Talking through the horror of Enniskillen (Story One) - 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago to the day, an IRA bomb exploded at Enniskillen Cenotaph as families gathered to remember the war dead. On that Remembrance Sunday, November 8, 1987, 11 people were fatally wounded and another victim, Ronnie Hill, remained in a coma until he passed away seven years ago.

The Poppy Day bombing, as it became known, was a heartless act of slaughter which shattered lives and traumatised the community. Twenty years on, no one has been brought to justice for the murder of 11 people, the injuries suffered by dozens more, and the devastation brought into so many lives.

Those who died were Marie Wilson, 20; Alberta Quinton, 72; Johnny Megaw, 67; Billy Mullan, 74, and his wife Nessie, 73; Wesley Armstrong, 62, and his wife Bertha, 55; Kit Johnston, 71, and his wife Jessie 62; Ted Armstrong, 52 and Sammy Gault, 49.

The police maintain that the case remains open, with the Historical Enquiries Team due to re-examine the evidence.

During this, Remembrance week, those killed in two world wars and the Enniskillen bomb victims who died paying respects to them, will be remembered once again in special religious services and at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

The Rev David Cupples was a young Presbyterian clergyman at the time of the atrocity and had not been long in Enniskillen.

A friend had mentioned to him that he might, one day, in the course of his duties, have to conduct the funerals of people killed in the Troubles but he now faced the terrible fact that seven of the bomb victims were members of his congregation.

"Never in a million years did I think I would have to do this," he said.

He was at home when he heard the explosion, and the sirens of ambulances, and rushed to the church which was just metres away from the Cenotaph

He said that to facilitate people attending the Remembrance commemorations, there had been a long tradition of putting back the Sunday morning service.

Many of the teenagers from the church Bible class and Sunday school were injured.

"It is very hard to describe what I did, there was a tremendous sense of shock to lose so many people.
"Life became so unreal with so many funerals. It was an extremely strange week. You lived on adrenaline really," he said.

Mr Cupples recalled that he was 30 years of age at that time, and had just enough experience to deal with the situation.

"I had never had to deal with any incident connected to the Troubles, and this was one of the biggest incidents in the whole of 30 years," he said.

He got "a tremendous amount of help" from his fellow ministers, with many coming to the church to take messages and provide support.

"The Moderator of the General Assembly came to each funeral and participated, which was a great help and
support," he said.

"As a matter of moral principal, one would like to see every crime investigated and people made accountable.

"It should be investigated and in practice one can understand that police will make operational decisions."
Mr Cupples' role as a minister is to tend to the pastoral and spiritual needs of the people, yet he says it never ceases to amaze him at how life goes on no matter how awful the incident, though he said those who lost loved ones have continued to struggle.

Recently he heard about a person who had helped to pull a victim from the rubble, but had never talked to anyone about the experience in the 20 years since.
Mr Cupples asks how people like this slip through the net, when they could talk to someone or to their church minister. He believes it is very important to talk about such experiences.

He said everyone who was there was traumatised to varying degrees, and it is now known that there are many people who may have post-traumatic stress disorder all these years later.

"I spent the following year going round homes talking to people," he said.

"In the immediate aftermath I announced that I would be available in the minister's room on Tuesdays, but nobody came, not a single person. For whatever reason, people felt they were unable to talk."

He acknowledged that many men tend to hide their emotions: "For all the ups and downs there was a generally held view that we were stumbling towards long term peace or resolution," he said.

"As a pastor I still wonder about all the individuals carrying large amounts of hurt and pain, who have not found ways to deal with it.

"When people feel justice has not been done, that becomes a sore point.

"There are thousands of people, walking wounded in the community, who have never found peace after the things they have experienced."

They include people in the emergency services as well as the bereaved and injured.

A number of special services are planned this week for those affected, and are intended to have spiritual and pastoral benefit, rather than simply a ceremony to mark the event.

If there was no service at all, it would be disrespecting the memory of the people who died, said the minister.
Mr Cupples believes there will be a real opportunity for healing, from God and from one another. He believes that maybe this, the 20th anniversary, is a time when people will start to come forward and to express their feelings.

It is only a half truth that time heals, he said: "For a wound to heal there has to be time plus the proper treatment," he said.

As a minister of the Christian gospel, he will have something to say to help people, and guide them to God's source, which is the ultimate answer to life's questions, he said.

"I definitely do think one thing that made Enniskillen different was that the focus was not on political reaction, it was on the spiritual and moral aspects. It made people think about things in a different way," he said.

He recalled that at the time, after remarks by the late Senator Gordon Wilson, Enniskillen became associated with forgiveness.

"But on the first anniversary of the bomb, the people said, forgiveness or no forgiveness, we want the people caught," he said.

"All of the people who died were very church-going people. Of the 11 who died on the day, every one of them was a professing Christian."

Mr Cupples said it was significant too, that in the aftermath, a lot of the TV footage broadcast was from the church services.

"I have a hope, that it was partly the moral qualities of the people who died, contrasted with the qualities of the people who planted the bomb, that prompted people to think violence was wrong, counterproductive and futile," he said.

Mr Cupples said people were asking if all that violence did was to remove people from society, how could violence be the answer.

"It strengthened the moderates because it heightened the awfulness of extremism," he said.

"It may have advanced society towards addressing conflicts in a peaceful way." 8th November 2007 News Letter - 20th Anniversary of the Enniskillen War Memorial referred too as the Poppy Day Massacre and lately Bloody Sunday.