Bik McFarlane death: IRA campaign 'was no war' says sister of atrocity victim as siblings speak out for the first time

​Karen Moreland and Anne Hill were speaking to the News Letter about the murder of their older sister Linda Boyle, who was one of five people killed in the Bayardo Bar gun-and-bomb bloodbath of 1975.

The attack was committed by an IRA team that included McFarlane.

McFarlane was a leading IRA man who went on to be involved in the 1981 hunger strike, the Maze breakout, and allegedly the kidnapping of supermarket executive Don Tidey in the Republic of Ireland (which led to the IRA killing two of his rescuers).

He was sentenced to five life sentences for the Bayardo attack.

McFarlane died in hospital on Friday, and his funeral notice says his death came “after bravely fighting one of his bravest battles”.

His funeral is being held tomorrow outside his home in Linden Gardens, north Belfast, at noon, before he is buried in Milltown Cemetery, west Belfast.

Karen, now aged 62 and living in east Belfast, was aged 12 when her sister Linda, 17, was killed.

It is the first time she or her sister have spoken to the media.

The family used to live in Moneyreagh, a village to the south-east of Belfast, and Karen said that at the time of her murder Linda had just got a job doing secretarial work at a Belfast city centre law firm.

She had met a young scaffolder in a city centre bar that day and agreed to follow him to the Shankill Road for a drink.

Karen said that Linda "loved music and loved life", and that "she was a breath of fresh air".

"I just looked up to her, I was just in awe of her," said Karen.

Linda lived for a week in hospital after the Bayardo attack before succumbing to her wounds.

"Whenever this all came to light when he [McFarlane] passed away the other day, just everything came flooding back," said Karen.

"Mum and dad having to go up to the hospital every day. Then having to go up and switch off the life support machine. Coming into the house and closing the blinds - you knew exactly then that she'd gone.

"We were too young to be able to see her in hospital, only my older brother was able to see her. That morning she left to go to work was the last we saw of her.

"My mum died three years ago Linda was killed: she just couldn't get over it. Then my dad died when I was 19."

She added: "I just feel a big injustice really, because he [McFarlane] was supposed to do five life sentences, and didn't even do one."

If Linda was still alive she would likely be a retired grandmother today, said Karen.

"It has just taken up so much of my life," said Karen.

"I know there's people out there that can say they forgive. I don't forgive him.

"It wasn't a war. A war for me is where people fight each-other."

Her sister Anne Hill, now 64 and living in Newtownards, had been 15 at the time of Linda's murder. She said of McFarlane: "He shouldn't be classed as a patriot or a martyr. He should be classed as a murderer.

"A lot of people think he's a patriot. But he's murdered five people and has never served his time for it. "It just destroyed my whole family."

As to the description of McFarlane as a man who "rose up against oppression" (in Mary Lou McDonald's words), she said: "I just have to laugh at that to be honest. In my eyes he's just a murderer.

"Me and Linda shared a bedroom together. I remember the exact clothes she wore that morning going to work. It never goes away."