" The Aldershot Massacre" Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein bomb Parachute Regiment Headquaters at "Aldershot Barracks" Seven people died when the bomb went off after being parked just seconds beside the officers mess. This bomb was in direct retalition for the role of the Parachute Regiment in Londonderry in what is now known as 'Bloody Sunday'. Gerry Watson 38 yrs Soldier Parachute Regiment acting Chaplain in the regiment In November 1972, Noel Jenkinson, who was a native of County Meath but lived in London was jailed for life for the murders of the six civilians and one soldier who died. Noel Jenkinson died in prison of a heart attack in October 1976 aged 46 yrs. He was a Provisional IRA member as well as being a member of Sinn Fein. The Times UK February 22, 2002 Aldershot casualties are IRA's 'forgotten victims' By David Lister, Ireland Correspondent The son of an army cleaning lady killed in retaliation for Bloody Sunday has accused Tony Blair of neglecting the British casualties of the war with the IRA and believes that he and dozens like him have become forgotten victims. It was 30 years ago today that Karl Bosley went to meet his mother after school but saw no sign of her as he stared at the wreckage of the officers' mess at Aldershot barracks in Hampshire. He still suffers flashbacks. “I see the state of that mess and I can still smell the dust and the concrete,” Mr Bosley, who was 14 when his mother was killed by a 50lb car bomb that exploded 8ft away, said. Thelma Bosley, who worked as a cleaner and waitress in the mess, died along with four female kitchen workers, a gardener and a Roman Catholic padre. The bomb, claimed by the Official IRA in revenge for the Paras' role in shooting dead 14 civilians in Londonderry three weeks earlier, was intended for soldiers of the 16th Parachute Brigade, who were based at the barracks. Thirty years after his mother died, on February 22 1972, Mr Bosley believes that he is being stonewalled by the Government, which has ignored his his demand for an inquiry into the state of security at Aldershot on the day and the alleged tip-offs that the base was to be attacked. He told the Prince of Wales last week that he felt like a forgotten victim of the Troubles after being offered just £1,500 in compensation. During the Prince's visit to a peace and reconciliation centre near Dublin, Mr Bosley described how his hatred for his mother's murderers had blighted his life and led him to join the Parachute Regiment. He said yesterday that, while the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday had been marked by two films, media coverage and a renewed interest in the Saville Inquiry that is investigating the killings in Londonderry, he and his three brothers would again have to remember their loss in silence. “Tony Blair is pouring millions of pounds into this inquiry but we are suffering as well,” he said. “I'm sickened by the fact that whenever Bloody Sunday is mentioned there is never a mention of the atrocity at Aldershot which was committed in the IRA's name.” Mr Bosley has only recently started to talk about that day. He recalls sitting in the school canteen two miles away when he heard the blast. Most of all he remembers that morning. “I was having an argument with mum because I hadn't packed my PE kit for school. Names were called. I was never able to make it up to her.” Now 44, Mr Bosley believes he is finally starting to put his life back together and is working as a freelance graphic designer in London. It has taken 30 years. After his mother's death he spent three months in a detention centre for his part in beating up an off-duty soldier and a further 11 months after petrol-bombing an Irish pub in South London. He calmed down enough to spend three years studying graphic design, but he could not get Northern Ireland out of his mind and joined the Parachute Regiment in 1983. “I was in 3 Para and the 2nd Battalion was touring Northern Ireland in 1984 so I applied to go but they refused me. I really don't know what I would have done out there. Had I been at a checkpoint with a known IRA man coming through I think I would probably have blown his head off.” He left the Paras after three years and returned to London to work for an advertising agency, suffering quietly every year as Bloody Sunday was remembered but the anniversary of the Aldershot bomb forgotten. Shortly after the 25th anniversary of his mother's death, in March 1997, he “flipped out” after a night's drinking. Dressed in combat gear and his red Parachute Regiment beret, he wandered out on to the streets of Streatham in South London clutching two hand grenades. He served nine months in Wormwood Scrubs for the offence. “I had a couple of hand grenades which were souvenirs from my Army days. I don't know why. It was 25 years of pent-up emotion being released.” Armed police surrounded him and a firearms officer asked him what was wrong. “He asked me why I felt like this and I told him and I realised it was probably the first time the authorities had ever listened to my story. Since then things have slowly been getting better.” The 30th anniversary will be marked today by a small wreath-laying ceremony at the barracks in Aldershot. Irish Times 23rd February Ceremony remembers Aldershot victims From Rachel Donnelly, in London Relatives of victims of an Official IRA bombing at Aldershot barracks in Hampshire marked the 30th anniversary of the attack yesterday with a wreath ceremony. Representatives of the British army based at Aldershot and the Mayor of Rushmoor Borough Council, Cllr Charles Choudhry, joined the relatives in a low-key, dignified ceremony, placing floral tributes next to a stone pillar inside the barracks. The pillar is inscribed with the names of the seven people killed in the bombing. The ceremony was followed by a minute's silence in honour of the victims, including four female kitchen workers, killed on February 22nd, 1972, in retaliation for the shooting of 14 people on Bloody Sunday by soldiers from the Parachute Regiment three weeks earlier. The bomb was intended for members of the16th Parachute Brigade at the barracks. "It's a day when it's all at the front of my mind again," said Mr Karl Bosley, whose mother, Thelma, worked as a cleaner at Aldershot and was killed when a 50 lb car bomb exploded beside the officers' mess. Speaking to The Irish Times after the ceremony, Mr Bosley (44), who was 14 when his mother was killed, said he was angry that the suffering experienced by him and others had been forgotten by the British government. "If Tony Blair is willing to pour millions into the Derry inquiry he could put a few million into victims' organisations here. There are so many films and documentaries about Bloody Sunday, but the feeling is that we're forgotten. Gerry Adams demanded an apology for Bloody Sunday and I remember thinking 'Where's my apology?' ." As he continues his fight for more compensation than the £1,500 sterling he has received so far, Mr Bosley says the British government has ignored his request for an inquiry into the bombing. The bombing set him on a destructive path for many years during which he beat up an off-duty soldier and petrol-bombed an Irish pub in south London. He also joined the Parachute Regiment hoping he would be sent to Northern Ireland where, he admits, he wanted to kill terrorists, but the posting was turned down. "After the Birmingham pub bombing I had a burning ambition to get back at Irish people. It was like living through Aldershot all over again, because to me the IRA were Irish, therefore the Irish were responsible. I saw things in black and white then and I got some people together and petrol-bombed an Irish pub in south London," he says. It was only after he met his future wife's Irish parents that his attitude began to change, and he found help at the Glencree reconciliation centre. "I lost my mother and my home. I lost everything that day but I began to realise it was not Irish people: it was a minority within Ireland that caused the problems. You're attitude changes and it's ironic that the most help I've had has come from Ireland."test |
|||
|
|
|||