," by the time her dad's funeral came around.

“Following the funeral, I was facing a future and didn’t know what it held in store for me.

"All of these questions were buzzing around my head whilst at the same time, I didn’t even know if mummy was going to make it. 

"How was I going to make it without daddy, why did this happen to us, why wasn’t this stopped, have I even got a future? 

"My mum was still critical, we had just buried my dad and my head was finding it impossible to soak up everything that was going on around me.  

"I had to realise that I needed to forget my teenage years and grow up fast; I lost out on my late childhood because of the circumstances.

"I was a 14-year-old girl who had to try turn into an adult overnight."

Jillian's mum, who was injured in the attack had 174 operations and was confined to a chair for four years.

The UDA, using the cover name of the UFF, admitted responsibility for the massacre.

Four men received life sentences for the murders - Jeffrey Deeney, Stephen Irwin, Torrens Knight and Brian McNeill. They were later released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) supports a number of those directly impacted by the events of Greysteel.

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF’s director stated: “Eight innocents perished as a result if the Greysteel massacre, seven on the night and an eight six months later. These individuals came from a cross-section of our community and their murders sent shockwaves near and far.

“Those who committed that atrocity will claim that it was revenge for the Shankill attack one week earlier, the truth is that the murders were motivated by sectarian hatred.

“The scenes and imagery following recent UFF terror attacked will remain etched in the minds of many, but particularly those directly impeded; the survivors, the bereaved families, and the first responders.

“Halloween is marked by many people as a time to dress up, to enjoy fireworks and to come together as a community but there is also a darker side to Hallowe’en, that darkest evil was present in Greysteel and the streaking away of innocent human life was the consequence.

“We acknowledge the dignity of the Greysteel families down the years and their efforts to survive and to build positive legacies honouring their loved ones.

“SEFF representatives will be present on Monday night to show solidarity with all those impacted, Greysteel was wrong and without justification, just as the Shankill bomb was and all other innocents who perished over that horrific week in our history but also those others murdered before Shankill and after Greysteel,” concluded Mr Donaldson.

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