IRA murdered RUC constable and family babysitter as they left archery class, 40 years ago this week

Barry Ewing, a 31-year-old married father of two from Enniskillen, was murdered along with 29-year-old recreation officer Helen Woodhouse. An IRA bomb exploded under his Toyota in Paget Street in Enniskillen on 9 Novembver 1982.

They had been driving away from the Lakeland Forum where the RUC Detective Constable had been leading an archery class. Family friend and babysitter Helen Woodhouse had also taken part in the class and he was giving her a lift home when the bomb exploded.

In a statement today the Ewing family said that Garry was remembered as "a loving father of two young daughters and a good husband" as well as "a caring and supportive brother" to his young sister and two brothers.

"He was also our late mother’s much-loved son to whom he was very attentive," they said.

When Garry's own father died and his brothers moved away, he adopted the role of head of the family and provider for his mother and younger sister.

"Garry was very much part of the Enniskillen and wider Fermanagh community and was proud to be living in the area. He lived for his wife and girls.

"On the night of his murder Garry was giving back by instructing others in the sport of archery at the local leisure centre, one of those participating in the class was family friend and babysitterto the girls, Helen Woodhouse.

"Both Helen and Garry set out for the Lakeland Forum on that fateful evening as ordinary members of the community to partake in recreation and were heinously and brutally murderedby those who skulked in the darkness and who felt they had the right to take the lives of other human beings.

"They were unconcerned by the trauma, heartache and devastation which inevitably would be caused in the wake of their cowardly, dirty actions that night.

"Both were ripped from their families and robbed of the rest of their lives - their human rights were stolen from them while those closest to them were and are still left with the enormousloss, the mental traumatic scars and legacy of such callous events."

Nobody has ever been held accountable for the murders.

Helen Woodhouse's sisters Lorna, Linda and Joy, commented that she is "fondly remembered" by them all.

According to the reference book Lost Lives, a colleague of Helen's said she was "everybody's friend" and was known as "auntie" to all the children, whom she taught swimming and gymnastics.

Kenny Donaldson, Director of Services at the South East Fermanagh Foundation, said that as well devastating two immediate families, the two murders deeply shocked the local community.

"The placement of a bomb under Garry's car within a busy car park area was a reckless act," he said. "In seeking to assassinate Garry, the Provisional IRA were also prepared to steal away others' lives as collateral damage".

Many others outside the immediate two families were impacted by "the callous and unjustifiable act of terrorism" in murdering two young people, aged just 29 and 31, after they had engaged in sport at a local leisure centre, he said.