"Newry Mortar Bomb Massacre " The IRA launched a deadly mortar bomb attack on Newry Police station, the biggest single loss of police personel in any incident during the entire troubles in Northern Ireland. The mortar struck a mobile canteen and contained an estimated 40 lb of explosives. Chief Inspector Donaldson, the highest-ranking officer to die in the incident came from Hillsborough. The Newry bomb victims were:- Alexander Donaldson, RUC Officer, Protestant, 41 yrs married with 3 children Constable David Peter Topping, joined the RUC the previous May. Geoffrey K. Campbell, RUCR, Protestant, 24 yrs married had only joined the police force a month previously. Constable Denis Anthony Price, had joined the RUCR in August 1983. An uncle, Joseph Blaney, had been killed in 1972. Reserve Constable Sean McHenry had joined the RUC reserve the preivous September. Reserve Constable Paul Hillery, had joined the RUC in October 1983. Constable Ivy Winifred Kelly, was a member of the RUC ladies hockey team and came from Sixmilecross, and is bured in the same graveyard as Constable Colleen McMurray. All of those murdered by the IRA were either eating an evening meal or playing pool in an adjoining games room at approx 6.35pm. A Chief Inspector, who was acting subdivisional commander in Newry at the time, told of surviving the attack. He said he was finishing a cup of tea with Alexander Donaldson, when he realised the station was under attack and shouted, 'Move out,' to his colleagues. He added 'I moved out of the canteen in a crawling position. I remember the debris coming around me but by some means I got out.' The mortar bombs were fired from a lorry in Monaghan Street, about 60 metres from the station. The lorry, modified to carry nine mortar tubes, had been hijacked in Crossmaglen in South Armagh. Of the nine devices fired, two failed to detonate, six exploded outside the perimeter wall causing some civilian casualties, and only one, the device which actually exploded in the canteen, cleared the wall of the base. The bombs were fired over the rooftops of neighbouring homes with the IRA possibly using the radio mast of the base, with its red light, as an aiming guide. The whole area was lit by a series of blue flashes', said a nurse who lived nearby. 'I was just leaving the house when suddenly there was a blue flash and a big explosion. I was blown off my feet and forward on to the ground. I was screaming uncontrollably. There there were more explosions and blue flashes - each time they were coming nearer to me. I could hear other people screaming I thought I was going to die.' In all 37 people were hurt, 25 of them civilians. A spokesman for Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry said 'Tragically, many police officers have died, but it's a miracle there weren't more dead.' The local RUC Chief Superintendent said 'In my 25 yrs as a policeman this is the worst in the history of the force. It has brought tears to the eyes of many hardened policemen.' The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, sent a message of sympathy to the RUC and there was widespread condemnation of the attack. In August, 1970, Alexander Donaldson's brother, Constable Samuel Donaldson, was one of the first RUC men killed by republicans in the troubles. A Newry man was convicted on nine counts of manslaughter in connection with the attack and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Ih his autobigraphy Holding the line, the then Chief constable, Sir John Hermon, said 'The multiple murder in Newry had a lasting effect on me. Photographs of the nine dead officers later appeared in the Police review, and looking at their faces, pictured together on one page, disturbed me greatly. Nevertheless, I kept the magazine open in a drawer of my office desk until the day I retired and cleared out the office. It still lies open at the same page in my study at home.' Constable Peter Topping's mother returned for the first time to Newry in 1995 to attend a memorial service for 58 police officers murdered in the Newry area by terrorist/Criminals Sinn Fein/IRA. The service was held in the town's new police station at Ardmore. Mrs Lorna Topping she said 'I haven't been near Newry since it happened. I just couldn't bring myself to go there. That part of the country looks so beautiful and yet so much evil was done in it. I have never got over it. It is something that is in your heart every single day.' She added 'I always felt that what happened to Peter and his colleagues had never been offically recognised.' She said the service would mean 'that the sacrifice my son and his colleagues made will be acknowlegded. We as a family have always acknowledged it and it means a lot that others will remember him. Read about Sean Gerard Hughes - Member of the IRA Army Council '"Lest we forget" If you have pictures please email the webmaster |
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