Loughinisland, Loch an Oileáin, Co. Down

Loch an Oileáin · Co. Down

Three medieval churches on an island in a lough, and one pub that the country knows the name of.

Loughinisland is a small village in mid-Down between Ballynahinch and Downpatrick, twenty-one miles south of Belfast on the back roads. Two hundred and seventeen people lived here at the last census. The name means 'lake of the island' - Loch an Oileáin - and the lake and the island are the reason there is a village at all. Three ruined churches sit on the island in a walled graveyard, the oldest of them put up in the 13th century when the McCartans ran this corner of Down. A causeway takes you out. The dead still go.

The other thing the village is known for happened on the night of 18 June 1994. Twenty-four people had crowded into the back room of the Heights Bar - Ireland were playing Italy in the World Cup, ten past ten, the goal had gone in an hour earlier. Two UVF gunmen in boiler suits walked in the door and emptied a vz. 58 assault rifle into the room. Six men died: Adrian Rogan, Malcolm Jenkinson, Daniel McCreanor, Patrick O'Hare, Eamon Byrne, and Barney Greene, who was 87 and shot in the back. Five more were wounded. No-one has ever been convicted. In 2016 the Police Ombudsman said collusion was a significant feature of the murders. In 2017 Alex Gibney made a documentary called No Stone Unturned about it.

What that leaves you with as a visitor is a village holding two of the heaviest things a small place can hold - a medieval Christian site that's still in use as a graveyard, and an open wound from the Troubles that hasn't healed. The pub is still there, now trading as O'Toole's. The plaque to the six men is on the wall inside. People drink and watch football in the same room. The island and the bar are five minutes apart by car. Come because there's something here to understand, not because there's something here to do.

Population

217 (2021 census)

Walk score

A crossroads, a lake, a causeway out to the churches

Founded

Parish church on the island recorded 1302; village in Tievenadarragh townland

Coords

54.3300° N, 5.8050° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The island

Three ruined churches on a lake island.

The Loughinisland Churches sit in a graveyard on a small island in the lough, reached now by a causeway. The Middle Church dates to the 13th century. Headquarters of the McCartan clan when they ran Kinelarty. The lake the village is named for.

Stories & lore → 02 The Heights Bar

18 June 1994. Six men killed watching the World Cup.

UVF gunmen walked into a packed back room - Ireland v Italy, ten past ten - and emptied an assault rifle into the crowd. No-one was ever convicted. The Police Ombudsman found collusion. Alex Gibney made a film about it. The pub is still there.

Stories & lore → 03 The crossroads

Between Ballynahinch and Downpatrick.

A small rural village, two hundred and seventeen people in the last census, on the road between the market town and the cathedral town. A church, a GAA pitch, a pub, a graveyard, a lake. The whole place in a five-minute walk.

Getting there →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

O'Toole's Bar

Quiet local, heavy history

Pub (formerly The Heights Bar)

The only pub in the village. Known to the country as the Heights Bar after 18 June 1994; rebuilt and reopened, later renamed O'Toole's. A black Mourne granite plaque inside names the six men killed. Listed in the CAMRA pub guide. Treat it like any other rural Down pub - that is what the families and the village want.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

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.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Loughinisland Churches & causeway Park near the lake and walk the stone causeway out to the island. Three ruined churches in a working graveyard. Read the boards at the gate - the Department for Communities has put up clear ones. Quiet, atmospheric, take your time. It is still a burial ground, not a museum.

600 m returndistance

20 mintime

Annadorn Dolmen field walk Two minutes by car from the churches, on the north-east side of the lake. A short walk in off the road to a 3,500-year-old portal tomb sitting in a field. No fence, no fee. Wear boots if it has rained.

Roadsidedistance

15 mintime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Best light on the lake and the church ruins. Quiet on weekdays. Trees not yet in full leaf so the island reads clearly from the shore.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

June carries the anniversary of the 1994 killings - a memorial mass is held in the village around the 18th. Visit with that in mind. Otherwise long evenings, full lake.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The trees on the island turn and the graveyard goes brown-gold. The best season for the photograph everyone takes of the causeway.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, wet ground around the lake, no facilities. Bring boots and a torch if you are out at the churches at dusk.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating the Heights Bar / O’Toole’s as a Troubles tourist stop

It is a working village pub and the bereaved families still drink there. Go in for a pint if you want a pint. Read the plaque if you read it. Do not take photographs of the room.

Driving past the churches without stopping

The lake is signed and the causeway is right there. Twenty minutes is enough. It is one of the most atmospheric medieval sites in Down and almost nobody bothers.

Expecting a centre or a café

There is none. Loughinisland is a small rural village with a pub, a church and a GAA pitch. For lunch, drive to Ballynahinch or Downpatrick. For coffee, the same.

Getting there.

By car

On the back roads between Ballynahinch and Downpatrick - about ten minutes from each, twenty-one miles south of Belfast via the A24 then the B7. Newcastle is twenty-five minutes south.

By bus

No frequent service. Translink runs occasional Ulsterbus links to Downpatrick and Ballynahinch from the area; check the day. Most people drive.

By train

No train. Nearest railhead is Belfast Lanyon Place; then bus to Downpatrick or Ballynahinch and on by road.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is about an hour. Belfast City (BHD) is forty-five minutes. Dublin is two hours.