"The Enniskillen Remembrance Day Massacre" The bomb went off on Remembrance Sunday, a day dedicated to Britain's war dead. Just before 11.00am on 8th November 1987 a Provisional IRA bomb exploded without warning as people gathered at the war memorial in Enniskillen for the annual Remembrance Day service. Eleven people were killed and 63 injured, nine of them seriously, when the three-story gable wall of St Michael's Reading Rooms crashed down burying people in several feet of rubble. The Provisional IRA admitted responsibility the following day. Many of those killed and injured in the blast had come to honour soldiers killed in action. Amateur video footage of the immediate aftermath horrified people in both communities and the bombing was condemned on all sides. The "Poppy day massacre victims are as follows:- William Mullen 72 yrs, married with children and retired (Civilian) Angus Mullen 70 yrs married (Civilian) Kitchener Johnson 70 yrs married murdered with his wife Jessie (Civilian) Jessie Johnson 70 yrs married murdered with her husband Kitchener. (Civilian) Wesley Armstrong 62 yrs married murdered with his wife Bertha (Civilian) Bertha Armstrong 53 yrs married and murdered with her husband Wesley.(Civilian) John Megaw 68yrs (Civilian) Edward Armstrong 52 yrs member of the 'Chosen Few' Orange Lodge and a member of the RUCR Georgina Quinton 72 yrs widow with four children. (Civilian) Marie Wilson 20 yrs single and was a nurse (Civilian) Samuel Gault 49 yrs (Civilian)
All of the dead were Protestants and civilains apart from one man who was a member of the Reserve RUC. As these people and others stood waiting to remember the dead of the Two World Wars and other past and present conflicts in the World. The Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein detonated a bomb with no warning being given. This time the IRA/Sinn Fein had murdered Protestants engaged in a solemn act of remembrance and reaffirmation of their heritage. This heinous act was done while the town of Enniskillen prepared to remembered their kith and kin who died and were injured in past wars and the present 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland. This IRA/Sinn Fein bomb containing 40 IB of gelignite was hidden in a community hall just behind where the victims stood to commemorate their dead and all others throughout the World. Read the report of a eye witness who helped after the explosion and Gordon Wilson who was a victim along with his daughter in the explosion A man who lived nearby said "The explosion itself seemed to last about 15 seconds. Then there was the a dead silence for ten seconds. Then there was sobbing and crying. I'll never forget it. It was chaos. We just rushed to try to get the rubble off the people. Other relatives were looking for their relatives - children were looking for their mothers. I helped take the bricks off and I consoled people. There were two bodies in the street. People were crying, soldiers, were crying. The most seriously injured were pressed up against a railing by a wall that collapsed on top of them. People knew their relatives were underneath it. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and helped." When the dust settled everyone lifted bricks and rubble
with their bare hands as they fanatically search for any survivors
through the rubble. The Mullans, the Johnsons and the Armstrongs
were killed. Gordon Wilson and his daughter were buried in the rubble.
They were unable to move but held one another hands. In a radio interview afterwards Gordon Wilson said "We were both thrown forward, rubble and stones and whatever in and around and over us and under us. I was aware of a pain in my right shoulder. I shouted to Marie was she all right and she said yes, she found my hand and said, "Is that your hand, dad?" Now remember we were under six foot of rubble. I said "Are you all right?" and she said yes, but she was shouting in between. Three of four times I asked her, and she always said yes, she was all right. When I asked her the fifth time, "Are you all right, Marie?" she said, "Daddy, I love you very much." Those were the last words she spoke to me. She still held my hand quite firmly and I kept shouting at her, "Marie, are you all right?" but there wasn't a reply. We were there about five minutes. Someone came and pulled me out. I said, "I'm all right but for God's sake my daughter is lying right beside me and I don't think she is too well." She's dead. She didn't die there. She died later. The hospital was magnificent, truly impressive, and our friends have been great, but I miss my daughter, and we shall miss her but I bear no ill will, I bear no grudge. She was a great wee lassie, she loved her profession. She was a pet and she's dead. She's in heaven, and we'll meet again. "Don't ask me please for a purpose. I don't have a purpose. I don't have an answer, but I know there has to be a plan. If I didn't think that, I would commit suicide, It's part of a greater plan, and God is good. And we shall meet again." Marie's mother later spoke of the moment of her death. "When I spoke I saw her eyelids flicker. I will always see that. The sister in the ward turned to me and said, "Her heart has stopped beating." So the machine was turned off. Well, we didn't know where to turn, it was just one of those things we will never forget. I turned to leave the room, but I couldn't. I kept coming back to look at her and going out and coming back." Gordon Wilson's son Peter was killed in a road accident and at the age of 67 yrs he himself died on June 27th 1995 after a short illness. Loyalist paramilitaries were intent on retaliation but were stopped by the words of Gordon Wilson, whose daughter Marie was killed in the blast. "I have lost my daughter, and we shall miss her. But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge," he told the BBC. "Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life." He said he forgave her killers and added: "I shall pray for those people tonight and every night." His words were seen as a fitting memorial to his daughter and to the other ten people who lost their lives because they encouraged a spirit of reconciliation in the area. A fortnight after the bombing the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Prince and Princess of Wales joined 7,000 others for a second Remembrance Day service at the war memorial in Enniskillen. The Enniskillen bomb on Remembrance Sunday in 1987 killed eleven people as they gathered around the town's cenotaph is analysed in detail. This vicious sectarian crime – the work of the Provisional IRA - caused widespread revulsion throughout Britain and Ireland in a way that few others have, before or since. Why was this so and why were loyalists unable to win more sympathy for their cause in its wake? The media made great emphasis of local man Gordon Wilson's public forgiveness of his daughter's killers and castigated those who, like Ian Paisley, called for tighter security measures against the IRA. This ‘human interest' angle overlooked the IRA's motivation for their attack. Despite the fact that all eleven dead were Protestants, the media reported it as an attack on the wider community and humanity in general rather than as a sectarian attack on the town's Protestant population. The author observes that there was no political analysis of the ‘Poppy Day Massacre'. Because of this omission, unionists and loyalists were not able to win any greater support for their cause despite the wave of sympathy for the innocent victims and their families in the aftermath of the attack. When will these people who carried out this heinous crime and many others against the Protestant community in Northern Ireland and the UK be brought to Justice or is Justice only for the nationalists in Northern Ireland. E.g., 'Bloody Sunday' When will we the Protestants of Northern Ireland be allowed our inquiry |
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