Half a century ago this week, one of Ireland's most popular music groups were targeted in a terror attack in which three of its members were killed by loyalist paramilitaries posing as British Army soldiers.

Who were the Miami Showband?
The Miami Showband were among the biggest stars of Ireland's showband scene. An evolution from the travelling big bands of the 1940s and 1950s, showbands offered a more contemporary pop and easy listening sound, playing to packed houses across the length and breadth of the island of Ireland. The Miami Showband had seven No.1 hits and performed Ireland's entry in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest.

What happened on 31 July 1975?
The band were travelling home to Dublin after a concert in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, when they were ordered off their tour bus by a group of around 10 men in uniform at what appeared to be a British Army checkpoint. In fact, the "soldiers" were all members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a loyalist paramilitary group. Four of them were also serving in the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment.

The attackers are believed to have planned to plant an explosive on the bus in order to frame the band members as IRA bomb smugglers, but the bomb detonated prematurely, killing two of the paramilitaries. The surviving gunmen then opened fire on the band, killing lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpet player Brian McCoy. Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers, were injured but survived.

Were the killers brought to justice?
In 1976, Thomas Crozier and James McDowell were jailed for 35 years in connection with the murders. A third attacker, former British Army soldier John James Somerville, was convicted in 1981. All three declined to name their accomplices, whose identities remain unknown. Crozier, McDowell and Somerville were released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2019, Netflix documentary "ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre" brought the killings back into the public eye, following survivor Travers' fight to bring the killers to justice and keep the memory of his bandmates alive.

There are few better settings to enjoy a chilled pint than a pub beer garden. Here are some of our favourites.

Ty Coch Inn, Gwynedd, North Wales
"Not so much a beer garden as a beer beach," said The i Paper. You can only reach the Ty Coch Inn by foot and it's a 20-minute walk to the nearest car park, but after reaching the "stunning" setting you can "enjoy your beer while gazing out across the Irish Sea" and the peaks of Snowdonia.

The Jolly Fisherman, Alnwick, Northumberland
This popular pub occupies a "perfect spot" above the harbour in the village of Craster, with a coastal path that "cuts right through the middle" of the beer garden, said The i Paper. Guests can sip local ales as they tuck into delicious seafood dishes: be sure to try the "legendary" crab sandwich.

Gaggle of Geese, Buckland Newton, Dorset
"There are ordinary beer gardens, then there's the Gaggle of Geese," said the Daily Mail. The charming country pub sits next to a "fabulous five acres of grassland and wildflowers", which are also home to a campsite and shepherd huts, if you want to make a weekend of it.

The Thorn Tree Inn, Matlock, Derbyshire
This "teeny traditional boozer" is as "wholesome as they come", said The Times. Expect warm welcomes, "generous" Sunday roasts and sweeping views out across the "outrageously bucolic" Derwent Valley. After an al fresco lunch, "walk off the Yorkshire puddings and real ales" with a short stroll over to Lumsdale Falls.

A wave of anger toward Israel is washing over Netanyahu's administration
Kitty Donaldson in The i Paper
"The scales have tipped against Israel," writes Kitty Donaldson. Scenes from Gaza of "emaciated infants" and reports of "deadly shootings at aid points" have "focused minds" in the world's capitals. The "anti-Israeli contagion" has even spread to Donald Trump's Maga base. And "sentiment is shifting" within Israel, where people are saying a "just war" has "tipped" into "unjust" persecution. An "increasingly isolated" Benjamin Netanyahu is lashing out, but "slowly, surely, international pressure is building".

Population growth of 700,000 is not acceptable. The Tories must disown Boris Johnson
William Atkinson in The Telegraph
Newly published data shows that the population of England and Wales "jumped" by 700,000 between 2023 and 2024, writes William Atkinson, and by 820,000 the year before – mostly due to "net migration". The blame for this, and for the "consequences" for "housing, public services" and "transport infrastructure", lies with "one man". Boris Johnson "presided over an explosion in numbers" as immigration restrictions were "loosened". Yet he might now be "plotting" a political "comeback", which would be a "calamity".

Celebrity Watch: Ozzy Osbourne
Caitlin Moran in The Times
With his "stoic, slightly beleaguered" sense of humour, Ozzy Osbourne was "the most Midlands man who ever lived", writes Caitlin Moran. Amid the "outpouring of sadness" at his death, we should honour him with a statue outside Birmingham Children's Hospital. He did a lot of fundraising for them and, as a child's "first admission to A&E is usually for swallowing something", a "statue of a grown man who ate a bat seems oddly fitting".