Miami Showband Memorial - Parnell Square North, Dublin, Ireland - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

The plaque that is located above the memorial is worded:

	"Let's Dance"
	In memory of
Tony Geraghty (24)	Fran O'Toole (28)	Brian McCoy (32)
Members of the Miami Showband murdered 31st July 1975 at Buskhill Newry Co Down
Sculptor: Redmond Herrity

The CAIN website tells us about the memorial:

Memorial Title: Miami Showband Memorial ("Lets Dance")

Commemorating: The three members of the Miami Showband who were killed by the UVF.

Date of Incident: 31 July 1975

Description: The monument is comprised of three elements. A small bronze plaque set into stone and mounted on a wall at waist height. A metal sculpture representing a dance movement. And brass 'footprints' set into the pavement on the street. The central element represent the three members of the Miami Showband who were killed. The different height of the three performers is represented in the sculpture and their ages are represented by the different number of 'dots' incorporated in the sculptor.

Inscription(s): Names and ages of those killed along with the location of the killings.

Nature: Civilian

Physical Type: Plaque, and sculpture with bronze 'footprints' on the pavement.

Physical Materials: Stone and Metal Brass Bronze

Setting: Street

Access: Public Unrestricted
 
Artist(s): Redmond Herrity (Sculptor)

Date Unveiled: 10 December 2007

Wikipedia has an article about the killings that advises:

The Miami Showband killings (also called the Miami Showband Massacre) was an attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, on 31 July 1975. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. Five people were killed, including three members of The Miami Showband, who were then one of Ireland's most popular cabaret bands.

The band was travelling home to Dublin late at night after a performance in Banbridge. Halfway to Newry, their minibus was stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint, where gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered them to line up by the roadside. At least four of the gunmen were serving soldiers from the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) but, unbeknownst to the band, all were members of the UVF. While two of the gunmen (both soldiers) were hiding a time bomb on the minibus, it exploded prematurely and killed them. The other gunmen then opened fire on the dazed band members, killing three and wounding two. It is believed the bomb was meant to explode en route, killing the band and framing them as IRA bomb-smugglers, and possibly leading to stricter security measures at the border.

Two serving British soldiers and one former British soldier were found guilty of the murders and received life sentences; they were released in 1998. Those responsible for the attack belonged to the Glenanne gang; a secret alliance of loyalist militants, rogue police officers and British soldiers. There are also allegations that British military intelligence agents were involved. According to former Intelligence Corps agent Captain Fred Holroyd, the killings were organised by British intelligence officer Robert Nairac, together with the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade and its commander Robin "The Jackal" Jackson. The Historical Enquiries Team, which investigated the killings, released their report to the victims' families in December 2011. It confirmed that Jackson was linked to the attack by fingerprints.

The massacre dealt a blow to Northern Ireland's live music scene, which had brought young Catholics and Protestants together. In a report published in the Sunday Mirror in 1999, Colin Wills called the Miami Showband attack "one of the worst atrocities in the 30-year history of the Troubles". Irish Times diarist Frank McNally summed up the massacre as "an incident that encapsulated all the madness of the time".