"Teebane Cross Road Massacre"
January 17th,1992

The IRA murdered innocent civilian construction workers

The IRA bomb exploded killing eight Protestant civilians who had been traveling in a minibus past Teebane crossroads between Cookstown and Omagh, County Tyrone. The men had been working at a military base in County Tyrone and were travelling home when the attack occurred. Peter Brooke, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, appeared on the Late Late Show on Radio Telefis Éireann (RTE) and was persuaded to sing 'My Darling Clementine'. [Unionists accused Brooke of gross insensitivity in agreeing to sing on the show following the Teebane bombing. Brooke later revealed that he had offered his resignation over the matter.]

All over Northern Ireland people are preparing to see the Army scale back its presence after the IRA's so called historic beginning to decommissioning. In some places it is already happening, in others it may be years in coming. But there are also families who lost fathers, sons and brothers - construction workers contracted by the authorities to build the bases in the first place. In January 1992 the IRA blew up a minibus at the Teebane crossroads near Omagh carrying construction workers working on a security base. Eight men died, another six were severely injured . Lives never fully rebuilt Cedric Blackbourne, the firm's managing director, said that while the watchtowers would come down, there were lives inextricably linked to them that would never be fully rebuilt.

We felt duty bound to play our part with the government forces in defeating terrorism. No one ever said that we should stop.( Cedric Blackbourne)

Sometimes I look back and think that I don't remember the summers, that it was always winter time, always dark (Cedric Blackbourne)

Cedric Blackbourne The events also marked a double tragedy for him - six years before his own son Karl, a 19-year-old member of the RUC, had been shot dead by the IRA

The men who died worked for Karl Construction.

The Teebane victims were William Gary Bleeks (35), Cecil James Caldwell (37), Robert Dunseith (25), David Harkness (23), John Richard McConnell (38), Nigel McKee (22), Robert Irons (61) and Oswald Gilchrist (44) who died later in hospital.

A Survivor speaks out after tens years of suffering below is his story.

'Everything was chaos ...blood was pouring from my eyes' - Robert O'Neill survivor

10 years on of the IRA land-mine, at Teebane, which killed eight Protestant workmen, and maimed six others, last night Robert O'Neill broke his 10-year silence. Robert O'Neill, 56, still bears the scars from the massive explosion, which ripped through the van he was travelling home in from work on Lisanelly barracks, in Omagh, in January, 1992.

He vowed not to speak about the atrocity, to spare the mother of a close pal, who perished alongside him. Now, 10 years on, Mr O'Neill speaks of the moment that eight friends were blown to bits, and he suffered horrific injuries in one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.

Moments before the explosion, an Ulsterbus carrying 12 schoolgirls from St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon and a woman passenger had just gone through the crossroads.

Fourteen workmen from Karl Construction were travelling, unaccompanied, along the almost deserted Omagh to Cookstown Road. Mr O'Neill still suffers flashbacks to the moment they approached the now infamous Teebane junction, and a 400lb IRA land-mine ripped through their van.

He said: "We were coming up a bit of a hill. There was a bus just ahead of us, and as the road levelled off we were driving at about 40mph. "The next thing there was a flash, and a bang, and I felt as if I was flying through the air. "The force of the blast tore through one side of the van, killing the whole row of men who were sitting there. "I was conscious at the time - I can remember it as if it was just now. "Then I heard a thud as we dropped - that was the force of the explosion lifting the van right into the air, and us coming back down again. "I was blown through the side of the van. "Some people were still in the van, others were lying in the fields and ditches. "Everything was chaos - both my ears were perforated, and blood was pouring from my eyes. "But, I could hear squealing and men crying out from the back of the van."

The Reverend Ivor Smith said that the families' memorial to the dead men had been defaced, destroyed but had been restored as they had remained determined to remember the loss of the men .

Mr O'Neill, who lost part of his index finger in the bomb, still bears horrific scars to both legs, and requires medication to ease his searing back pain, and to help him sleep. And, he still recalls dragging himself back to the roadside, and the scene of the carnage for which no one has ever been made accountable.

"I tried to walk and couldn't - as far as I could get was the grass at the roadside, and only then after pulling a lump of twisted steel from my left leg. "I still get a lot of flashbacks, but that's something I just have to live with."

