13th–17th century, on an island in the lake
The Loughinisland Churches
Three ruined churches stand in a single walled graveyard on a small island in Loughinisland Lake, in the townland of Tievenadarragh. The Middle Church is the oldest — probably 13th century — and a parish church here is recorded in documents from 1302 to 1306. The North Church and the smaller MacCartan's Church (built around 1636 as a Catholic chapel) joined it later. The island was the headquarters of the McCartan clan, who ruled Kinelarty from the 11th to the 16th century. The site appears in medieval sources as Lerkes or Lyrge. A stone causeway now connects it to the shore. The graveyard is still in use. The Department for Communities maintains the ruins as a State Care Historic Monument.
The names
The Heights Bar, 18 June 1994
At ten past ten on the evening of Saturday 18 June 1994, two UVF gunmen in boiler suits and balaclavas walked through the front door of the Heights Bar. The back room was packed — twenty-four people watching the Republic of Ireland play Italy in the opening round of the World Cup, broadcast live from Giants Stadium in New Jersey. One of the gunmen shouted a sectarian abuse and opened fire with a vz. 58 assault rifle. More than sixty rounds. Six men were killed: Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (53), Daniel McCreanor (59), Patrick O'Hare (35), Eamon Byrne (39) and Barney Greene (87) — the oldest known victim of the Troubles, shot in the back as he watched the football. Five others were wounded. The UVF claimed the attack as a 'retaliation' for an INLA killing two days earlier. The car used was found burned out. No-one has ever been convicted.
Collusion, on the record
No Stone Unturned
In June 2016 the Police Ombudsman, Michael Maguire, published his report on the Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation into the killings. His finding was direct: collusion was a significant feature of the Loughinisland murders. In November 2017 the American director Alex Gibney released a documentary called No Stone Unturned, which named two of the suspected gunmen and laid out the police-informer trail. Two journalists who worked on it — Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey — were arrested in 2018 over the leak of the Ombudsman's documents; the arrests were later ruled unlawful. The film was nominated for an Emmy. Three decades on, no-one has been charged. The families still campaign.
Three and a half thousand years old, a mile from the bar
Annadorn Dolmen
On the north-east shore of Loughinisland Lake, within sight of the churches, a portal tomb sits in a small field in the townland of Annadorn. A slightly displaced capstone over a rectangular chamber, three side stones still in place. About 3,500 years old, possibly the remains of a passage tomb. State Care Historic Monument. You can walk right up to it from the road. Nothing roped off, no ticket. The standard County Down arrangement for a thing that has been there since before the Pyramids were finished.
Loch an Oileáin CLG, founded 1906
Loughinisland GAC
The Gaelic football club has been here since 1906. Two Down Senior Football Championships — 1975 and 1989 — and an extraordinary 2015, when a new management of Paul Duffin and Jerome Johnston won the Down Intermediate title, then went on to lift the Ulster Intermediate Club Championship in a final against Bundoran's Réalt na Mara. The club crest carries the three churches on the island. For a village of 217 people, that is a serious cabinet.