Seamus’s parents – his father Mervyn and his mother Rosaleen – were murdered by the UDA on the 9th of July 1976 in their family home in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim. Seamus was 2 years old and his sister Maggie was 6 months old. Both witnessed the gunmen shooting first their father then their mother. The killers had carried out a dummy run several weeks previously, posing as Bible salesmen. The murder was believed to be an attempt to drive catholics out of the area.
