"The Downpatrick U.D.R. Massacre" The Downpatrick victims of the Sinn Fein/IRA World wide Terrorists are:- John Bradley, County Down UDR, Protestant, 25 yrs old, married. 2 children. Lance-corporal John Bradley, was one of four UDR soldiers killed by 1,000 pound IRA landmine outside Downpatrick, They were travelling from Ballykinler army barracks towards the town on the Ballydougan Road A command wire running to a wooded area overlooking the road about 350 feet away was used to detonate the device as the two Land Rovers in the patrol passed. The explosion left a crater 50 feet long, 40 feet wide and 15 Feet deep, blowing the Land Rover 20 yards into a field. The IRA bombers escaped on a trials motorcycle. A local man who came on the scene said : 'The Land Rover had been thrown into a field. It was all buckled and bent, a scene of utter carnage.' A local councillor who went to the scene said: 'When 1 arrived I was met by policemen and soldiers who were very upset and confused. Some had tears in their eyes.' The inquest in February 1991 was told that a lance-corporal who had been leading the patrol in the other Land Rover had been so sickened at the sight of the bodies that he had been receiving psychiatric help. It was the UDR's largest single loss of life since four of its soldiers were killed in July 1983. They included Private Oswell Neely. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher linked the Downpatrick bomb with a decision by the Dublin Supreme Court not to extradite former Fermanagh-South Tyrone republican MP (now they are call MLAs and served in Stormont) Owen Carron to Northern Ireland where he was wanted on arms charges. In a BBC radio interview, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said: 'You take these murders of these four people alongside those decisions in the Supreme Court of the Republic not to extradite those accused of violent crime and one is very, very depressed. We need all the help we can get to fight people who attempt these murders and those who succeed. It is in the interests of everyone south of the border to fight the terrorism as hard as we do.' A 23-year-old man was subsequently jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to conspiring to murder members of the security forces. Charges against him of murdering the four soldiers were dropped. The convicted man drove a scout car for the bombers when the device was planted the day before the explosion. Another man was jailed for 20 years for attempted murder. UDR Monument attacked 2002 So much for peace and respect and parity of esteem as written in the Belfast Agreement The UDR monument in memory of the dead UDR men was attacked by republicans and smashed to pieces with hammers. The memorial, to the four UDR soldiers killed in an IRA landmine explosion in April 1990, was destroyed in the attack. UDR granite memorial 'desecrated' An appeal has been made for an end to the attacks on a County Down memorial to four UDR soldiers. A fresh attempt has been made to smash a granite memorial to the four soldiers, killed in a landmine blast near Downpatrick, in 1990. Down District DUP councilor William Walker said it was ‘deplorable' that another attempt has been made to smash the monument on the Ballydugan Road, on the out skirts of the town. “The people who attack this, and desecrate what is a sacred site are nothing but scum,” he said. “I have been contacted by people who are worried, This memorial should not be touched.” Over the years, the edges of the granite have been chipped away but the memorial remains intact. It was placed there to commemorate the four soldiers killed in the what became known at the Holy Week Massacre, when the IRA detonated a 1,000Ib landmine as a UDR patrol made its way from Ballykinlar Army base to Downpatrick, in April 1990. The four men who died were John Bradley, John Birch, Michael Adams and Steven Smart. Sunday Life 29 th May 2005 |
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