In 1988 both the UVF and the UDA had stepped up their campaigns against the Nationalist community, in part due to receiving a large arms shipment of handguns and assault rifles from South Africa.

On 15 January the UVF shot dead Catholic civilian Billy Kane at his home in the New Lodge.

The first attack occurred on the 1 November 1973, a car bomb detonated outside the bar killing a Catholic pensioner, Francis McNelis (65).

[6] The three victims were Stephen McGahan (27), from the New Lodge, Damien Devlin (24), from Andersonstown, and Paul McBride (27), from Ardoyne.

The UVF almost managed to kill another leading Provisional IRA member from the Unity Flats who was drinking in the bar at the time of the attack.