David McCaughey, whose cousin Dougald McCaughey was one of three soldiers murdered by the IRA in a honeytrap plot in 1971, addresses a Stormont event marking European Victims of Terrorism Day on March 10, 2025. Filmed by Iain Gray.
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00:00Fifty-four years ago, I received a phone call. It was from my grandfather.
00:09He phoned our house. We stayed at the Tudor Street in London.
00:16And he phoned my father to tell him my father lived a long and a two and a three place
00:23out in Shorthead and Belfast.
00:28I can remember my dad writing me down.
00:31No, no, no, no.
00:34Couldn't he ask me? My dad was saying on the phone.
00:41I thought back to him. It was just like that.
00:44There was just a silence in the house.
00:49Days and days after.
00:52I can remember people coming to the house.
00:55I think this must have been for a particular thing.
01:00You know what I'm saying?
01:02What would people want?
01:07You've got to put it in your mind.
01:09You've got to put it in your mind about life stories.
01:12That day we three boys, my mother, there was actually five people who died that day.
01:29Two mothers had died that day.
01:31Their hearts ended up broken.
01:34They ended up going to their graves with broken hearts.
01:38I can back to, obviously, the day 54 years ago today.
01:44The boys had been stationed in the barracks in the north of the city.
01:49And they were given an afternoon pass to go down into the city centre.
01:56There was a Mooneys bar, a couple of pints in there, the Abercorn bar.
02:02In between this, they ended up being befriended with other guys.
02:08Mooney was in the Abercorn bar.
02:11They then enticed him to go to another bar called Kelly Sellers, which is in the city centre, with females.
02:23It was an arrival at Kelly Sellers.
02:25There was alcohol flowing, and the females were totally beat up.
02:29Mooney was their newfound friend.
02:32Mooney went to the boys, their newfound friends, to become their executioners.
02:36There was transport arranged.
02:40The boys were asked if they wanted to go to a party.
02:44Two of the boys turned round and said, I will go.
02:49The youngest of them all said, I will go to a joke party.
02:53A joke party was called, and that's what it was at once.
02:55A joke party by three marries, with the two older ones.
03:00They said, no, we will go to this party.
03:02So the boys set out with their friends.