THE TROUBLES
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TOP - Bomb attack on the Manfield Shoe shop in Belfast city centre. TOP RIGHT - People being rescued from an upstairs window of the Hole in the Wall Public House after a bomb attack.
Castlederg. As this happened a second device exploded. It is thought that the building had been booby trapped. Saturday 10th February 1973 IRA suspects held Four men, said by the Army to be senior members of the IRA in Belfast have been arrested in various parts of Belfast. One is thought to be a Commanding Officer, two others intelligence officers and the fourth a battalion quartermaster. Saturday 10th February 1973 Shop bombed in Derry The APCK shop in Shipquay Street in Derry has been bombed in a lunch hour attack. It is not known how the bomb was planted but the RUC received an anonymous phone call that the device was in the shop. Warnings were also sent to a local newspaper. The area was cleared and no one was injured. Monday 12th February 1973 McKeague will fast to death It has been announced at a press conference held at Vanguard headquarters on Knock Road, Belfast, that John McKeague is on a hunger and thirst strike. A man who described himself as a Brigadier in Vanguard Volunteers,
Mr James Rice, read a statement on behalf of the Red Hand Group. In the statement that McKeague’s condition had now deteriorated to such an extent that he has got to be lifted and carried for personal necessities. It was also stated that he was being guarded by four prisoners to prevent his removal to the prison hospital. The statement went on to say that “McKeague was no John Stevenson. He will continue his thirst and hunger strike to the end.
Monday 12th February 1973 Couple die in premature explosion Two members of the IRA, a 23-year-old Teacher and a 17year-old student at Belfast College of Business Studies have died in an accidental explosion in Downpatrick. The pair, who have been named as Leo Hanlon, of Vianstone Place, Downpatrick and Vivienne Fitzsimmons, of Lynn Doyle Place, Downpatrick, are believed to have been lifting the bomb when it exploded. Both the dead have been claimed by the Provisional IRA and O’Hanlon has been described as being the Company Commander in East Down. He was also a well known member of a local civil rights group.