N. IRELAND: CAR BOMB EXPLODES IN PROTESTANT TOWN OF BANBRIDGE

(1 Aug 1998) English/Nat

A car bomb exploded in a predominantly Protestant town in Northern Ireland on Saturday.

The blast injured six people and damaged shops in central Banbridge, 22 miles (35 kilometres) southwest of Belfast.

A warning was issued but although police frantically tried to complete evacuations, the central street was still full of people when the bomb exploded and panic ensued.

No one has yet claimed responsbility for the attack.

Shop windows shattered as a car bomb exploded in this mostly Protestant town of Banbridge in Northern Ireland.

Six people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, but amazingly, no one was seriously injured or killed.

Buildings in the street that had been bustling with shoppers not long before the blast suffered extensive damage.

No one has yet claimed responsibility, but police said there had been a warning and the area was being cleared when the device exploded outside a shoe store.

The blast damaged shops up and down Newry Street, and a number of
people were treated for shock.

Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to the group's ceasefire, operating as the "Continuity I-R-A" or "real I-R-A," have carried out several bombings in recent months.

Saturday's bombing was a stark reminder of the political violence that the historic Good Friday peace agreement reached in April sought to quell in the British province.

The bombing also came the same day that the Irish government released six I-R-A prisoners from a top security prison under provisions in the peace agreement.

Mervyn Carrick, a loyalist politician and member of the new Northern Ireland assembly, suspects it was the work of Republican sympathisers who oppose the peace deal.

He said if his suspicions prove true, it would be irrelevant which faction the bombers belong to since all that mattered was their intent to maim or kill.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well, I'm absolutely disgusted that on a very pleasant Saturday afternoon, at the height of the shopping season and the shopping day, at half past four, that those who placed this bomb should come in with reckless abandonment and had absolutely no thought for the safety of the shopping public in Banbridge. It's by the grace of God that there have been no fatalities and I understand those who have been injured are just minor injuries, but at this early stage, I am not sure. (Q. Who do you think is responsible?) This has got all the hallmarks of an Irish Republican bomb. And I know great play will be made of whether it is a fringe group or a splinter group. That matters not to the people of Banbridge. It is an Irish Republican bomb. They are all of the one family and it ill behooves Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein I-R-A to disassociate themselves from it. No doubt they'll refuse to condemn it but there will be a play on words. But this doesn't fool the people of Banbridge this evening. The Irish Republicans have come in and have decided to try and blow the heart out of the commercial life of Banbridge."
SUPER CAPTION: Mervyn Carrick, Democratic Ulster Party assembly man

A visibly shaken police chief told reporters he thought Banbridge was extremely lucky not to have suffered any serious casualties or fatalities.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The people who carried out this only were following one agenda - death and destruction. And I would take this opportunity to praise the security forces - for if it hadn't been for their outstanding action, I have little doubt that would have had death here today. They were still clearing the scene in actual fact when the bomb went off."


SOUNDBITE: (English)


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