24 March 1922: The McMahon Murders in Belfast OTD. Owen McMahon, together with four of his sons (aged between 15 and 26 years) and a barman who was present during the attack at the family’s home in north Belfast were shot dead in the early hours of 24 March 1922.  He was a prosperous pub owner from north Belfast, his sons Bernard, Frank, Patrick and Gerard and a barman Edward McKinney were all shot dead in an incident which caused international outrage and forced the intervention of the British prime minister David Lloyd-George.

The culprits were almost certainly members of the state-sponsored ‘Ulster Special Constabulary’, the most notorious section of which was the B-Specials. There had already been a number of concerted attacks on republicans and Catholics generally, much of it directed in Belfast by Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) District Inspector John Nixon, whose men operated out of police barracks at Brown Square, near the city centre. It is generally accepted that it was this unit that planned and executed the McMahon attack.

McMahon was one of the wealthiest Catholics in Belfast, where he had business and leisure ties with middle-class Protestants. His home was situated in the predominantly Protestant neighbourhood of Thorndale, an affluent section of the city. The deliberate executions of these respectable members of the Catholic business class were carried out to send a chilling message to others from the same background - none of you are safe.

Joe Devlin, the leader of the northern Nationalists at that time was angered and outraged by these brutal murders.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 28 March, two days after the burial of most of the victims, Devlin felt it appropriate to declare that the assassinations had ‘shocked almost the entire world’. He even read from a leading unionist paper, the Belfast Telegraph, which described the deed as ‘the most terrible assassination that has yet stained the name of Belfast’.

The funeral of McMahon and his sons attracted at least ten thousand mourners, among whom were members of the Catholic political and clerical elite. Protestants, particularly from the business community, were also in attendance.¹The event served as a rallying point for a Catholic community that was now more alarmed than ever. The number and the range of mourners bore witness to Owen McMahon’s social status in the community. In his Commons speech, Devlin would protest that this ‘leading merchant in the City of Belfast’ was beyond reproach, ‘the most unoffending citizen’. 

Ireland 1922 edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry

Picture of the Virgin Mary that was in the McMahon home on the night of the murders.