The Peterloo Group public house in Tib Lane adjacent to Albert Square, - and close to St Peter's Square where in 1819 the infamous Peterloo Massacre had taken place, and from which the group took its name. The first discussion was on the subject of ‘The Social Position of the Arts Today’. Meetings continued on a monthly basis with writers and artists talking about their work and inviting discussion. Amongst the poets leading meetings, were Tony Connor, Michael Dixon, David Dunn, Michael Holroyd, John Knight, Jack Marriott, John McDonald, Robin Skelton, Margaret Snow, Noel Varney and Bernadette Wiseman. Several exhibitions of painting and
Rainiai massacre the perpetrators. Similar atrocities were committed in other places, like the Tartu massacre, in which almost two hundred and fifty people were murdered. A decision had been made to carry out the massacre after the June Revolt had taken place, during which the Lithuanian Activist Front had deposed the Soviet government in Lithuania, and Nazi Germany had invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities were unable to evacuate the inmates (political prisoners) of the Telšiai prison, but they did not want to abandon them, as the inmates would then have been freed by the local population or by the Germans.