The loyalist paramilitary groups , fearing a secret deal between the IRA and the government , stepped up their killings of Catholic civilians , killing over 300 between 1974 and 1976 . Billy McKee , by that time commander of the Belfast Brigade , responded with retaliatory attacks on Protestant civilians . The IRA carried out 91 sectarian assassinations in 1974 – 1976 , many of them in Belfast . One of the most notorious of these attacks came on 13 August 1975 , when an IRA team led by Brendan McFarlane machine-gunned Bayardo 's Bar on Belfast 's Protestant Shankill Road , killing five people and injuring over 50 . While the attack was intended to kill Ulster Volunteer Force members who used the bar , only one of the dead had paramilitary connections
Bayardo 's Bar
Bayardo Bar attack
Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade