"Ballykelly, Dropping Well disco bombing Massacre"
6th December 1982

As everyone relaxed and enjoyed the disco, "evil stalked the disco" in the guise of the INLA closely aligned to the Provisional IRA. The Irish National Liberation Army, which broke away from the IRA in 1974, claimed responsibility for the bomb, saying it had warned civilians not to mix with the British army. As everyone enjoyed the disco the INLA planted a five pound bomb of semtex next to the main ceiling supporting pillar. When the bomb went off, the dance floor was packed, as people danced to a slow record.

Eleven soldiers and six civilians are killed by the INLA bomb, as masonry fell on them as the roof of the building collapsed. The Irish National Liberation Army are similar to the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein terrorists, there is no difference between these two groups as members frequently move back and forth when their cause suits.

Of the 150 people at the disco thirty are injured. Of those killed 11 were members of the British Army and 6 were civilians - 4 Protestant; 1 Catholic (1 born outside Northern Ireland) One of the injured soldier's was paralysed from the waist down, while two others lost limbs.

Cardinal O'Fiaih decribed the killings as a "gruesome slaughter".

The Ballykelly bomb victims were:-

Ruth Dixon 24 yrs old single Protestant Civilian
Patricia Cooke 21 yrs old died a week later in hospital
Alan Glen Callaghan 17 yr old Protestant Civilian
Valerie Anne McIntyre 17 yr old single Protestant Civilian
Carol Watts 25 yr old single Protestant Civilian
Stephen Smith 24 yr old married
Philip McDonough 26 yr old married soldier, Cheshire Regiment
Stephen Bagshaw 21 yrs old single soldier, Cheshire Regiment
Clinton Collins 20 yrs old married soldier, Cheshire Regiment
David Murray 18 yrs old single soldier, Cheshire Regiment
David Stitt 27 yrs old single soldier, Cheshire Regiment
Shaw Willamson 21 yrs old single soldier, Cheshire Regiment
Neil Williams 18 yrs old single soldier, Cheshire Regiment
Terence Adams 20 yrs old single Army Catering Corps
Paul Delaney 18 yrs old single Army Catering Corps
David Salthouse 23 yrs old married Light Infantry
Angela Hoole 19 yrs old single hairdresser Civilian

Margaret Thatchers in the House of Commons the following day said "This is one of the most horrifying crimes in Ulster's tragic history. The slaughter of innocent people is the product of evil and depraved minds and the act of callous and brutal men" (Hansard, sixth series, vol. 33, col. 708).

On a proposed visit by Sinn Fein/IRA to London at the invitation of the Greater London Council Margaret Thatcher denounces this as a cynical ploy.

A woman relative a cousin of Alan Glen Callaghan's recalls his death, her bitterness remains undiminished. “When they buried Alan the stench was unbelievable, grown men who were holding his coffin were throwing up. They blew Alan to bits, there was nothing left of him. I'll never forgive them.”

An Army officer who rushed to the scene of the blast said he found the bodies "stacked like dominoes, one on the top of the other". Two soldiers injured in the blast ended up paralysed from the waist down while two others lost limbs.

Northern Ireland secretary James Prior wrote "As we flew in, the white ribbons cordoning of the area marked a scene of total devastation. The bar and dance hall had been reduced to smouldering remains, completely flattened by the bomb. The bomb had been placed against one of the supporting stanchions supporting a flat concrete roof. When it exploded, blowing out the stanchion, the whole roof collapsed on to the crowded dance floor. It is a miracle that more were not killed."

Ruth's mother recalled, Ruth Dixon's brother's girlfriend went to the hospital "She got into the morgue to check for herself, forcing herself to look at the grisly mess of humanity left by the bomb. Finally she stopped at the remains of a young woman, mistakenly identified. It was Ruth, her boyfriend's pretty sister. After the horror of what she saw that night, she gave up nursing."