'What a vivid contrast': DUP compares 50th anniversay of IRA bomb atrocity with Sinn Fein commemoration for 'the south Armagh volunteers'

East Londonderry politician Gregory Campbell made the comments in the run-up to a planned commemoration of the Coleraine double-bombing which killed six people exactly 50 years ago on June 12.

On June 11, there is meant to be 'South Armagh Volunteers Commemoration' at 4pm at Mullaghbawn Community Centre, in the tiny Co Armagh village of that name a few miles from the Louth border.

Advertising signs for the event bear Sinn Fein's logo. They say John Finucane MP will be the main speaker, and that there will be "music, refreshments, and kids entertainment at Ti Chulainn", a centre just to the north-east of the village which is host to a big concrete PIRA monument.

– Sinn Fein MP John Finucane in spotlight over 'South Armagh Volunteers Commemoration'

After a garbled warning from the IRA on June 12, 1973, the first bomb (hidden in a stolen Ford Cortina) exploded outside a wine shop around 3pm on Coleraine’s Railway Road.

A second device detonated five minutes later at a garage in Hanover Place without killing anyone.

All the dead were Protestant pensioners: Elizabeth Craigmile (76), Robert Scott (72), Dinah Campbell (72), Francis Campbell (70), Nan Davis (60), and Elizabeth Palmer (60).

The Campbells and Elizabeth Craigmile were all related; Francis was Dinah’s husband, and Elizabeth was his sister.

One man spent months in intensive care, but survived.

At least three people lost limbs.

Gregory Campbell said: “This year is the 50th anniversary of two Provisional IRA bombs which took the lives of six people and injured 33 in Coleraine.

"It was an indiscriminate attack on entirely innocent people going about their business in a busy town.

"The memorial service in Coleraine will be a sombre and dignified event with a one-minute silence at 3pm, marking the time of the first explosion.

"It will commemorate the murder of six innocent people and many others whose lives were changed forever that day.

"The Sinn Fein approach to the event in Coleraine is important, not least because a current Sinn Fein councillor was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the murders.”

This is a reference to Sean McGlinchey, who was convicted of planting the bomb.

Councillor McGlinchey represents the Benbradagh district on the western side of the council area, covering Dungiven, Ballykelly and Greysteel.

He is also the brother of dead IRA man and later INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey, who was behind the bombing of the Droppin’ Well pub in Ballykelly in 1982 which killed 17 people.

Councillor McGlinchey was made mayor of Limavady in 2011.

At his trial in 1974, he refused to recognise the court, calling it “an illegal assembly”.

He was released from his six-life-sentence term in 1992.

In 2015, he described himself as a “proud ex-IRA man”, but also voiced “regret” about the Coleraine bombing.

Mr Campbell said that rather than remembering the carnage of that day, “the focus of republicans is on an event to commemorate terrorists taking place the day before in south Armagh” – an “incredibly vivid contrast between Sinn Fein’s rhetoric and their actions”.

He concluded: “Two events 24 hours apart will demonstrate more clearly than ever before where Sinn Fein’s priorities lie.

“Sinn Fein MP John Finucane is scheduled to address an event which will eulogise individuals who destroyed countless lives.

"The pain that will be on display in Coleraine will be in stark contrast to events in south Armagh which will be accompanied by music and children’s entertainers.

"Sinn Fein talks about ‘remembering their dead with dignity and respect’ yet promote an event which appears little more than a funfair.”

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