Survivors and relatives of those murdered in the July, 1975 Miami Showband massacre are to receive nearly £1.5m (€1.75m) in total damages to settle claims over suspected collusion between security forces with loyalist terrorist murderers.
The resolutions reached in their legal actions against the British Ministry of Defence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were announced at the High Court in Belfast.
Powerful victim impact statements were also given by the wounded band members and those bereaved in the atrocity," RTE reported.
Clearly moved by what he was told, the judge said their accounts would remain with him for the rest of his life, the RTE report stated.
And in continued: "One of Ireland's most popular cabaret acts, the Miami Showband was targeted as they travelled home to Dublin following a gig in July 1975.
"A fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers and Ulster Volunteer Force members stopped them at the bogus checkpoint outside Newry, County Down.
Band members were made to line up at the side of the road while attempts were made to hide a bomb on the tour bus. The device exploded prematurely, killing some of the would-be bombers.
"Their accomplices then opened fire on the band, murdering lead singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy.
"Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers, were also injured but survived the atrocity."
In 2011 a report by the Historical Enquiries Team raised collusion concerns around the involvement of an RUC Special Branch agent.
It found that notorious UVF boss Robin 'The Jackal' Jackson, a one-time UDR member who died in 1998, had been linked to one of the murder weapons by fingerprints.
"Jackson, a suspected RUC Special Branch agent linked to scores of murders, claimed in police interviews he had been tipped off by a senior police officer to lie low after the killings.
"He went on trial charged with possession of a silencer attached to a pistol used in the murders but was subsequently acquitted. Two serving members of the UDR were, however, eventually convicted for their part in the attack," the RTE report stated.
