The Ballad Of Claudy - Northern Ireland: 31st July 1972

Claudy village:
On the 31st of July 1972, shortly before 10:00 am, three car bombs were placed in the centre of the village, which was busy with shoppers at the time.
Initial police investigations found that a car was seen travelling from Claudy at 10:00. It had stopped at the nearby village of Feeny, where a passenger tried to use the public telephone box, which was out-of-order.
The car then travelled to Dungiven where it stopped on the Main Street. Two men got out and went into separate shops to use the telephones, which were also out of order following a bomb attack at the local telephone exchange.
The men then asked the shop assistants to tell the police at Dungiven that there were three bombs in Claudy, but by this time the first bomb had already detonated.

The first bomb, hidden inside a stolen Ford Cortina, exploded at 10:15 outside McElhinney's bar and store on Main Street.
Six people were killed by this bomb; among the dead were an eight-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy.
A second bomb, hidden inside a stolen Morris Mini Van parked outside the post office on Main Street, was spotted by a police officer, who then began directing people away from the area towards Church Street.
At 10:30, a bomb hidden inside a stolen Mini Van detonated outside the Beaufort Hotel on Church Street. The bomb outside the post office exploded almost simultaneously, killing three people, including a 16-year-old boy injured in the first blast.