Murder of the Quinn brothers

1980s 1990s Jason, Mark and Richard Quinn were three brothers killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in a firebomb attack on their home in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on 12 July 1998.

One man, Garfield Gilmour, was initially found guilty of murdering the three brothers after admitting that he had driven three other men to the house who had committed the fatal petrol-bombing.

The Quinn family, consisting of mother Chrissie and sons Jason, Mark and Richard lived in the Carnany estate in the predominantly Protestant town of Ballymoney.

The boys, aged 9, 10 and 11, attended a local state school and on the evening before their deaths had been helping to build the estate's Eleventh Night loyalist bonfire.

The killings took place at the height of the stand-off over the Orange Order march at Drumcree, which created a tense atmosphere in various towns across Northern Ireland.

In Ballymoney, the previous year, an off-duty Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer, Gregory Taylor, was beaten to death by a group of loyalist bandsmen.

[4] Shortly before the attack, five Catholic families living on the predominantly loyalist estate had received UVF Christmas cards with the warning 'get out now' and a letter containing a 9mm bullet.

Earlier that week loyalists had established an illegal roadblock at the entrance of the estate in support of the Orange Order protest at Drumcree and police officers had been attacked with petrol bombs.

Chrissie Quinn, Raymond Craig and a family friend Christina Archibald escaped the resulting fire with minor injuries.

[10] and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy condemned the killings, stating "the Orange Order must recognize that its refusal to abide by the decision of the Parades Commission led to the murder of the Quinn boys".

[11] Gilmour was described at his trial as a hard working, farm machinery salesman who came from a middle-class background who was unwillingly part of the attack which killed the Quinn brothers.

[8] A number of loyalist bands defied RUC requests not to play music while marching past the boys' grandmother's house in the days after the killings.