Five men, four dressed in Royal Irish Constabulary police uniforms, broke into the north Belfast home of well-known Catholic Publican Owen McMahon on 24 March 1922.
The men shot and killed Mr McMahon, along with four of his sons, and an employee of the family.
No one was ever charged for the murders.
In response to the killings, the IRA assassinated the former head of the British Army, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson.
A subsequent British ultimatum to the Irish government triggered the start of the Irish Civil War just days after.
The brutal murders drove the rift between Northern Ireland’s two communities even deeper, laying the foundations for future troubles and bloodshed.
Historian and author of ‘Ghosts of a Family’ Dr Edward Burke joins Ciarán Dunbar to tell the story of the murders, their impact, who did it, and how they resonated in history.
The RIC murders of the McMahon family, which changed Belfast forever