The attack was made all the more shocking, by the earlier lifting of the IRA threat against civilians working for the security forces, and the later revelation that the John Major Tory Government was in preliminary peace talks with the IRA at the time.

Grieving and anger

Widow Jean Caldwell passes the spot where her husband Jimmy was murdered every life But in her heart she knows that she will never come to terms with his tragic death. "Our daughter Grace and I might look on the outside we are bubbly, but it's inside - to me it's an open wound that will never heal," she said.

I felt more lonely this Christmas than out of the other nine. I couldn't even go to his grave this year, it was heartbreaking." In the aftermath of her husband's murder, Mrs Caldwell had said those responsible should be hanged but now, she admits she would avail of any opportunity to meet them. "I would just ask them why?

None of those workmen were in anything, they were just out doing a day's work," she said. "I hope the police investigation into the atrocity is ongoing but I don't think it is. We've had no contact with the police for five or six years and, in the back of my mind, I don't think there is an investigation any more."

The Good Friday Agreement was signed on Grace's birthday in 1998 and, under its terms, those responsible for her father's murder, if caught, may never serve a prison sentence. 'We all want peace and we have all got to live and work together but I do disagree with prisoners being let out, on both sides. I would like to see those responsible for the Teebane bombing being brought to justice but, the way things are going, it looks bad."

Like many of the other relatives, Mrs Caldwell believes the Teebane atrocity has been forgotten. "I know there have been other atrocities but I think Teebane was pushed to the side for some reason. We live just 14 miles from where the Omagh atrocity happened and it's never mentioned. "You meet people and they say you must be over that by now, that's a long time ago. If only they knew the struggle it is."

Rosemary Dunseath the mother of a Magherafelt man murdered at Teebane, would also like to come face-to-face with her son's killers so she could tell them they had "Wrecked the lives of many people". "I would say to them, do he way that you have wrecked our lives - all the families - and that there's a day of reckoning," she added. "I wouldn't be bitter about it; I would just say well, whoever did that will have to answer for it."

Neither Mrs Dunseath nor her husband Robert were able to return to work after their son Robert's death. "I couldn't even go into the shops on my own at the beginning, a neighbour went in with me all the time. I couldn't face going out," recalled Mrs Dunseath. "It has been very hard from day-to-day, especially around Christmas time and coming up to the anniversary again. All during the year it doesn't get any easier, you learn to cope with it."

The Reverend Ivor Smith, who had worked with the families after the killings, said that he had been overwhelmed by their capacity to deal with grief - but angered that those responsible for the deaths would never be brought to justice.

"I have been impressed greatly with their courage and dignity when over the years they were forgotten about by the authorities because no one was interested in victims.

Mr Smith said that the families' memorial to the dead men had been defaced, destroyed but had been restored as they had remained determined to remember the loss of the men.

But he also said that perhaps now there was an opportunity for all to start to look to the future. "As a society we need to move forward if the future is a future without guns," he said. "I certainly hope and pray that this future will be very different.

"But the families are going to be very deeply hurt and will not be able to find closure because people will not be brought to justice."

Memorial Service ten years later

More than 200 people attended a memorial service to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Teebane. A short silence was observed as the names of the eight Protestant workmen killed on January 17 1992 were read out in a ceremony jointly conducted by Rev William McCrea and Rev Ivor Smith of the Presbyterian Church.

The 25-minute service was held at the spot where the blue Ford Transit van was blown apart by an IRA bomb killing eight men and seriously injuring six others. Flowers were laid at the granite monument engraved with the names of the deceased which stands at the side of the Teebane crossroads on the Omagh to Cookstown road. Family and friends gather each year at the isolated spot in Co Tyrone to commemorate their dead who all worked for Ballymena firm Karl Construction.

The men had been carrying out work on Lisanelly army base in Omagh and were on their way home when the 400lb bomb exploded. Rev McCrea said many people still sought answers about what had happened that day. “I can assure you that question will be asked again, that has been asked in the past. It is right that those who did this foul deed are brought to justice,” the Mid-Ulster assembly member said. Presbyterian minister, the Rev Ivor Smith said he had received a letter from First Minister David Trimble and a call from Moderator of the Presbyterian Church Alastair Dunlop. “You folk are so often forgotten by most people, not by everybody.

