1. Harris Boyle was an Ulster Defence Regiment soldier and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisation.
20 Facts About Harris Boyle
1. 2.
Harris Boyle was one of the two gunmen killed when the bomb they were loading onto the band's minibus exploded prematurely.
3.
Harris Boyle was born in Portadown, County Armagh, and grew up in the working-class Killycomain estate.
4.
Harris Boyle was raised as a Protestant and attended Edenderry Primary School.
5.
Harris Boyle held the rank of major in the latter organisation, which at the time was commanded by Billy Hanna.
6.
The Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre documentary about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which was broadcast by Yorkshire Television in 1993 maintained that Harris Boyle was second-in-command to Hanna.
7.
Harris Boyle was charged with the possession of weapons and ammunition in suspicious circumstances on 9 September 1972 when he was 19 years old.
8.
Harris Boyle was implicated in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974.
9.
Harris Boyle's allegations were published in 2003 in the Barron Report which was the findings of the official investigation into the bombings by Irish Supreme Court Justice Barron.
10.
Former British soldier and psychological warfare operative Colin Wallace confirmed that Harris Boyle had "close social links" to Captain Nairac.
11.
John Weir alleged that Harris Boyle was part of the Glenanne gang who shot a PIRA volunteer dead near Castleblaney, County Monaghan on 10 January 1975.
12.
Harris Boyle was one of the Mid-Ulster Brigade UVF gang that carried out the attack against the popular Irish cabaret band, the Miami Showband on 31 July 1975.
13.
Author Martin Dillon suggested in his book God and the Gun: the Church and Irish Terrorism that Harris Boyle was one of the leaders of the unit.
14.
At least four of the other men, like Harris Boyle, were serving members of the UDR.
15.
Saxophonist Des McAlea, who survived the attack, later testified that Harris Boyle had become angry at some of the other gunmen who had joked with the band members about the success of their performance that night.
16.
Harris Boyle's body landed in the road, fifty yards away from the front half of the destroyed vehicle.
17.
Harris Boyle was unmarried and worked as a telephone wireman.
18.
Major Harris Boyle ordered his patrol to apprehend the occupants for questioning.
19.
The RTE programme Today Tonight aired a 1987 documentary in which it was claimed that former UVF associates of Harris Boyle revealed to the programme that Nairac detonated the bomb deliberately at Buskhill in order to eliminate Harris Boyle, with whom he had carried out the Green assassination.
20.
The plaque describes Harris Boyle as having been "killed in action", which he was not.