WE DON’T WANT DAD’S KILLER JAILED FAMILY JUST WANT ANSWERS ABOUT 1976 MURDER
Family issues moving plea on anniversary of publican’s 1976 murder
THE son of a man who was murdered by the UFF 42 years ago today has said his family want the killers to clear his father’s name.
John Toland (36), who owned a pub in Eglinton, was killed on November 22, 1976 by loyalist terrorists.
John’s son Danny (56), a driving instructor, was just 14 when the murder happened.
He said that it destroyed his family.
“Two men walked into the Happy Landing Bar in Eglinton,” he said. “They weren’t masked. One walked towards the counter and the other stood at the door.
“He asked my father if he was John Toland and my dad said he was. He pulled out a gun and shot my father in the head.
“He fell and the gunman went in behind the counter and shot him in the chest and twice in the stomach.”
John’s widow Marie was left to raise him and his six brothers and sisters alone.
She had to abandon the bar after threats, and the family struggled through the next few years.
“My youngest sister was seven years old. My mum was just 35,” added Danny.
“Days after burying my father she got a phone call from a man who asked her ‘how the orphans were’. He told her that if she ever stepped foot in the bar again she would get the same treatment as dad.
“I was the oldest in the house at 14 and I had to go out to work at 15 years old to support my mother. I grew up overnight when my father was murdered. I became the man of the house.
“My mother didn’t cope well. Her own mother died in November 1975, dad died in 1976, and her father died in 1977. Her whole support network went within three years and she tried to take her own life. But she said she heard my father’s voice asking who would look after the children, and that is what stopped her.”
In 2012 the Historical Enquiries Team found that there was collusion in the killing of Mr Toland.
But UDR man David Hamilton, who had been charged with the murder, was acquitted at his trial in 1987 after confessions it is claimed he made were ruled inadmissible.
He admitted supplying the gun used in Mr Toland’s murder and was sentenced to five years in jail. He served two-and-a-half years.
Danny met Hamilton last year in a bid to find answers to the family’s questions.
“We had a good discussion and he told me a few things I didn’t know,” he said.
“It was a strange feeling, because I do not have any hatred in me. I didn’t feel in any way antagonised or wanted to do him any harm.
“I told him that if I found out the man who pulled the trigger, we as a family do not want him to go to jail. We are not looking for that type of justice.”
Danny said he felt his father was shot “as an example”, not as loyalists claimed because he was supplying information to republicans.
“My father was a very quiet and very polite man,” he added.
“He didn’t care what uniform you had on or what religion you were, he just did his day’s work and treated everyone the same. There was no such thing as Protestants or Catholics for us.”
Danny says that all his family want is the truth, not convictions.
“We want the full story. We want to know from start to finish why they decided to target my father,” he said. “My mother is still alive, she is 76 years old. She deserves to hear the truth.
“All of those who were involved are in their late 70s and early 80s. There would be no point putting them in jail. We just want them to put it on the record, and for history, that my father was an innocent man.”
Danny will give his testimony to the Holywell Trust peace-building organisation in Derry on November 28. For more information check out the Holywell Trust’s Facebook page.