“I know that there are folk who are remembering here today from different dominations, folk with different political perspectives whose thoughts and prayers are with us as we gather here this afternoon,” Rev Smith said.

Why did Daddy have to die?'
‘I know the families have suffered, but our suffering is no different' Caldwell's inquisitive young mind has one pressing question she desperately wants answered: "Why did my daddy have to die?" At just 12 years old, she simply can't understand why the father she adored, was so suddenly, and brutally, taken from her.

Along with six other workmen Jimmy Caldwell, 37, was blown up in the horrific 1992, IRA Teebane massacre. It was a cold, calculated attack designed to wipe out innocent men, whose only crime was to carry out construction work for the army.

Grace's mother, Jean, says the barbaric slaying of her husband in a 400-pound landmine attack, poses many questions, which she can't answer. And her daughter - only two-and-a-half-years-old, when her precious daddy died - now wants to know it all. Jean believes an inquiry may get to the bottom of how a Provo death squad successfully targeted the workmen's minibus.

But she fears that because of the cost of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, it's unlikely this will ever happen. "All atrocities should be treated equally, whether it's mass murder, as in Teebane, Shankill, Omagh, Greysteel, the Ormeau Road bookies, or an individual killing," she says. "I know the Bloody Sunday families have suffered, and I wish them well, but our suffering is no different. "We want justice, and it makes me angry that people like us have had our feelings swept under the carpet. "

The costs of the Bloody Sunday inquiry are huge at the minute, and that would stop any other inquiries. "And perhaps someone may be afraid if the truth about Teebane ever came out."

Jean has spent the past 10 years wondering why such a massacre could ever have happened. She remembers with sadness how Jimmy had talked about the threat of an attack. "The week they died, we knew there was a threat in the general area, but we didn't know who it was against," she recalls. "My husband was able to tell me about it, but why was there no greater protection given to the workers? "It was well known they were at risk, and surely, with the potential threat, there should have been some sort of precautionary action. "Grace, who adored her daddy, and still talks about him, is coming up to her 13th birthday. "She constantly asks why he had to die. I can't give her an answer, and it breaks my heart."

At the inquest into the deaths of the eight Co Tyrone workmen, the coroner was told that because of a string of security lapses, their minibus was a "sitting duck". An RUC inspector confirmed no police cover had been given to the vehicle.

The coroner remarked: "There is clear evidence that the appropriate route clearance had not been made, or received, on that particular day, at least." Sunday Life 17th February 2002

Teebane families press for justice

Eight men were killed in an IRA bomb at Teebane Relatives of men killed in an IRA bomb 10 years ago are to meet Northern Ireland's victims' minister to ask why no-one has been convicted of the atrocity?

Eight men died in January 1992 when a bomb exploded close to a construction workers' van at Teebane crossroads, on the road between Omagh and Cookstown, in County Tyrone.

The men's firm had been targeted because they carried out work for the security forces.

Relatives of the Teebane victims will meet Des Browne at Stormont on Thursday as part of their quest for justice. Linda Clarke, who lost her brother, Nigel, in the massacre said the knowledge that no-one had ever been made accountable deepened her grief. "It was very hard because there only was my mother and the two of us. My father died when I was only two," she said. "Probably, if they are caught now they are not going to get very much, they will be out in a couple of years, but at least you would know that's who done it and it might take the pain away a bit."

Her husband, Trevor, believes the Teebane families need to see action taken in their case. "We all had our own private grief because it seemed that the Teebane atrocity had been forgotten about and their families had been forgotten about," he said. "We haven't had much point of contact from either the police or the government since." He said their grief had been made all the more poignant as the tenth anniversary of the atrocity had passed without anyone being convicted.

Rachael McDonald whose brother Bobby died in the explosion said her grief was still acute ten years on. "There was only a year between us and we were very close," she said. "He only lived two doors from me and that makes it worse because I think sometimes I can hear him out at the back. "We always have a Christmas together and he is the missing one."

Mid-Ulster assembly member, the Reverend William McCrea, who has been working with the families, said all they wanted was justice. "The concerns that many of the families have is that there has been less concern about the Teebane tragedy than about other tragedies. "They want justice done and seen to be done." He said the families had already had a meeting with Mr Browne and a senior police officer. He said they intended to continue with such meetings to ensure the tragedy was kept at the forefront of the minds of the government and the security forces. BBC Thursday, 29 August, 2002

"We Were Just Lambs to the Slaughter"

The Police Ombudsman is to be asked to review the police investigation into the Teebane massacre by one of its survivors.

