{"id":670285,"date":"2026-01-03T02:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T02:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670285\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T02:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T02:56:16","slug":"campaign-for-murdered-soldiers-will-continue-until-answers-found-says-relative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/670285\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign for murdered soldiers will continue until answers found, says relative"},"content":{"rendered":"

A five-decade quest for answers about the unsolved murders of three Scottish soldiers will only end when the truth is finally uncovered, a relative has vowed.<\/p>\n

Brothers John\u00a0and Joseph McCaig from Ayr, who were 17 and 18 respectively, and Dougald McCaughey, 23, from Glasgow, were shot dead by the IRA in Belfast in March 1971.<\/p>\n

The bodies of the three friends, who were the first off-duty soldiers murdered in the Northern Ireland Troubles, were found on a roadside in Ligoniel in north Belfast.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The young men, who served with the Royal Highland Fusiliers, were lured to their deaths from a city centre pub.<\/p>\n

No-one has been convicted of the murders.<\/p>\n

Fusilier McCaughey\u2019s cousin David, from Glasgow, has been actively campaigning on the case for 17 years \u2013 initially with efforts to have memorials erected in north Belfast and later in legal attempts to seek fresh investigations.<\/p>\n

While several suspects thought to have been involved in the murders are now dead, Mr McCaughey believes others linked to the killings are still alive.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

But, with the 55th anniversary approaching, he made clear he was now more focused on securing answers and some form of closure for the families, rather than criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a scar that\u2019s never healed and never will heal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of worst things that can ever happen to someone \u2013 losing a loved one to murder. It\u2019s one thing losing somebody through natural cases \u2013 that\u2019s hard. I lost my dad 25 years ago and that\u2019s still sore but it\u2019s a different ball game losing somebody who has been violently murdered. It doesn\u2019t matter who it was, anybody throughout the world \u2013 it\u2019s horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr McCaughey, 57, is calling for state archive files on the killings to be released in unredacted form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s stuff in those files the Government doesn\u2019t want people to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just keeping going for the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnswers would help. Answers give people closure. There\u2019ll never be closure if you don\u2019t get the answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been getting so far and you are getting to a door and you\u2019re opening that door and, as soon as you walk through that door, \u2018bang\u2019 there\u2019s another door. And then another door.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou seem to be gaining a wee bit of ground and then \u2018bang\u2019 another door closes on you.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ll just keeping going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK Government recently introduced legislative proposals to restructure mechanisms for investigating Troubles cases in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson highlighted that bereaved families seeking information could refer legacy cases to the reformed Legacy Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe murders of John and Joseph McCaig and Dougald McCaughey by the IRA in Belfast were horrific events and our thoughts and deepest sympathies remain with their families and friends,\u201d said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Northern Ireland Troubles Bill will create a reformed Legacy Commission to command public confidence and provide as much information as possible regarding the circumstances of referred cases to families enabling them to find the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A five-decade quest for answers about the unsolved murders of three Scottish soldiers will only end when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[204107,204108,918,22306,204109,204110,1144,204111,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-670285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-david-mccaughey","9":"tag-dougald-mccaughey","10":"tag-glasgow","11":"tag-ira","12":"tag-john-mccaig","13":"tag-joseph-mccaig","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-royal-highland-fusiliers","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115828922041000503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}