Honouring terror victims: ‘La Mon first & last night out our parents had’

Dr Andrea Nelson was speaking today as part of an online gathering to mark the 17th European Day for Innocent Victims of Terrorism.

The event normally sees people congregate together at Stormont, but coronavirus restrictions meant it had to be staged over the internet.

The event was convened by TUV MLA Jim Allister, and featured the stories of three bereaved families: that of Dr Nelson whose mother and father were incinerated by the IRA, the relatives of a British soldier killed in London, and a son whose father was murdered by the UVF in Dublin.

Dr Nelson spoke in a video which was accessible via Mr Allister’s Facebook page.

She was 14 when the IRA detonated a bomb coupled with flammable liquids at the La Mon hotel in north Co Down, on February 17, 1978.

It created a vast fireball which killed 12 people – all Protestant, all civilians.

Dr Nelson told listeners today that it had been a big night for her parents, Paul and Dorothy Nelson.

They were “getting ready to go out to a dinner-dance – it was something they didn’t normally do,” she said.

“That night we helped our mum get ready and get gorgeous, and they headed out for their first night out that we can ever remember them having.

“It was also an exciting night because I was going to be, as a big 14-year-old, babysitting next door and Melanie [her sister,aged 13] was going to have all the snacks and TV in the house on her own.

“Over the course of that night – me next door and Melanie in our house – watched the TV. We saw a newsflash come up about a big bomb that’d happened just on the outskirts of Belfast where we lived.”

Neighbours then arrived, looking for their parents.

The only thing the sisters could do was “snuggle up” and await their return.

Of course, it never came.

The age ranges of those killed was from 25 to 52.

“We have holes in our hearts where mum and dad should be, said Dr Nelson.

“Everytime there’s a happy event, Christmas, Mother’s Day, a wedding, something like that, you just miss those people...

“We had grat times, enjoying small things in life with mummy and daddy – whether frying sausages on the beach or dancing really stupidly to Neil Diamond in the front room.

“They taught us how to capture each moment, and the joy of everyday things. We’re really grateful they’d given us that – but we’ve lost a lot.”

The online broadcast drew to a close with some words from DUP leader Arlene Foster, who herself escaped grave injury in her mid-teen when the IRA blew up her schoolbus (and whose father narrowly survived being shot in the head at their family farm some years later).

She said: “There are those in this place [Stormont] of course who would like to suppress the voice of innocent victims.

“But I want to assure you that whilst there are those of us who believe in justice and in truth, that will not happen.”