Anniversary of a dark day during the Troubles

Anniversary of a dark day during the Troubles

22 April 2015

A CHUCH service has been held in Killinchy to mark the 25th anniversary of the deaths of four UDR soldiers killed in an 1,000lb IRA land-mine explosion outside Downpatrick in April 1990.

The soldiers were killed on April 9 when their Land Rover took the full force of the bomb which had been placed in a culvert on the Ballydugan Road just a short distance outside the town centre.

The soldiers were part of a two vehicle patrol travelling from Ballykinlar army barracks towards Downpatrick when their vehicle was blown into a nearby field by the force of the blast.

A command wire running to a clump of gorse bushes about 350 feet away was used to detonate the device as the two Land Rovers passed. The explosion left a crater 50 feet long, 40 feet wide and 15 feet deep.

The soldiers who died were lance corporal John Bradley and privates John Birch, Stephen Smith and Michael Adams.

The bombers escaped on a Honda trials motorcycle which had been stolen in Newry a week earlier. It was later found in the Flying Horse estate.

A 23 year-old man was subsequently jailed for 15 years for pleading guilty to conspiring to members of the security forces. He had drive a scout car for the bombers when the device was planted the day before the explosion.

Sunday’s emotional service was held at Killinchy Presbyterian Church and one of those in attendance was Strangford MP Jim Shannon who knew three of the soldiers who died.

Over 300 people packed into the church for the moving and poignant service and were joined by relatives of those who died in the atrocity. Mr Shannon said he knew privates Birch, Smith and Adams who died along with their colleague John Bradley. 

“The memories of that day in April 1990 flooded back as we recalled our own personal thoughts of these young men,” said the MP. “We recalled their sacrifice, courage, call to duty and service to Queen and country that saw them pay the ultimate price. How grateful we all are for their lives in the uniform of the UDR and the British Army.”

Mr Shannon said that “fateful April day” took the lives of four young UDR soldiers and plunged families into life-long grief.

He added: “Even today, 25 years later, we remember with gratitude what they did for democracy and liberty in the face of absolute evil. We salute their sacrifice 25 years later and thank them and their families and assure them that we will continue to remember them.”