Some of those who treated the victims of the Ballygawley bus bombing have joined a special commemoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the atrocity this morning (Sunday).
Eight soldiers were killed when the 200lb bomb was detonated at the Newtownsaville junction of the A5 just before 12.30am on Saturday August 20 1988.
The bombing was the worst single loss involving British troops in the North since the Narrow Water attack which claimed the lives of 18 soldiers on August 27 1979.
The Ulster Bus coach had been carrying 39 soldiers of the first battalion of the British Army’s Light Infantry Regiment returning to the camp in Omagh after a short break in Britain.
Picking the soldiers up at Aldergrove Airport, the bus, driven by a soldier, came under attack when an IRA unit lying in wait denoted 200lbs of Semtex and fertilizer by the roadside at the townland of Curr, nine miles from Omagh.
The bus had just passed the bomb’s position as it exploded, sending the unarmoured vehicle careering down the road, catapulting the dead and injured in every direction, before it came to a rest in the ditch against an ash tree.
Among the first onto that scene of panic and pandemonium which ensued were two bus loads of bandsmen from Omagh Protestant Boys and Derry’s Star of the Valley, returning from an event in Portadown.
They were soon joined in the damp darkness by local people reacting to the massive explosion. Their efforts were later bolstered by the arrival of the emergency services, when the scale of the devastation became apparent.
In all, six bodies were laid out in the middle of the road, with the rest rushed to hospitals in Omagh and Dungannon. Two more soldiers would join the list of the dead, with 27 injured.
The dead were Jayson Burfitt (19), Richard Greener (21), Mark Norsworthy (18), Stephen Wilkinson (18), Jason Winter (19), Blair Bishop (19), Alexander Lewis (18) and Peter Bullock (21). All had been returning to Tyrone to complete six months of a two year tour.
Monday 18 August 2013
http://ulsterherald.com/2013/08/18/ceremony-to-mark-25-uears-since-ballygawley-bus-bomb/
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