After the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) ceasefire of 1975 , attacks on the British security forces decreased , but loyalist paramilitaries , fearing they were about to be sold out by the British government and forced into a united Ireland , stepped up their campaign of sectarian killings of innocent Catholic civilians . Some Glenanne gang attacks of this period were the 31 July 1975 Miami Showband killings ( in which three members of the popular showband were killed , along with two of the gang members carrying out the attack who were killed by their own bomb while priming it ) , and the 4 January 1976 Reavey and O'Dowd killings , when gunmen killed three members of the Reavey family and three members of the O'Dowd family
Reavey and O'Dowd killings
Reavey and O'Dowd killings
1976 Step Inn pub bombing