Sean Graham bookmakers’ shooting

5 February 1992

On 5 February 1992, a mass shooting took place at the Sean Graham bookmaker‘s shop on the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, opened fire on the customers, killing five civilians and wounding another nine. The shop was in an Irish nationalist area, and all of the victims were local Catholic civilians. The UDA claimed responsibility using the cover name “Ulster Freedom Fighters”, and said the shooting was retaliation for the Teebane bombing, which had been carried out by the Provisional IRA less than three weeks before

Background

Ulster Freedom Fighters insignia in the Annadale Flats area, January 2012

The start of 1992 had witnessed an intensification in the campaign of violence being carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) under their UFF covername. The group’s first…