Members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, opened fire on civilians in a crowded pub during a Halloween party, killing eight and wounding nineteen.

The group claimed responsibility using their cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters", saying the attack was revenge for the Shankill Road bombing by the Provisional IRA a week earlier.

The IRA's intended target was a meeting of UDA leaders, including brigadier Johnny Adair, which was to take place in a room above the shop.

Later that day, they fatally shot a Catholic delivery driver after luring him to a bogus call at Vernon Court, Belfast.

[4] The order for the attack came from the UDA leadership, and it is believed Greysteel was chosen partly because it was well away from Belfast, where security force activity was intense after the Shankill bombing.

The gunmen were first briefed on the plans for the massacre on 27 October in an office owned by the Ulster Democratic Party at Bond's Place, Derry.

[7] Just before 10 pm on Saturday 30 October, the three gunmen, wearing blue boiler suits and balaclavas, entered the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel.

[4] Its statement said that the "Greysteel raid"[1] was "the continuation of our threats against the nationalist electorate that they would pay a heavy price for last Saturday's slaughter of nine Protestants".

[13] A West Belfast UDA member claimed that his organisation "had information that senior IRA men drank in the Rising Sun...

[9] There was "considerable resentment" in Greysteel after the Ulster Unionist MP for the area, William Ross, didn't attend any of the funerals of the victims.

Ross explained his absence by citing the angry reception Social Democratic and Labour Party MP Joe Hendron received while visiting the site of the Shankill Road bombing.

In 2020, Hoey 'liked' a social media post commemorating the Greysteel massacre, which stated, "On this day 27 years ago, An Ulster Freedom Fighters Active Service Unit from North Antrim-Londonderry Brigade 'Trick or Treated' its way into the republican Rising Sun bar in Greysteel in order to gain revenge for the Shankill Bombing.