The daughter of a man murdered by the Glenanne Gang has told of feeling sick after learning that dozens of loyalist bands are to take part in a memorial parade for a member of the killer gang.
Donna Barry spoke out after it emerged that 30 bands from across the north are expected to commemorate Wesley Somerville later this year.
The attack was carried out by members the Glenanne Gang, which included RUC, UDR and UVF personnel, and is believed to have been responsible for around 120 murders.
Wesley Somerville died when his own bomb exploded as he attempted to murder members of the Miami Showband in July 1975.
Three members of the band also lost their lives when the minibus they were travelling on was stopped at a bogus UDR checkpoint near Banbridge, Co Down, as they made their way towards the border almost 50 years ago.
Somerville and accomplice Harris Boyle, who were both members of the UDR, died when the bomb they were planting on the minibus exploded prematurely.
Somerville has also been linked to the murder of Pat Campbell in Banbridge in October 1973 along with notorious loyalist and state agent Robert ‘The Jackal’ Jackson.
Ms Barry says her family have been left stunned by the planned “memorial parade and social evening” on April 12.
“Jackson killed our daddy,” she said.
“We believe Somerville had a role to play but we don’t know exactly what it was.
“On hearing the news my stomach is churning, and I feel sick about it all.”
Her solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said he will be making “formal representation to the Parades Commission”.
Kenny Donaldson, director of South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) said the organisation acknowledges that the families of Somerville and Boyle will “grieve their loved one”, as will republicans.
“However, there is no place for the eulogising of them as being devout sons of Ulster, to plot and to seek to murder others does not demonstrate loyalty to anything, beyond a warped ideology for which they subscribed,” he said.
“Our concern is always with the innocents of terrorism and we will always call out public acts of coat-trailing wherever they are found.
“We ask those connecting themselves with this event to consider their actions, upon the Miami showband bereaved families, survivors but also innocent victims/survivors across mid-Ulster beyond.”