UTV’s Jane Loughrey: A rioter hit me with a brick then offered to buy me a gravy chip!

As she hangs up her microphone and autocue after 30 years at UTV, Jane Loughrey talks to HELEN MCGURK about the stories which made her laugh and cry.
Jane Loughrey has left UTV to start a "a new chapter"Jane Loughrey has left UTV to start a "a new chapter"
Jane Loughrey has left UTV to start a "a new chapter"

Jane Loughrey’s deeply moving report from the Omagh bomb on August 15, 1998, is one many UTV viewers will never forget; how she communicated the harrowing information of that awful day with clarity and compassion, whilst struggling to fight back the tears and quell her emotions.

Speaking from her home in south Belfast, Jane’s voice catches as she recalls that dark day when terrorists killed 31 people – 29 men, women and children, and unborn twins.

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“I thought in the car on the way down (to Omagh) that nothing will be worse than what I saw at the Shankill Road bomb...and it was...it was.”

Jane Loughrey reporting from the Omagh bombJane Loughrey reporting from the Omagh bomb
Jane Loughrey reporting from the Omagh bomb

After 30 years on the frontline of reporting Jane Loughrey, 54, is one of a triumvirate of top names, alongside political editor Ken Reid and weather presenter Frank Mitchell, who have taken voluntary redundancy from UTV.

During her exceptional tenure at the television station, Jane has reported on a catalogue of dramatic and tragic events, but Omagh, she says, was “horrendous” and “will never leave me”.

Jane initially went to the scene of the blast, then reported from Tyrone County Hospital.

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“Hearing about the children being caught up in the atrocity and trying to tell our viewers who were hungry for news about what we had seen was incredibly difficult. I remember people arriving in the hospital, grief-stricken, frantically trying to find their loved ones; they almost thought that I might have information and I just felt useless, absolutely useless. All I could was give information to people about what had happened in this market town on a bustling, busy Saturday.”

Jane Loughrey reporting from Holy CrossJane Loughrey reporting from Holy Cross
Jane Loughrey reporting from Holy Cross

The day after the bomb Jane had the “horrible job ” of knocking on Michael Gallagher’s door, a man whose 21-year-old son died in the atrocity.

“Michael Gallagher had only found his son Aidan three hours earlier in the morgue - he had been searching for him through the night. I remember him telling me so clearly that ‘Aidan had only gone in to buy jeans, Jane’. I’ll never forget that moment - the two of us, it was almost like time was suspended in the living room on that early Sunday evening.

“The next day I interviewed Stanley McCombe about his beloved wife Ann. The house was full of mourners and he was just crying and saying, ‘how am I going to live without her Jane’.

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“I interviewed the headmaster of Omagh High School, Bill Harper, about his pupils that he’d lost and he was weeping.

“The town was raw with grief and we, as journalists, were grieving with them. It was very difficult. At the end of the day, I’m only human, but I have to be professional and tell the story.”

Jane stayed friends with some the Omagh families, even attending the wedding of Donna Marie Keys, who had been severely burnt in the bomb.

“The one thing that impressed me about Omagh throughout was that that town refused to let what happened on that day ever destroy them, it brought them closer together. It makes my job worthwhile being able to tell people how fabulous these people are, they are not victims, they are survivors.”

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Jane Loughrey is notoriously private - she hasn’t done an interview in 20 years, insisting always that she is “not the story, but the vehicle for telling the story.”

And, after an eventful career reporting Northern Ireland’s troubles and tranquillity, she is a repository of stories. Thus it comes as

no surprise she has plans to write a memoir.

“After 30 years on the frontline I just decided it’s time to pass the baton on to the younger generation and who knows what the future holds. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I have no intention of retiring. I’m excited for the next chapter.

“I think I will write a book, a memoir, not just about the very poignant moments, but also the lighter moments along the way and the people I’ve met.

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“I’ll never forget the people who have trusted me to tell their stories and I cannot thank them enough for letting me through their front doors when they were aching inside with grief and also letting me grace their TV screens for three decades. It’s been an absolute honour and privilege.”

