A unit of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade drove to the staunchly republican village and shot dead three Provisional IRA members and a Catholic civilian at Boyle's Bar.

Although nobody was ever charged in connection with the killings, it was widely believed by nationalists and much of the press that the attack had been planned and led by Billy Wright, the leader of the Mid-Ulster Brigade's Portadown unit.

Unable to get into the bar, a UVF gunman shot through a high open toilet window killing local civilian, Thomas Armstrong (50) and badly wounding a 21-year-old man.

[6] The statement concluded with the promise that "if the Provisional IRA were to cease its campaign of terror, the Ulster Volunteer Force would no longer deem it necessary to continue with their military operations".

According to investigative journalist Paul Larkin in his book A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy and cover-up in Northern Ireland, a UVF volunteer who also participated in the Cappagh attack alleged that the other gunmen were forced to drag Wright into the car as he had become so frenzied once he had started shooting that he didn't want to stop.

[4] Whatever the truth of his involvement it was the Cappagh killings that propelled the still shadowy figure of "King Rat" into the popular media and his nickname soon became a by-word for UVF violence as a result of the attack.

[10] The shootings took place in an area that is strongly republican with a notable IRA tradition and presence; accordingly, the locals were suspicious of strangers or unusual activity.

Moreover, the lack of roadblocks following the emergency call which had allowed the gunmen to flee in the getaway car through winding country backroads that were difficult to access and exit if one was not familiar with them led journalist Peter Taylor to allege that the UVF unit probably received help from the security forces.

[4] Taylor suggested that the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was the authority in the best position to have known the exact movements of the IRA and to have passed-on the relevant information to the UVF hit squad.

[6] In 2020 a Historical Enquiries Team report released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) revealed that intelligence had been received some time after the attack which named three serving UDR soldiers as responsible for the killings.

Wright formed the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in 1996, after he and his Portadown unit were stood down by the UVF Brigade Staff for breaking the group's ceasefire.

[16] Sands added that the attack had been planned hastily, based on intelligence that a meeting of the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade was taking place at the bar.

Members of the RUC's "Inner Force", as Sands named those he claimed to be in league with the committee, had met with Wright in Dungannon and quickly drew up plans for the attack.

[17] Sands would later claim that ten UVF members had been involved in the attack and that this had constituted the entirety of the "Rat Pack", as Wright's hit team was known.

[20] The Provisional IRA initially did not acknowledge that three of the victims were within its ranks, apparently with the aim of garnering sympathy from the wider world (particularly in the Republic) towards nationalists in Northern Ireland.