Eileen Doherty murder in 1973
30 Sep 2010
Detectives have re-opened an investigation into a 37-year-old sectarian murder in Belfast after new leads were discovered in the case.
Nineteen-years-old Eileen Doherty was shot dead by gunmen who hijacked a taxi she was taking home from the Ormeau Road to Andersonstown on the night of Sunday September30 1973. Police believe she died in a random sectarian attack carried out by loyalists.
A review of material in the case by the Historical Enquiries Team has identified evidential opportunities and the investigation has now been transferred to detectives from the PSNI’s Serious Crime Branch to take forward.
Detectives are not in a position at this time to disclose the precise nature of the evidential opportunities which have been identified. But police believe they are sufficient to justify re-opening the investigation to bring those responsible before a court and obtain justice for Eileen Doherty and her family.
The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector John McVea, said: “This is an unusual step but one which we think is worth taking because there are sufficient grounds for believing we can catch the killers. I fully appreciate this murder took place a long time ago but I am asking people today, on the 37th anniversary of Eileen Doherty’s murder, to think back to that night in 1973 and tell us what they know.
“Times have changed, secrets may have been shared. I would ask individuals to examine their hearts and their consciences at the same time as my detectives examine these new investigative opportunities. It is the right thing to do.”
On September30 1973 Eileen, a single woman who worked as a stitcher, had been visiting a friend in south Belfast. At 10.45pm she had called into the Atlas Taxis depot on the Ormeau Road to get a lift to her home in Slieveban Drive in west Belfast. In the depot, she agreed to share a car with two men who said they were going to Finaghy.
The men, who were in their 20s and appeared to be drunk, sat in the back seat while Eileen sat in the front with the driver. The car, a blue Chrysler, travelled along the Ormeau Road to the Stranmillis Embankment, across King’s Bridge and onto Annadale Embankment. As the taxi was about to turn on to Governor’s Bridge, the men produced a gun and ordered the driver to stop.
Eileen and the driver were ordered into the back seat but when they got out of the front of the taxi they ran off towards King’s Bridge, only to be trapped by a wire fence. The two men got back into the taxi and drove off across Governor’s Bridge.
But they drove the blue taxi along Stranmillis Road and down Ridgeway Street (site of Lyric Theatre) before travelling back across King’s Bridge in the direction of Annadale Embankment where they stopped.
The man in the passenger seat got out and shot Eileen Doherty three times in the head and body. She was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital but died in the early hours of Monday October 1. The taxi driver, who had raised the alarm, escaped unhurt. The taxi was found the following morning a mile and a half away in Fountainville Avenue at the bottom of the Lisburn Road.
DCI McVea said: “We have a considerable amount of detail about what happened that night in 1973. Now we have identified new evidential opportunities. Police believe that when their victims initially escaped, the gunmen drove round the one-way system to return to catch up with Eileen and kill her. This was a brutal attack on a 19-year-old girl.”
Eileen’s family feel unable to talk about this ongoing tragedy but have released the following statement: “Eileen was murdered 37 years ago but she has always been in our thoughts. The pain of losing a loved one in circumstances like this never goes away. Eileen had her whole life in front of her and it is a sin that it was taken from her. We knew that the Historical Enquiries Team was looking at Eileen’s case but this development is a surprise. We hope police can get somewhere with it.”
