Shankill Butchers

The Shankill Butchers is the name given to an Ulster loyalist gang, many of whom were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The gang conducted paramilitary activities during the 1970s in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was most notorious for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians. The Shankill Butchers killed at least 30 people (including a significant number of Protestants) in sectarian attacks, paramilitary feuds, personal grudges and bombing raids. Despite extensive police resources channelled towards their capture, a wall of silence created by a mixture of fear and respect in the Shankill community, provided few leads that could be followed.

Most of the gang were eventually caught and, in February 1979, received the longest combined prison sentences in United Kingdom legal history. However, gang leader Lenny Murphy and his two chief "lieutenants" escaped prosecution. Murphy was killed in November 1982 by the Provisional IRA, likely acting with loyalist paramilitaries who perceived him as a threat.

According to Conor Cruise O'Brien, the Butchers brought a new, frightening level of paramilitary violence to a country already hardened by death and destruction. The judge who oversaw the 1979 trial described their crimes as "a lasting monument to blind sectarian bigotry".