JOURNALIST Vincent Browne has responded to a public appeal from a coroner investigating a loyalist bomb and gun attack in west Belfast 50 years ago.
The print and broadcast journalist was one of two former reporters named by Coroner Joe McCrisken at an preliminary inquest hearing this week into the May 1972 killing of barman John Moran. The other was Henry Kelly, who went on to host popular BBC game show Going for Gold in the 1980s. Mr Browne also had a successful broadcast career with RTÉ and TV3. Both men have been identified as potential witnesses in the inquest of the 19-year-old murdered in the attack at Kelly’s Bar on Whiterock Road.
Patrons in the packed bar had been watching a soccer match when the car bomb exploded. Mr Moran died of his injuries 10 days later. Thomas McIlroy was killed when loyalists began shooting after the blast. Gerard Clarke died of his injuries 17 years later.
During the hearing a lawyer said neither ex-reporter had responded to correspondence from the Coroner’s Service. In response Mr McCrisken made a public appeal.
On Thursday Mr Browne told The Irish News he had “received no communication” but was willing to make contact.
“I doubt if I can be of much assistance to the coroner but I’ll certainly tell him what I recall, which isn’t much,” he said.
