Ulster loyalist paramilitaries, fearing they were about to be forsaken by the British Government and forced into a united Ireland,[3] increased their attacks on Irish Catholics and nationalists.

The fall-off of regular operations had caused serious problems of internal discipline and some IRA members engaged in revenge attacks also.

On the night of Friday 2 July 1976, a three-man UVF unit consisting of a driver and two gunmen stole a car from a couple parked in nearby Tardree Forest.

[4] At about 11PM, just before closing time, two masked gunmen in boiler suits[5] entered the pub and opened fire with machine guns, hitting nine people.

[4] In 2012 the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), a body which had been set up in Northern Ireland to re-investigate unsolved murders of the Troubles, met with the family of James McCallion to deliver their findings.

The probe concluded that the then Northern Ireland police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), had conducted a thorough investigation and the detectives working on the case did their best to bring the killers to justice.

[4] In April 1999 the dissident Loyalist paramilitary group the Orange Volunteers exploded a pipe bomb outside the Ramble Inn pub, damaging several cars.