User reviews

Documentary focusing on the 1975 murder of three members of the Miami showband by the UVF and British military at the Northern Ireland border. The documentary is mainly narrated by the two survivors of the band who were present at the bombing/shooting. The doc focusing on the event and uncovering who orchestrated the attach and why. With the contentious times between the uvf and ira in Northern Ireland; it appears that the event was intended to get government officials to close the border. The doc is well put together and provides insight into the killings, background on the surrounding conflict, and interviews with people in the militaries.

I believe this came in at around 70 minutes in length. It feels sort of in-between a true documentary and something that VH1 would have put out back in the day. The jump to the massacre is very quick - - I actually would have liked to known more about the band itself. The concept of what an Irish showband was was foreign to me. The claim of them being the Irish Beatles (which I'm not sure if even the surviving members considered to be valid) really isn't established. For me it was on the 6/7 border in terms of rating - - nudged it to the higher of the two because of the humanity of Stephen Travers, which in many ways becomes what the documentary is truly about.

I grew up during the troubles, even had bomb attacks in more than one home town. At the time we were fed news stories that the IRA were monsters, and the British authorities were protecting us the best they could. Then Maggie Thatcher let the special forces run rampant with her blessing, murder and execution without trial became state sanctioned. Little did we know; It turns out that we'd already been at it for a decade before, patsy's and intelligence plots and plans were already in the armoury and being used to the max. Let's remember, MI6 trained the CIA in their early days. The shame and anger I feel is very real, my distrust of Labour and Tory leaders all the more amplified, after all, these are privileged politicians exacting plans on the powerless and innocent for some kind of political advantage. Ken Livingstone, an outside member of the ruling elite raised questions he was poo poo'd for, but was dead right. Steven Travers, the bass player and relentless pursuer of the truth has almost, finally, been vindicated and proven right. I really hope he has his day in court pointing a finger at the guilty. And I hope that he's joined by all of the discredited British intelligence operatives that spoke out because they knew it was crooked and wrong, submitting detailed reports that proved as much, but were ignored and then discredited by the British authorities. I am a British subject, and I feel nothing but guilt.

..documentary about one of the many tragic episodes during "the troubles "

Which includes some interesting allegations against the British government

The remastered series is overall speaing really enticing and interesting. It's just that they maybe should call the series "unsolved". Everything depicted or shown in these investigations is always interesting and to degree sometimes despicable or just plain unbelievable - and in this case you wonder how certain things could happen and others had not been questioned.

So having someone going in, shining a light on these things is really something noble. But apart from that the overall "short" running time also helps keep audiences interested in what happens or rather what happened. Documentaries are on the rise and the Remastered series is riding that wave smoothly ...

Poignant documentary covering the senseless atrack on Ireland's top showband, recounted by surviving members. The loss of life for the murdered was one thing but the effect on the surviving was also tragic.

Great suspense. Although some facts regarding the English officer may have been updated. The truth hiding in secret files should have already been revealed. The cost to families affected and the money cost of seemingly pointless investigations is a true black mark on British governing bodies. #Bloodysunday

If people still wont believe that secret part's of government agencies in the western world (MI5/CIA), won't kill the innocent to push agenda's on the public, this may change their minds!

A doco that needed to be told, well done. The search to find the actual truth.

The Miami Showband was a popular band in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. One night, while traveling back into the Irish Republic, they were targeted and stopped by the UVF (Protestant paramilitary volunteers) while crossing the border. When the stop went bad, the band members were shot and left for dead.

This documentary follows the investigation into this tragedy and the original dark plan of the UVF. It discusses the involvement of the British government with the UVF, and it shines a spotlight on the tactics used against the Irish separatists.

This is a great movie if you're curious about the troubles or want to educate yourself against potential government overreach.

I really didn't know much of the story of the Miami Showband Massacre although I probably saw it on the news at the time when it would have been just one of dozens of items documenting the many atrocities carried out on both the Protestant and Catholic sides during the Irish Troubles of the 70s.

After a brief potted history of the band where their national popularity sees them described as the Irish Beatles, the story is related of the horrifying and fatal attack in July 1975 carried out on their tour bus on their way home after playing a gig. At two o'clock in the morning, they were stopped by what appeared to be a group of British Army soldiers at a checkpoint. In reality however, it turned out that the uniformed men were in fact disguised members of the paramilitary representatives of the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force or UVF for short. The plan was to plant a timed bomb on their bus which would go off shortly afterwards on their journey, to kill everybody on board and presumably see the group posthumously scapegoated as arms smugglers for the IRA. However the bomb went off accidentally, killing two of the terrorists, at which point the rest of the gang turned their guns on the band members killing three of them although two others managed to escape in the confusion.

The programme then concentrates on the campaign ever since for justice initiated by the group's surviving bass-player Stephen Travers, along with his bandmate Des Lee. Their dogged persistence leads them to conclude that the ambush was led by a British army officer whose identity the British government has consistently covered up down the years. In addition, two other insiders with British Army and Intelligence connections aiding them were discredited and either committed to a mental hospital or even framed for murder and put in jail.

The hope obviously was that the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1999 and the resultant amnesty for all the "political" prisoners on both sides of the religious divide might see the release of evidence to finally explain what happened on that fateful night. It did indeed seem that a British Army captain, murdered by the IRA 2 years later, was involved in the massacre and that a UVF leader at the time, suspected of many other killings, also never answered for this crime in which he was heavily implicated.

I was moved by the dedication of the surviving band members to get to the truth of what happened to their colleagues despite the pain that has stayed with them ever since the events of that night.

I can't deny that the programme was slanted to a greater or lesser degree to make a particular point and one can argue that there are many similarly unresolved cases of atrocities carried out by the IRA also deserving of a documentary programme like this.

None of which however can justify the slaughter of these three young men of an innocent popular mixed-religion pop group whose only purpose was to entertain their fans on both sides of the border.

Made in 2018 I'm not aware of any significant subsequent breakthrough since this documentary was made, in the campaign for the truth. I suspect this is just one of many cases where the truth remains concealed no doubt for reasons of "national security" and the desire not to jeopardise the subsequent power-sharing peace which has subsisted between Northern Ireland and Eire since then.

That may be all well and good in an abstract sense, but I'm pretty sure that if I had lived through something like this I too would be unstinting in my attempts to get to the truth. The two survivals here plus of course the families of the deceased surely deserve as much.