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THE TROUBLES th
Saturday 4 December 1971 Fugitives “safe and sound” As the Provisional IRA in Dublin claimed that the three fugitives from Belfast Prison were “safe and sound”, the hunt for the men throughout the North continued. But a Provisional spokesman would not confirm that the men were in the south. Certainly security chiefs remain unconvinced by claims that the men are already over the border. They will have to have something more positive, like the presentation of the escaped prisoners at a press conference before they call off the search. So that means that the public may well have to endure for a little longer road checks in and around Belfast. The Provisionals in Dublin have said that they may wait until next week before the three are produced at a press conference. Saturday 4th December 1971 Cross border Repeater Station bombed A GPO repeater station has been destroyed by an explosion at Killeen. The station carried underground cables linking telecommunications North and South. In Strabane two bombs exploded within ten minutes of each other. The bomb was at Wellworths in the Main Street. The charge was placed at the back of the building and ripped a large hole in the back of the supermarket. About ten minutes later a bomb went off in Ballantine’s timber yard in Railway Street stating a large fire. th
Saturday 4 December 1971 Officials admit blast The Official IRA have claimed responsibility for the explosion at Aberfoyle, the home of Sir Basil McFarlane, Her Majesty’s Lieutenant for the City of Derry. A statement issued by the local command said it was retaliatory action for the wrecking of Republican and civilian homes by the British Army. It warned: “For every home wrecked we will take retaliatory action against the loyalists. This does not include working class Loyalists but affects directly those who have vested interests in the Stormont regime.” Saturday 4th December 1971 Sixteen schoolboys arrested Principals of Catholic schools in West Belfast are to meet early next week to discuss what action to take over the arrests of 16 schoolboys on Friday. The boys were arrested by troops at about 4.00am and held for questioning for about ten hours. They were released shortly after lunchtime. The boys, believed to be aged between 12 and 16 years, although one allegation is that one boy is aged nine. Eight of those arrested are pupils at St. Thomas’s Secondary School, Whiterock Road. Saturday 4th December 1971 RUC man’s life saved by dud round A gunman tried twice to shoot an RUC constable at point blank range in Newcastle but the man’s life was saved when the gun failed to go off. The RUC man was on foot patrol along the central promenade shortly before midnight when he was confronted by
a gunman. Twice the man pulled the trigger and twice the gun didn’t fire. The gunman then fled pursued by the constable and other members of the RUC but they lost him in the darkness. Later a man on foot failed to stop when challenged by RUC personnel. He ran off across fields and one shot was fired at him. He is now in hospital being treated for gunshot wounds to his shoulder. Monday 6th December 1971 Bomb at Pub –Fifteen dead Fifteen men, women and children were killed on Saturday night, 4th December, when a bomb demolished a pub in North Queen Street, near Belfast city centre. The massive charge of gelignite exploded inside the bar on the ground floor, bringing hundreds of tons of rubble crashing down on customers. The explosion, which brought the number of people killed since 1968 to 183, is the worst in living memory. Troops, RUC men, firemen and hundreds of civilians clawed in the rubble in their bare hands to release those trapped. All emergency services in the city were put on full alert, as the horror of the blast at Paddy McGurk’s pub became known. During the big rescue operation, gunmen opened up wounding an Army officer seriously and slightly injuring two RUC men and five civilians. Rival crowds from the area and nearby Duncairn Gardens and the RUC and Army drove a wedge between them as stoning broke out. After the explosion, which was heard all over the city, troops and police rushed to the scene, where some of the injured were already crawling from the debris. Immediately along with people who streamed from nearby houses, they began digging in the rub-
ble with their bare hands as screams were heard in the darkness. As they came across bodies stretchers were called for. Military and civilian ambulances were used to ferry the 13 injured to the Mater and Royal Victoria Hospitals. Within a half an hour 800 people had arrived on the scene to help in the rescue. They were organised into human chains by troops who issued commands through loud hailers. The debris was removed virtually brick by brick. Later an Army mechanical digger was called in to speed up the operation. At one point there was a threat of another explosion from a severed gas main. But the rescuers worked on as small fires broke out in the rubble all around them. Firemen used foam to douse the flames. Several of the rescuers were violently sick, as badly mutilated bodies were uncovered. A team of surgeons from a Belfast hospital rushed to the scene and treated the injured on the spot. Initially six people had been found dead and others injured. Three hours later the death toll had risen to 14. As the search for the injured and dead continued into the night until dawn arc lights were set up by the Army. Local people brought ropes from their homes to drag away some of the heavier debris. An hour after the blast rival crowds gathered and rioting broke out. Shortly afterwards gunmen opened up a short distance away from the scene and Major Snow of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was seriously wounded in the head. Two RUC men, one of them a reserve, were also hit when the gunman, using an M1 carbine fired from the direction of Hillman Street. Five civilians were also hit. As the shooting casualties lay wounded there was a delay in getting military ambulances to their aid because they were fully committed at the explosion. Reinforcements were called in and troops were again fired on. A gunman on the roof of a disused cinema at the top of the New Lodge Road is believed to have been hit when troops returned fire. Eventually the New Lodge was cordoned off by five companies of troops who searched 48 selected houses and screened 100 people. Seven people, some of them on the Army’s wanted list, were detained, and a sawn-off shotgun, a .38 pistol, a .45 pistol and ammunition were found. Monday 6th December 1971 Disagreement over bomb’s location The mystery surrounding the North Queen Street explosion has deepened as the official RUC and Army version of where the bomb exploded was challenge by local people. Forensic experts are certain that the 50 to 70 lb bomb blew up the bar, killing 15 men, women and children and injuring 13 others but survivors say that this is not true. They are adamant that there was nothing suspicious in the bar that night and there were no strangers. Eight-year-old Joseph McClory, who was selling newspapers at the time claims that he saw a black car pull up outside with four men inside it. He said one of them got out, planted a grocery box with a wire sticking out and then made off. As a special team of detectives probe the blast it is believed the other theory is that the bomb was inside the pub when