As well as the dark times, there have been plenty of lighter ‘Norn Iron’ moments.

She recalls: “One time I was reporting at a fierce riot at the top of the New Lodge. This young lad had thrown a brick, it smashed down on my ankle and I fell to the ground. I thought I had been shot, it was so painful. He came running over to me and shouted ‘Jane, Jane, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to get you, I meant to get a peeler.’ Then he offered to buy me a gravy chip as I was being carted off into the ambulance!,” she laughs.

“At times when you’ve been frightened or hurt, there’s always the Northern Ireland humour that gets you through.

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“Another time in Ardoyne a riot erupted and I was trapped with my cameraman in front of the police lines, instead of behind them where we normally stand.

“There was a woman standing on a wall drinking a bottle of vodka and she shouted to the policeman ‘let her through, she does the weather’. The policeman was so shocked he stood aside and let me through. I owe that lady a lot,” she laughs.

Jane spent days at Drumcree and recalls how journalists attended to their ablutions during the interminable stand-off..

“We used to go and know on the doors of some of the residents of the Garvaghy Road and ask to use their shower and they would bring us in and we’d have a shower and a cup of tea and toast, You had to look presentable on the TV!”

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Jane is reticent to single out the stories which have affected her as ‘everybody’s tears are the same’, but as a mum to 13-year-old Matthew, ‘the light of her life’, she finds those involving cruelty to children incredibly hard.

“One of my most difficult jobs was covering the HIA (Historical Institutional Abuse) inquiry.

“Listening to what happened to all those children, the most vulnerable of vulnerable, it was heartbreaking. I remember once the BBC’s Kevin Sharkey and myself were the only journalists in the room in the old Banbridge courthouse and a victim who was very keen to give evidence anonymously died a couple of days before he was able to tell the inquiry what had happened to him.

“Kevin Sharkey and I sat and listened to his evidence and we were moved to tears listening to what that man had suffered as a child. That was whenever I realised I could be useful, that we could tell people, that he would have a voice and he could be heard. It was so important to me that I told his story that night on the news. And that evening I came home and suffocated my son with hugs because I was so glad that he would never have to suffer like that.”

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But surely the daily grind of reporting on one atrocity after another must take it’s toll, long after the headlines have stopped?.

“I was reporting on the Troubles when my son was very young and he was more interested in watching Fireman Sam on the TV than mummy. I had to close the door on it when I came home because I had a little boy. I probably hugged him tighter at night because I realised how precious and fragile life is and you should appreciate every single moment, because you never know what’s around the corner. Watching other people lose loved ones and breaking their hearts, it does make you appreciate your family, your children, your friends.

“And what I have found incredible in all the interviews I have done is people’s desire to forgive - it makes your heart stop sometimes, how forgiving people are.”

Her highlights include visiting President Clinton in 1995 in East Belfast, “it was a fabulous moment to be part of the reporting team. We knew that it was massive but I don’t even think we realised the true significance of it until he left. Obviously being at Castle Buildings when the Good Friday Agreement was signed was an uplifting moment. And the IRA ceasefire was another amazing moment - I was sent to Downing Street.

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“Also the Queen coming to Ireland - and to UTV in 2010. It was meant to be a big secret that she was coming, the newsroom was painted and all spruced up and some people thought it was Cheryl Cole who was coming!,” she laughs.

Like many, Jane has been shielding a lot during the pandemic.

“I am in the clinically extremely vulnerable category. I still managed to work from home. I learnt to edit my own packages. TV reporting is a lot about technology as well as the journalism. It’s been tricky, but no different than anybody else - we just have to batten down the hatches and get on with it.”

Of course, leaving work during a pandemic has meant there’ll be no hugs and emotional send-offs, which, in a way she’s happier about.

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“I think if I was standing in the newsroom I’d cry my eyes out. Working for UTV you really do feel like part of a family. We’ve shared so much. You can’t fail to be touched by what we’ve reported on over the years. There is a really close bond that has formed. I’m leaving UTV with dear friends and very happy memories.”

And looking back on her career, she says simply: “I would hope people think that I was kind and that I was fair and that I told it as it was.”

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