Response from Secretary of State
We have recently received a response to our letter to the Secretary Of State. To read please follow the link:
La Mon Remembered
On Friday 15 February 2019 a commemorative event for the victims of the La Mon House Bombing took place in Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council attended by The Right Worshipful the Mayor, Councillor Uel Mackin.
The service of remembrance took place amidst beautiful sunshine outside Council Headquarters in front of a bench dedicated to the memory of the twelve victims who lost their lives in the tragedy.
Mr Mayor read the names of the victims and two bunches of flowers were laid on the bench and in front of it, one by Trevor, the grandson of Mr James Mills who lost both his wife and sister in the atrocity, and the other by a representative of the Ulster Human Rights Watch Advocacy Service who has been supporting the victims in their quest for truth and justice.
According to the wishes expressed by Mr William McDowell, whose wife was one of the most seriously injured and who passed away in 2013, the Advocacy Support Manager for the Ulster Human Rights Watch, Axel Schmidt, delivered a short address to the people assembled. He spoke on the basis of the last verses of the book of Ecclesiastes (Chap. 12 v. 13-14). The proceedings were concluded with the Lord’s prayer being recited by all those in attendance.
This was the 41st Anniversary of the La Mon House Bombing, when on 17th February 1978 the IRA planted a bomb outside the restaurant that exploded with a napalm effect. The fire spread so rapidly that twelve people remained trapped inside the building and lost their lives. Twenty-three others were injured, some very seriously. To this day the victims of the terrorist attack remain scarred physically and emotionally.
The office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) has just confirmed that the complaint lodged by the victims in this case will be the first to be investigated as soon as an investigation team is available to do so.
Teebane Remembered 20/01/2019
On Sunday afternoon, 20 January, around 40 people, adults and children, gathered at the roadside on the A505 between Omagh and Cookstown in front of the memorial that reminds all passers-by of the awful tragedy known as the Teebane Bombing, that happened 27 years ago. The PSNI had diverted the traffic so as to enable the commemoration service to take place in a quiet atmosphere on this cold but clear day.
On 17 January 1992, at about 5.10pm, the Tyrone brigade of the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb planted on the side of the road just as a Mercedes van transporting workers from Karl Construction was approaching the Teebane junction, about 16 miles from Omagh in the direction of Cookstown. Fourteen workers were travelling home in the van from Lisanelly Army Barracks in Omagh when the device exploded, killing seven men instantly and wounding seven others. One of the wounded never regained consciousness and died four days later in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Eight men in all lost their lives in the attack.
The bomb contained 300-500 lbs of home-made explosives packed into two blue barrels. It was detonated from a power source located at the vantage point, 230 metres up the hill overlooking the road that the van was due to travel. A command wire was hidden in the field along the Loughdoo Road under loose grass, connecting the detonator within the blue barrel to a battery pack which was the power source for the device. The bomb created a crater 6.4 metres in diameter and 1.4 metres deep in the grass verge on the side of the road.
The murdered men were David Samuel Harkness, William Gary Alexander Bleeks, John Robert Dunseith, John Richard McConnell, Cecil James Caldwell, Nigel William John McKee, Robert Irons and Oswald Wilson Gilchrist.
The fourteen employees had been working on a security force contract at the Lisanelly Barracks. Over the previous twelve months they had been travelling in a van belonging to Karl Construction, using the same route between Magherafelt and Omagh every working day, morning and evening. The road had not been secured by the RUC against a terrorist attack.
No one has ever been charged for the murders of the eight Karl Construction workers. A complaint lodged by victims was accepted within the remit of the Historical Investigation Directorate of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in September 2018 and will be investigated in due course …
The commemoration service was conducted by the Reverend William McCrea, who preached about the need to remember those who were murdered by IRA terrorists on that day. He emphasised that the duty of remembrance must be passed down from one generation to the next so that young people may prevent the tragedies of the past from being repeated in the future. He stated that if those who planned and perpetrated that wicked act are not caught in this life, they will face a day of accountability before the God of Heaven.