Well-known Catholic family slaughtered in attack on Belfast home

Perpetrators of the massacre are said to have worn uniforms

Belfast, 31 March 1922 – Six people were killed following a sectarian attack on the home of a Catholic in Belfast on 24 March.

The victims have been named as Owen McMahon (57) and his four sons Bernard (26), Francis (24), Patrick (22) and Jeremiah (15). The sixth man, Edward McKinney (25), worked as a barman in the McMahons’ pub.

Another son, John (21), was wounded in the raid on the Kinnaird Terrace property.

Owen McMahon was a well-known businessman in Belfast. He was a former chairman of the Belfast and North of Ireland Licensed Vintners Association who was part of a number of deputations to the Westminster Parliament to represent licensed businesses over the years. He was also a very recognisable figure at Irish race meetings and took a keen interest in boxing. He was not known to have any political affiliation.

Mr McMahon and his family were in bed at the time the killers arrived. It was shortly after midnight when the front door of the family home was broken down and men with revolvers stormed in. The men of the house were dragged from their beds and ordered downstairs at gunpoint. As the women of the house were gathered in a back room, the men were lined up against a wall and told to say their prayers.

The murderers were no more than ten minutes in the house and they left behind them a scene of utter horror. The victims’ blood pooled at various in the room and, while some of the men died instantly, others writhed in agony until they eventually succumbed. Bernard McMahon survived the attack itself but died days later in hospital.

The entrance to No. 3, Kinnaird Terrace, Belfast, where the McMahons were murdered (Image: Illustrated London News, 1 April 1922)

The attack occurred during curfew hours and several press correspondents are reporting that the perpetrators wore uniforms. An empty shell from a webley revolver cartridge was found at the scene.

News of the killings has sent shock waves throughout the city and beyond. It has also thrown a fresh and ghastly light on the pitiable experiences of the Catholic population of Belfast. The Irish Independent has stated that it believes that the McMahon murders have crystallised the terror that many Catholics in the city feel about leaving their homes for fear of encountering Orange gunmen who ‘do not murder; they actually slaughter their victims, and glory in the welter of blood.’

The Belfast Evening Telegraph described the murders as the ‘most dreadful of all the crimes yet perpetrated’ in a city that has seen many awful acts in recent years. ‘Brutish passion and sheer animal blood-lust have superseded all Christian feeling, and dethroned the very instincts of humanity. This slaying of fellow human beings on one side or the other is the most debased and hideous form of savagery’, the newspaper reported.

The killing of the McMahons and of Edward McKinney, a Donegal native, was followed by a day of further violence and mayhem as eight more names were added to the list of fatalities. The youngest of the victims was three year old Mary McCabe who was shot when, in response to the throwing of a bomb in Lisbon Street, a hail of bullets was showered on Thompson Street, Short Strand, Altcar Street and Moira Street.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]