Best friend recalls murder of two RUC men just moments after midnight on New Year's Day 40 years ago
Ringing in the new year is a time of jubilation for many, but for Scott Harkness it is a time of tremendous grief.
That's because mere moments into New Year's Day 40 years ago, his best friend Michael Williams was killed by the IRA.
Michael, aged 24 and from Portadown, was one of two RUC men who were fatally blown up by a bomb hidden in a bin in Armagh city about a minute after midnight in 1986.
The other dead man was James McCandless, aged 39, also from Portadown and a father of two.
Now Mr Harkness has recalled the impact that night had on his life, four decades on.
He and Michael had known each-other since they before they were teenagers, and "he was great craic - always good fun".
Michael had seemed destined to follow his parents and become an estate agent, but instead quit his studies in Leicester University out of homesickness, returned to Co Armagh, and joined the RUC.
A reserve constable, his ambition was to become full-time.
Asked why his friend had joined the police in the middle of the Troubles, Mr Harkness said he had sought "peace and reconciliation".
"We had no 'sides'," he said.
"We had friends who were Catholics and Protestants.
"There wasn't any animosity against anybody - except for the IRA.
"Michael wanted to protect his town."
The book Lost Lives recounts how three masked men had taken over a house in Ogle Street overlooking the street where the bomb was planted, holding a family hostage for several hours before detonating the explosives by remote control.
A third RUC man, who was injured in the blast, said that some young men on the street had just wished the patrolling officers a happy new year when there was "an almighty flash and bang" and smoke and dust filled the air.
Mr Harkness had been at a New Year house party in London at the time, when a call came through at 4am from Michael's mother, breaking the news.
"There was absolute shock," he said. "We couldn't believe it."
He believes that Michael, who was married but had no children, had swapped shifts that night with another officer who had a family.
As to his emotions now, looking back, he said he feels “hate” for those who carried out the attack.
Mr Harkness credits the murder with inspiring him to join the UDR, but also said it caused him to turn to alcohol because "you want to forget – you try to black it out".
Now aged 66 and living in Carrickfergus, Mr Harkness spent New Year's Day laying a wreath at his old friend's grave at Seagoe Presbyterian Church.
Asked how he feels whenever New Year's Eve rolls around each year, he said: "Depressed, because it's on your mind.
"You see all the fireworks going off and just think: if only he hadn't have swapped his shift that night.
"But then again, he was brave.
"And it could've been another policeman, with kids."
Michael was very "career-minded" and if he were still alive "he'd probably still be in the police – he probably would've gone up the ranks," and would now be preparing for retirement.
Mr Harkness voiced condolences to the family of the other policeman who was killed.
He also urged unionists to end their "naive and stupid" party rivalries and merge in order to ensure Sinn Fein is kept out of power.