On 19 December 1975 , a car pulled up outside Donnelly 's Bar in Silverbridge , County Armagh . Members of the Glenanne gang got out and launched a bomb and machine-gun attack against the pub 's patrons , hitting those inside as well as outside the premises . A total of three people were killed , including the proprietor 's 14-year-old son , Michael , who was struck in the head by flying shrapnel after one of the gang tossed a bomb inside the pub 's interior , shouting : " Happy Christmas , you Fenian bastards " . Six other people were seriously injured , including a woman who was shot in the head . Weir named McConnell as having carried out the attack together with RUC SPG Officer Laurence McClure , and several other men . The Pat Finucane Centre commissioned an international panel of inquiry to investigate allegations of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces regarding a series of sectarian attacks against the Catholic nationalist and republican community . This panel , headed by Professor Douglass Cassel of Northwestern University School of Law , stated in its report that James Mitchell 's housekeeper , Sarah Elizabeth " Lily " Shields , who had provided the gang 's getaway car , named McConnell as having been one of the perpetrators . McClure , the driver of the getaway car &mdash; a blue Lada &mdash; confirmed this . He and Shields had played the part of a " courting couple " inside the car as the attack was being carried out by the other gang members . McClure and Shields were later charged with withholding information in relation to the pub killings . Following the attack , McConnell and some of the others then regrouped at the Glenanne farm . James Mitchell later stated that McConnell had been a visitor to his farmhouse that same evening before and after the Silverbridge incident . McClure claimed that he encountered McConnell several days afterwards , and McConnell had allegedly said to McClure : " That was a good job the other night " , which McClure had understood to have been an allusion to Silverbridge . The gang claimed the attack using another of their cover names , the Red Hand Commandos . According to Weir 's affidavit , the pub was specifically chosen in retaliation for the killing of an RUC reserve constable who it was believed had been detained at Donnelly 's Bar subsequent to his kidnapping by the IRA
Donnelly 's Bar
Donnelly's Bar and Kay's Tavern attacks
Robert McConnell (loyalist)