Teebane widow tells of heartache
Teebane Bombing 17th January 1992 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded a bomb killing eight Protestant civilians who had been travelling 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. (News Letter Library File)
THE widow of a Cookstown man killed in one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles almost 20 years ago has said she believes his death and those of seven other Protestant workmen could have been avoided.
Jean Caldwell, whose 37-year-old husband Jimmy was one of those murdered in the IRA massacre at Teebane crossroads in January 1992, spoke out about the tragedy that claimed the lives of eight Protestant workmen and maimed six others.
In her first full interview in 10 years, Mrs Caldwell spoke of how her family and herself have struggled to come to terms with her husband’s murder and how she believes not enough protection was given to the busload of construction workers travelling from Lisanelly Army Barracks on that fateful Friday afternoon.
“There was no security given to those men at the time. It was a dangerous road and they should not have been travelling on it,” Mrs Caldwell said.
“Jimmy knew about the threat, all those men did. I remember Jimmy saying to me about it and he said that they weren’t sure whether the threat was on the army, the army barracks or the police station. But they knew there was a threat on.
“I used to pick Jimmy up on a Friday – rain, hail or snow. But that Friday I didn’t go to Omagh, I went on the Wednesday and there was a heavy threat on that week because I remember the army coming out and taking me inside Lisanelly barracks.
“My feeling is that the route they were travelling on should have been researched a lot more and there was very poor communication between the police and the construction firm.”
No inquiry has ever been launched into the 1992 atrocity despite pleas from the victims’ families for justice.
Twenty years on, the widowed mother-of-two, whose youngest daughter was just two-and-a-half years old when her father died, doubts what an inquiry so long after the tragedy would achieve.
“At this stage I think it would be a waste of money,” said Mrs Caldwell.
“The money it would take for that to happen would be unbelievable. Are we going to get justice at the end of it? I think it would be like banging your head up against a brick wall.
“The only thing that has been done is the Historical Enquiries Team investigation, and I am pleased with the work they have done, but to me there is still a lot more to be done.”
Mrs Caldwell, who trained as a bereavement counsellor following her husband’s death, said that she has overcome her bitterness towards the IRA killers responsible, but said justice still needed to be done to help each family and survivor of the atrocity come to terms with the tragedy.
On Sunday, the families of those killed in the Teebane massacre will once again meet at the point where their loved ones lost their lives.
Those murdered were William Gary Bleeks, 35, from Cookstown, Cecil James (Jimmy) Caldwell, 37, from Cookstown, Robert Dunseith, 25, from Magherafelt, David Harkness, 23, from Cookstown, John Richard McConnell, 38, from Doagh, Nigel McKee, 22, from Ballymena, Robert Irons, 61, from Ballymena, and Oswald Gilchrist, 44, from Magherafelt.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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