Woman who suffered horrific injuries in IRA fun run bomb elated at new victims’ facility

Andrea Brown is a member of the SEFF (South East Fermanagh Foundation) victims’ group, but has been unable to travel to the main centre of SEFF’s activities in Lisnaskea due to her daily care requirements.

Andrea, who lives in Moira, suffered horrific injuries when a bomb exploded under a mini-bus following the Lisburn fun run in June 1988, killing six soldiers on board.

Her RUC officer father, Eric Brown, was murdered during an IRA gun attack in Rostrevor five years earlier when she was aged 12.

Despite battling chronic pain and being confined to a wheelchair, Andrea has craved the social interaction available to more able-bodied victims. She had almost succumbed to a crushing sense of despair when she heard the news that SEFF was opening a new office and drop-in centre at Graham Gardens in Lisburn.

“I am now excited for the future, in a way that I never really was,” she said.

“My life is exciting now. I am just so excited to be involved, even just to be there to give a hand making tea or coffee, but I also do crafts and some other things. It’s about feeling needed which is very, very important in life.

“To feel needed within any organisation is amazing, but to feel needed within an organisation that means so much to so many people is just taking it to a whole other level.”

The new SEFF office – which will be fully operational once the current Covid restrictions are lifted – will offer advocacy services, well-being support and other practical help including welfare advice and counselling.

“I haven’t been able to travel any distance because I rely on carers four times a day,” Andrea said.

“They run so many things, like classes, courses, socialising and all sorts of things that I would really appreciate. The socialising aspect is therapy in itself. I think it is really important to spend time with like minded people.

I have grown up with my family all of my life, but they haven’t been through what I have been through, so it’s not the same at all.

“It is such a good news story. It has only been in the last seven or eight years that I have been able to go into Lisburn, because my PTSD just wouldn’t let me... go in around the Bow Street area where the bomb was.

“But now, with [the new SEFF office] in Lisburn, I will definitely be able to access the services.”

The new centre’s advocacy support worker is Joanne Dorrian – sister of Lisa Dorrian was murdered after attending a party at Co Down caravan park in 2005.

“We have been receiving advocacy support from SEFF ourselves for the last three and a half years so I know the difference that that has made to us and our lives, and I thought that if I can do that for any other family then I would be overjoyed to be able to do that,” Joanne said.

Lisa was 25-years-old when she disappeared. Despite extensive searches for her body and numerous appeals for help from the public, Lisa has still not been found and nobody has been brought to justice in connection with her disappearance.

Joanne said: “I have been at the forefront of my sister’s campaign and we have been campaigning and lobbying for coming up to 16 years this Sunday, so I have experience of dealing with many of the government bodies and statutory agencies.

“So whenever I saw the [SEFF] job advertised I thought it would be a really good fit for me.

“The service itself is offering support to victims and survivors of the Troubles, and that comes in all different shapes and forms.

“The advocacy side is just one part of SEFF. We also have the health and well-being which is going to be a service in Lisburn. It is an outreach office but we are hopeful we will be able to offer in Lisburn what SEFF can offer in Lisnaskea.”

Joanne said this is the time for anyone who has so far suffered in silence to come forward.

“We are going to have a nice common area where people can sit down and read a book, have a cup of tea, so it can also be a nice social space for people,” she said.

“Our door is totally open and it always will be. For any innocent victims, we are there to support them. There may be people who have lived with trauma for 40 or 50 years and I would say to them now – the service is there for you if you want to engage. They are the people we are looking for and are ready to support.

I can’t wait to get started. When the coronavirus pandemic settles down we will hopefully be holding coffee mornings and social evenings when people can get together and maybe talk about their experiences.”

Joanne added: “It’s in its infancy at the minute but we have definite plans to grow the service, and that will happen organically with the victims that will come to us as well as the victims we already have contact with in that area.

“All the people that work there are just so genuine and you really can put your trust in them to help you.”

SEFF is confident that the new office in Lisburn, close to the train station, is ideally placed to provide support for Troubles victims in Lisburn, Belfast and the surrounding area.

Director of services at SEFF Kenny Donaldson said: “SEFF has a significant membership who live in the greater Belfast area and the reality is that such individuals have not been fully able to engage in group based activities due to the geographical distance between where they live and where SEFF offices are based.

“There was a need for SEFF to have a base in the eastern region of Northern Ireland, Lisburn and the Lagan Valley constituency is without coverage for victims/survivors of ‘the Troubles’ so setting up here makes logistical sense.”

SEFF is now a Northern Ireland-wide organisation, as well as being the sole NI-based group of its kind to have set up a support base in Great Britain. A outreach service supporting innocent victims/survivors of terrorism in the Republic of Ireland has also been established”.

Mr Donaldson said: “We call upon innocent victims/survivors to engage with our services. We have excellent office located at Graham Gardens, Lisburn and we will be taking up occupancy at the earliest opportunity post Covid lockdown”.

“From this office we will have advocacy staff located, health and well-being support including a caseworker, counsellors, complementary therapists, welfare advice – including support to those engaging with The Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme etc.

“We encourage those interested in accessing our East Region service to contact us on 028 677 23884 – selecting either option 1 (Lisnaskea) or option 5 (Lisburn).

“Come and join the SEFF family,”

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