40 years since surviving a bomb attack in Castlederg, I still want justice

On the morning of Friday the 18th of July, 1986 at before 9am I was standing at the bridge in Castlederg, County Tyrone.  A young-man just seventeen years old, enjoying my holiday from work. A very keen angler that had been fishing along the River Derg in the town that faithful morning and waiting on the footpath at the end of the bridge to be collected by my mother.  The quietness and beauty of a summer morning with the burble of the river gently flowing, the occasional car passing and the only other person to be seen was a young woman walking that passed by a few minutes earlier on the other side of the bridge heading into the town centre.

As I watched up the road for my mother, I observed the familiar white Ford Transit delivery van of a well-known retailer in Castlederg approach, the only vehicle on the road at that time.

Within an instant there was a white flash of light, a deafening noise of an explosion, the top of the van ripped off and blown up in the air by the force of the blast as I watched what was happening frozen in time.  I then felt the shockwave and as if in slow motion bits of the van began to rain down across a wide area some parts of the van traveling over 200 yards.  The drivers face as he passed me by still attempting to steer as the van quickly came to a halt. 

A heart beat later the van would have been directly in line with me, I was that close to serious injury and possible death. Bits of the van damaged the Free Presbyterian Church almost opposite from where I was standing, I was a lot closer than that and was so lucky that day only getting hit on the hand by a screwdriver that came from I believe a toolbox in the van.  However my hearing was never the same the bomb was so loud, the blast being heard almost 4 miles away.  I still have a ringing in my ears, (tinnitus) after all these years.

I am still proud of my actions that morning, despite the shock and unable to hear for the rest of the day.  I still had the foresight to go and see if the driver was ok, he appeared to have only a few scratches, telling him not to move in case of internal injuries, he was trying to get out.  I now understand he was in shock, like myself as you would expect.  I then ran to the Roads Service yard were my father worked as a supervisor to get help.  On my return the UDR man was being attended to and I was shortly after collected by my mum, telling her what happened and seeing her look of shock, concern and disbelief.  After such an experience as you can understand I was unable to sleep in the time afterwards and indeed I am still not a great sleeper.

The bomb had been planted the previous night by fascist republican terrorists with the murder of an innocent part time UDR soldier for simply service to the community being the objective in their dark, twisted and evil hearts.  Uncaring who else they murdered and maimed in the process.

An indiscriminate terrorist device of murder and mayhem the underbody bomb placed under the van could have easily murdered many people in Castlederg that morning if it had exploded just 60 seconds later in the centre of Castlederg.  The delivery van also carried large numbers of gas cylinders with the intention that the cylinders would also explode increasing the devastation of the blast, thankfully that did not happen.

I often relive events that morning, the horror of the drivers face, and can still smell and taste the explosion on my lips.  Thinking in my mind’s eye what happened to the van it was a miracle the driver survived the attack and indeed is still alive forty years later.

The bomb attack only came a few months after the murder of Victor Foster a UDR soldier aged just 18 and the serious injury of his 18 year old fiancée on the 15th of January, 1986 at Spamount, Castlederg.  The bomb was also planted by republican terrorists and placed under his car.  Victor was only a year older than me and I still remember him from school.  

As an innocent survivor of fascist republican terrorism, it saddens me of the constant rewriting of history by nationalism and republicans from what today is known as the troubles.  The current Justice Minister, Naomi Long has a legal definition that doesn’t known the difference between innocent victims and victim makers.  Many of the younger generation have simply no idea of what took place across the streets and lanes of Northern Ireland.  Perhaps the education system needs to look at addressing this.   The ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and economic terrorism by neighbour against neighbour and indeed work colleague against work colleague was just appalling.  Sometimes the victims sharing food from their lunch box with those that had so much hate, they still wanted to murder them and often did just that.

We still have those in our community who try to justify the acts of terrorism, like the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neil who only a few years ago stated “There was no alternative.”  Of course there was an alternative, terrorism was wrong then and terrorism is still wrong now, no ifs or buts.

To date no one was ever brought to justice for the attack, like so many other terrorist attacks in Castlederg and the Derg Valley area.  Despite the passing of the years I like all the other innocent victims, survivors and their relatives still want and demand justice.

Before the 40th anniversary of the blast I personally wrote a letter to the First Minister, Michelle O’Neil and Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly asking them to condemn the attack and asking that they jointly make an appeal for anyone with information to contact the PSNI so that finally justice can be done.  As yet I have received no reply.

Stevan Patterson, Castlederg, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, UK