Unionist perceptions of the atrocity
Until the 17th of February 1978, the La Mon House Hotel was not widely known outside Northern Ireland.
After that date, it would forever be linked with one of the worst and most brutal atrocities of the conflict.
On Sunday, victims and survivors gathered in the offices of Castlereagh Borough Council in east Belfast to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the La Mon bombing; and to remember those who perished and those who were seriously injured.
During my extensive research with unionists and their attitudes to dealing with the past, the La Mon bombing has often emerged as 'proof' for sections of the unionist community that the Provisional IRA (PIRA) perpetrated a sectarian campaign of violence, and not an anti-colonial war as republicans have subsequently claimed.
On an evening on which members of an Irish Collie Dogs Club were gathering for their annual dinner dance, the PIRA planted a devastating napalm-type explosive at the hotel.
The firebomb was taped to the window of the hotel's Peacock Room.
More than one unionist respondent who was present that evening has recounted to me the firm belief that those who committed the atrocity would have seen, and so been aware, that their targets were innocent civilians.
Whether or not this is the case – and such contentious issues are things that any group trying to deal with the past must try to establish – it is hard to imagine how such a concoction, which turned the bomb into a formidable incendiary, was designed to cause anything other than maximum damage.
Twelve people were killed, including three married couples, and a further 33 were injured.
The victims were all Protestants, and also included members of the Northern Ireland Junior Motorcycle Club.
Many bodies were burnt beyond recognition. A full day after the explosion, only six bodies could be positively identified, such were the extent of the injuries.
The following day, the PIRA issued a statement from Dublin claiming responsibility for the attack and conceding that its nine-minute warning had given people inadequate time to escape.
There were unconfirmed rumours of angry debate within the PIRA, with many long-serving volunteers viewing it as an affront to their oft repeated claims to be fighting a war against the British state, and not against northern Protestants.
That the 'facts' of such a case should prove so problematic three decades later are indicative of the rocky terrain of politics in post-conflict Northern Ireland.
The self-congratulatory tone of Stormont politicians and talk of the 'end-game' leave many in the unionist community – including those who witnessed, were injured, died or lost relatives in tragedies like La Mon (and there were many instances in which Catholic civilians were also brutally murdered) – marginalised and unsure of how they might navigate the future.
The full article contains 486 words and appears in News Letter newspaper.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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