Parents of baby killed in no warning IRA bomb among victims of terrorism given platform for personal stories

Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW) has teamed up with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) to launch the online tool which allows people to read detailed accounts of some of the most harrowing events during the conflict.

Nine accounts are already on the PRONI website – they can be accessed by searching the e-Catalogue using Ref: D4791 then Ref: D4791/1/1.

The stories feature a school teacher who was gunned down at the top of the stairs in his east Belfast home.

Another victim, a young woman on a bus on her way from work, was burned by a petrol bomb and died a short while after.

There is also the story of a 17-month-old baby – Colin Nicholl – who was killed in his pram by a terrorist bomb placed at a furniture store on the Shankill Road in 1971.

Colin Nicholl was the much longed for adopted baby son of Jackie and Anne Nicholl. He had become a member of the family a year before his death.

On the day Colin was murdered, he was with a friend and neighbour, Ellen Munn and her two-year-old daughter, Tracey. Colin and Tracey were in the pram together being pushed past the Balmoral Showrooms when a no warning bomb exploded killing both young children and seriously injuring Ellen.

Two adults also died, Harold King and Hugh Bruce. Thirteen others were injured.

On the day of Colin’s death his mum Anne had gone to England to support her sister whose six-year-old son had been killed in a road accident a few days before.

His dad Jackie was playing football in Dunmurry.

He said: “After the match, we had heard of a bombing on the Shankill and passed where it had gone off, but I didn’t know Colin had been killed. At about 5.30pm I got to my mother’s house in Alloa Street in north Belfast. It was packed, with many of my family there. I said, ‘who is the party for?’ but they were all in a bad way. My brother-in-law Tom said, ‘We have got bad news, Colin was killed’.”

UHRW Advocacy Manager, Axel Schmidt, said: “Victims and survivors tell it as it was and how, many years later, they still revisit with vivid clarity the hour, the day, the month they were robbed of a loved one for no reason whatsoever. The killers are long since out of jail and getting on with their lives but for many innocent victims suffering appalling physical injuries and debilitating psychological conditions, time stands still.”

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