{"id":578448,"date":"2026-07-10T10:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578448\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:14:16","slug":"detectives-appeal-for-witnesses-to-eleventh-night-bonfire-murder-carried-out-in-front-of-several-hundred-people-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/578448\/","title":{"rendered":"Detectives appeal for witnesses to Eleventh Night bonfire murder carried out in front of \u2018several hundred people\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detectives have made a new appeal for information 26 years on from the murder of a man attending a bonfire in Co Antrim ahead of Twelfth of July.<\/p>\n

The PSNI\u2019s<\/a> Legacy Investigation Branch said the family of Andrew Cairns, who was shot dead in 2000, deserve justice.<\/p>\n

Mr Cairns was attending a bonfire at Boyne Square in Larne<\/a> on July 11 ahead of the Annual Twelfth celebrations when he was attacked and shot by a group of men in the vicinity of Greenland Drive.<\/p>\n

He was taken to the nearby Moyle Hospital but died in the early hours of July 12 as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head.<\/p>\n

\"Moygashel<\/a>\"Bonfire<\/a><\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the Legacy Investigation Branch said: \u201cAndrew became involved in an altercation with a number of men at the Rangers Supporters Club while attending an 11th night bonfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis altercation became violent and Andrew was viciously beaten by up to 10 men close to the bonfire before being shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Andrew was shot, a number of the men continued to kick Andrew as he lay on the ground. All of his attackers then made off on foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those involved was driven away from the scene in a red-coloured Vauxhall Calibra car.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PSNI said it was a \u201cvicious attack on a young man who was out enjoying the evening\u201d.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added: \u201cEven more so as it took place in full view of several hundred people who were attending the bonfire, including many young children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile a number of people were arrested as part of the original investigation and found guilty of offences linked to Andrew\u2019s murder no one has been convicted for his murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew\u2019s family deserve justice and answers to what happened to Andrew that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PSNI has appealed for anyone who was at the bonfire before or after the murder, or who observed the attack, to come forward.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said: \u201cTwenty-six years have now passed since Andrew\u2019s murder. A number of people were involved, they know who they are and they are going to have to live with that for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would appeal directly to them to think about the devastating effect this has had, and continues to have, on Andrew\u2019s family and to come forward and make themselves known to police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information can contact detectives in Legacy Investigation Branch on 101, extension 67258.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detectives have made a new appeal for information 26 years on from the murder of a man attending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[1183,9,10,88256,715,13,14,6,246164,11,12,15,16,5,30,7,8,246165,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-578448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-bonfire","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-co-antrim","tag-crime","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-larne","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-psni","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-twelfth","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116895159117190539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}