CAMPAIGNERS for justice for the victims of the McGurk’s bar-bomb blast in the north of Ireland nearly 50 years ago said that new evidence showed the British state colluded in a cover up over the deadly attack.

It comes after investigations discovered an imprint in a British army log sheet written in the aftermath of the 1971 bombing, revealing that a car was seen driving away from the scene.

The British Army has continuously denied this despite testimony from witnesses claiming to have seen a man enter the Belfast bar and plant the bomb before driving off.

At least 15 people were killed and 17 injured in the blast after a bomb went off in McGurk’s bar on the evening of December 4, 1971 at the height of the so-called Troubles period.

Just hours after the bombing the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) started spreading a story that the bomb was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) device that exploded prematurely “in transit.”

This was refuted by pub regulars who stated that McGurk’s was not known as an IRA bar.

This was confirmed by a 1971 intelligence report which stated the pub had no known IRA associations.

Relatives and survivors accused the RUC and British security forces of launching a smear campaign as an attempt to discredit the IRA and shift blame from loyalist paramilitaries.

Last year author and activist Ciaran McAirt, grandson of two of the victims, accused the British state of “a fabricated lie” ordered by General Sir Frank Kitson after the discovery of a previously missing log book in the National Archives.

He called for his immediate arrest at the time, saying that Gen Kitson, “himself the architect of gangs and counter-gangs on our streets, colluded with the RUC and disseminated this lie throughout British Army brigade and headquarters.

“This heinous lie was then fed to British government ministers and was published in the media, becoming the pretext for the bombing in the RUC cover-up.”

It was Mr McAirt’s investigations that discovered the imprint which said: “Black car with headlights on went into city centre with three …” that corroborated the testimony of witnesses.

He said today: “Contrary to what we have been told by every previous historical investigation team, the British Army was indeed in the area at the time of the explosion and reported the explosion immediately.”

“So, the British Army buried this absolutely critical evidence nearly half a century ago and has allegedly lost the log sheets today; but the missing page has given up its dirty secret anyway: the British Army watched the bombers flee, allowed them to escape and covered up for them afterwards. We have yet to receive a fair investigation.”