The sixteen page paper covered details of many of the atrocities that occurred over many years – The Massacre at Darkley Gospel Hall when the IRA killed three church elders as children screamed hysterically, Fathers dived over their young children as they lay amongst the upturned pews as the terrorists calmly walked through the hall reloading their weapons and firing indiscriminately. The La Mon House Massacre when twelve innocent people were burned to death as they sat down to dinner. This was one of the most horrific and appalling attacks as the IRA terrorists attached a blast incendiary bomb to the window grilles causing a blast similar to a napalm bomb exploding. Survivors were found wandering around the car park in shock, their clothes in tatters. A warning call was made to the RUC in Newtownards at 8.57pm, by the time the police tried to contact the hotel, minutes later the bomb had already gone off. Killed for their culture and their faith, The Tullyvallen Massacre of five members of an Orange lodge as they sat in their hall a mile from the border with the Irish republic reading from their Bibles. The Kingsmill Massacre as families in and around the tiny village of Bessbrook waited and wondered why their husbands and sons were so late. As the dinners grew cold the news began to filter through that the minibus they were travelling in had been stopped, the single Roman Catholic on the bus was told to run as the remainder were cut down in a hate driven attack. The only survivor, a young man of nineteen was hit eighteen times; fourteen children were left fatherless as the killers drove off cheering at their night’s work. Described as Bloody Friday, July 21st went down in the history of the Troubles as the day in which 20 bombs were detonated across Belfast in the space of one hour, killing nine and maiming over 130 innocent people in what the IRA described as attacks on legitimate targets. An officer from the RUC in an interview given for a BBC programme said, ‘You could hear the people screaming, crying and moaning. The first thing that caught my eye was the torso of a human being lying in the road, I saw many other terrible sights that day. I have tried to put it to the back of my mind.’ Above is a photograph of the mural on the Shankill identifying just five of the atrocities inflicted on the people of the Shankill.
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