The News Letter has a report of Sunday’s formal dedication of a memorial at Ballysillan Avenue to three young Scottish soldiers: Dougald McCaughey, 23, from Glasgow along with brothers John and Joseph McCaig, aged 17 and 18, from Ayr. The three were lured from the city centre and murdered at the isolated White Brae off the Ligionel Road on March 9, 1971. On Saturday the families of the murdered soldiers held a private service at the site of the atrocity and yesterday the memorial was dedicated before being followed by a parade of standards to a drumhead service of remembrance at Ballysillan leisure centre, attended by approximately 1,000 people.
David McCaughey, Donald’s brother, said (from the News Letter):
“I have been in Belfast over the last 20 years but never went up to that spot until this year,”
“This was also the first time I met the McCaig family, it was bad enough that we lost Dougald but to lose two and so young, it is so tragic.
“It was either the wireworks or the army for Dougald after his father died and he joined the army because he wanted to travel.”
David also met the women who at the tender age of 15 had found the three soldiers lying dead after the murders.
“She told me it was something she will never, ever forget as long as she lives, seeing the three bodies piled up,”
“It makes me sick seeing republicans in top positions in government, it’s the hypocrisy of it, there are certain individuals who would want this airbrushed from history but thanks to the good people of Northern Ireland and Scotland we will never let that happen.”
The memorial is the realisation of the dream of members of Oldpark/ Cavehill Royal British Legion, who along with the support of the Greater Shankill Community Council and Shankill Mirror, last year commissioned commemorative badges to fund the project which sold over 15,000 worldwide.
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