La Mon bomb is remembered

La Mon bomb is remembered

21 February 2018

SURVIVORS and relatives of victims of the La Mon bombing 40 years ago gathered at the weekend to remember one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles.

Twelve people were killed and 30 injured when an IRA firebomb exploded at the hotel near Gransha in North Down on Friday, September 17, 1978.

On Sunday the survivors and relatives and friends were joined by representatives of the emergency services and politicians for a special service at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s new headquarters.

During the service at Lagan Valley Island, a stained glass memorial window to the victims, which had been in the council’s previous headquarters, was rededicated.

The window includes a peacock with 12 feathers, each of which represents one of the lives lost.

It was in the Peacock Room where members of the Irish Collie Club had gathered to enjoy a prize giving dinner.

Over 40 people were in the room when a device made up of cans of petrol attached to explosives went off at one of the windows.

The flames spread through the room and quickly engulfed the hotel, leaving only a pile of charred wreckage on the site of one of the area’s most popular nightspots.

The full extent of the horror only became evident the following day, but the disaster could have been even worse.

In an adjoining room over 100 teenage members of the Northern Ireland Junior Motorcycle Club were attending a presentation dinner. After the bomb went off they managed to get out.

One of the first people on the scene was Bill Hamilton, a Down Recorder freelance photographer, who was there to cover the motorcycle awards dinner.

Bill, who sadly died 15 years ago, was an ambulance driver by profession. When the bomb went off Bill put his camera away and ran to help the injured.

For the next half an hour he and members of the hotel staff fought desperately to get into the blazing Peacock Room where they knew people were trapped.

It was only after he had done all that he could for the injured that he reluctantly lifted his camera to take pictures of the burning building.

Those pictures later found their way on to the front pages of newspapers across the globe and told graphically of the horror and destruction he witnessed.

But for a news bulletin, Bill might have been one of the casualties that dreadful night.

He had been due to take his photos at 9pm and had arrived punctually in the crowded car park. Instead of going into the hotel he broke with habit and decided to sit in his car and listen to the 9pm news on Downtown Radio.

As the bulletin was ending Bill got out of the car. It was then that the bomb went off.

“If it hadn’t been for the news I was dead,” he later recalled. “When the bulletin came on I decided to listen to it before going into the hotel. If I had gone straight in I would have been walking past the bomb when it went off.

“I had just stepped out of the car when I heard a thud and saw a massive ball of flame shooting straight upwards.

“The flames lit the whole place up and for what seemed like ages the whole place went completely quiet. The silence was really eerie. Then I ran up to the side of the hotel where people were just beginning to come out.

“I went inside and the first thing I saw was a woman running out. She was very badly burned and I could see holes on her arm and chest, so I pulled some heavy curtains off the wall and wrapped her in these.

“I managed to get her and two other women outside and then a man came running out screaming ‘where’s my wife?’. He said she had been sitting beside him and then just disappeared in a sheet of flames.”

Bill was later to learn that the man he was talking to was Mr Joseph Morris and that his young wife, Sandra, died in the blaze.

Bill continued to describe the harrowing scenes he witnessed. “Some of the hotel waiters and I tried to crawl into the Peacock Room. We knew people were trapped in there because we could hear them screaming.

“But it was no use. Even with wet cloths around our faces we couldn’t get into the room because of the intense heat. I’ve been to a good many fires but I have never experienced heat like that.

“After that I just tried to do all I could for the injured and helped put people into the ambulances. The hotel itself went up very quickly, though everyone who survived was evacuated inside about ten minutes and were safe enough in the car park.

Bill said the memories would remain with him for the rest of his life.

“I’ll never forget that night. The screams and the sight of the people with their clothes and flesh on fire will always stick in my mind.

“In all my years in the ambulance service I have never seen anything like it and I hope I never will again.”