Robert O'Neill has never worked since the IRA blasted his work van on January 17, 1992. The Co Antrim man believes the police and his former employers have been "dishonest in their actions" before and after the atrocity.
Mr O'Neill claims he started asking questions about security before the bomb after a "gut feeling" the security forces were not aware of their movements. He alleges his then employers - Karl Construction - told him and others they were being given security force protection when they were not.

He also claims on January 7, he and a fellow worker went to the police station in Omagh to inquire about their security arrangements. "The policeman in Omagh said he had no information from Karl Construction about us. We checked with Castlederg UDR camp and the position was the same. "The policeman asked us how long we had been using the Cookstown to Omagh Road and when we told him the other workers had been using it for maybe 11 or 12 months he said, 'That is madness'. He said the road was too dangerous for that. He said if we continued to travel that route we would get hit.

"That policeman did not tell us what he was going to do about our security. Later, after the bomb, the same policeman said he 'could not recollect our conversation'. The whole thing is a cover-up from start to finish."
Mr O'Neill said, if action had been taken on January 7, the Teebane massacre might not have happened.
"The police could have directed the workvans to take different routes each day and provided us with protection.
"On January 8 I spoke to an Army officer with the Royal Green Jackets who was only made aware of our movements when I told him. He was able to put out extra patrols that day." In an inquest into the massacre police denied knowledge of the workmen's movements. According to the book Lost Lives, there was controversy at the time of the inquest when it emerged no police protection had been provided for the workers' van.

Two senior police officers said they had not been aware of the daily route taken by the bus between Lisanelly Army base near Omagh and the firm's base in Magherafelt. Both officers said they were surprised at the situation. One officer told the inquest: "I was not aware of receiving messages regarding the movements of workers from Lisanelly by Karl. It is a situation that should not have been allowed to develop." A solicitor acting for two of the families asked him: "If you had known that, would steps have been taken to give them some sort of protection?"
The officer replied: "That is correct. Protection would have been given throughout the route."

Asked by the solicitor whether the van was 'a sitting duck', the officer replied: "There was no coverage given to that vehicle."

The owner of Karl Construction said his firm had 'followed all procedures laid down by the RUC to the letter of the law and the information passed on to the RUC'. He said a detailed description of the van was provided to police and that police were aware that his workers at Lisanelly were moving in and out of Magherafelt every day.
But Mr O'Neill, who is still visibly traumatised, said he has "waited long enough for justice to be done" for those who died and the survivors. "We were just lambs to the slaughter," he said. Eight workmen died in the IRA landmine which exploded as their van negotiated Teebane crossroads on the main Omagh to Cookstown road. The men, all Protestants, worked for the Ballymena based Karl Construction which had been carrying out repairs on the Lisanelly Army base.

Four men who were meant to travel in the van that day went by car.

The van was dropping them off as they returned to their homes in Cookstown, Magherafelt, Doagh and Ballymena on a Friday evening. The device exploded at 5.30pm and the IRA's east Tyrone brigade later admitted responsibility. Seven workers were killed instantly while the eighth victim, Oswald Gilchrist, died on January 21 from his injuries. The other six workers were badly injured.

The bomb had been packed into blue plastic bins and was left beside a telegraph pole. Moments before the explosion, an Ulsterbus carrying 12 schoolgirls from St Patrick's Academy in Dungannon and a woman passenger had just gone through the crossroads. The driver said: "I braked and turned around and saw the van coming skidding down the road on its roof. Up the road, there were bodies." Two men were lying dead on the grass verge while a third was lying halfway out of the van's cab, calling for his friends. The bus driver used a scarf as a tourniquet on a man with severe head wounds.

The bomb, containing up to 500lb of home-made explosive, left a crater more than six metres wide and one metre deep at the side of the road. A command wire led to a firing point 230 metres away in some trees where a battery pack and a roll of tape were found. In the aftermath of the bombing, RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Anneseley visited the scene where he told reporters he would be asking for more police and troops.