feet away from the stolen Hillman Imp miraculously escaped injury. A few minutes earlier he had examined the vehicle, opening both the passenger door and the bonnet. As he returned with the soldier and the policeman for a second look, the vehicle exploded and burst into flames. The bank, situated in Victoria Street, a residential area, is near Gough Military Barracks and just across the road from Armagh Prison. Monday July 16th 1973 Teenage girls on gun charge Two seventeen-year-old girls were remanded in custody for a week when they appeared at the Magistrate’s court charged with possessing a .303 rifle under suspicious circumstances at St. Judes Walk in the Divis area of Belfast. The girls from Clonard Street and Cavendish Street, Belfast, refused to recognise the court and sat with their backs to the bench talking down to some friends during the proceedings. As they left the court one of the girls shouted, "Up the Company Second Battalion, up the Provos". Monday July 16th 1973 Four injured as pub is bombed for third time Four people were injured when a pub in the Oldpark area of Belfast was bombed for the third time and more might have been hurt had a customer in The Meeting of the Waters bar in Manor Street not spotted the bomb and raised the alarm. The customer shouted for the 20 other people in the bar to lie down on the floor. A short time later the bomb went off. Two people were taken to hospital and treated for shock and two others were given treatment at the scene.
Private Geoffrey Breakwell
Monday July 16th 1973 Bomb defused Army experts defused a 10lb bomb at a garage in Kilrea, after a warning call to police at Magherafelt Monday July 16th 1973 Patrol fired on A single shot was fired at a patrol in the Creggan Estate in Derry but there were no casualties. Troops used CS gas and rubber bullets to disperse a stone-throwing crowd during a follow up operation in the Rathlin Drive area of Derry. A youth found bleeding from the mouth after troops returned fire at a gunman on the estate, was still in hospital, but his condition was not serious. An Army spokesman said a single shot was fired at the patrol from the direction of Clare Courts. A pool of blood was found near the gunman’s firing position and this led troops to the edge of the nearby playing fields where a youth who was bleeding was put into a car by a group of men. The spokesman said it was not known how the youth’s injuries were caused. They were not the result of a gunshot or rubber bullet injury. Monday July 16th 1973 IRA book is seized in Eire swoops The seizure of about 8000 copies of the Provisional IRA book ‘Freedom Struggle’, from Drogheda Printers Ltd., in Bolton Street and the secret Press conference held by the organisation’s leaders near Dublin will be discussed in the Dial this week. A spokesman for the IRA said the book would be reprinted elsewhere and put on sale as soon as possible.
Private Christopher Brad
William John McIlveen