00:00 Just speaking to Alan McBride whose wife Sharon was killed in the Shanklin bomb just after
00:07 the 30th anniversary church service. Alan can you give us a wee idea of what your thoughts
00:12 are today after that service please?
00:15 30 years and it seems to have gone by in a blink of an eye and yet in many respects it's
00:22 also been a lifetime. The last two years have been particularly difficult for me just I
00:27 have my daughter becoming older than her mother was when she passed away and then my little
00:31 granddaughter being born and the anniversary is come and go for me every year but it's
00:36 those big things those lifetime kind of you know these markers that kind of mark your
00:42 life you know and of course I'm doing those without Sharon, without Desmond as he passed
00:49 away a few years ago.
00:51 So yeah it's just incredibly sad you know it's so good to be here and have so many friends
00:59 that I've met along the way of just talking there to Breach Boyle and John Taggart from
01:03 the Ballymurphy family you know so there's a lot of families no matter where you're from
01:07 Catholic, Protestant, Nationalist, Unionist and you know we all suffer the pain is exactly
01:12 the same and I suppose my appeal on this 30th anniversary is that we need to do more to
01:17 build peace and reconciliation here. I decided after today that I'll be doing no more media
01:22 interviews about the bomb. I've been doing it for 30 years now so this is effectively
01:25 my last series of interviews and I just want to make the last interview to be one of just
01:32 appealing for politicians to get back into government to get back around the table to
01:36 start to make this place work because there's nothing more important and I don't care whether
01:40 it's Brexit, Windsor Protocols whatever the most important thing is peace and reconciliation
01:46 and being able to give our children a future that we never had.
01:49 Can I ask you, can you unpack that a little bit Alan, what would peace and reconciliation
01:54 you know, you know programs or actions look like on the ground that you would like to
01:59 see going forward?
02:00 Well I would like to see going forward, I know it's going to take us a bit of time to
02:03 get there but I mean I was doing a talk recently in the Sal Boy School in the Falls Road and
02:09 a young person basically stood up and said look the troubles are over now and we all
02:12 need to move on and I asked him then, there was probably about 10 kids involved off in
02:16 the Falls Road and I asked them who would be, whenever they were the age to buy a house,
02:20 consider buying a house in the Shankill and of course not one of them would and that's
02:23 abnormal. I mean the Falls Road is like literally 10 minutes from here so why would you deny
02:27 yourself an entire housing stock? So normality for me is whenever we go forward and whenever
02:32 it's okay for Catholics and Prophets to live, to move, to go where they want and maybe I'm
02:36 being an idealist in that but that's peace and that's going to take us a bit of a while
02:39 to get there, I know that but it has to start at the top and it has to start with our politicians
02:43 to start to reach out the hand of friendship and I think one of the things that Brexit
02:46 has done for us is actually started relations north and south but also between Nationalists
02:51 and Unionists here and so you know on the 30th anniversary of the Shankill bomb, 25
02:55 years off from the Good Friday Agreement we were promised a peaceful and prosperous future
02:59 going forward and the fact that you know we don't have that just yet because our politics
03:03 is far from normal, that's my appeal today.
03:08 I'm speaking to Gary Murray here just after the 30th anniversary of the Shankill bomb.
03:13 His sister Leanne was only 13 when she was killed in the bomb, only a stone's throw from
03:18 here. Gary how was the service for you today, how did you find it?
03:22 The service was very hard but it was absolutely lovely. It was a lovely service, it was just
03:31 fitting for all the victims that were killed that day.
03:36 There was quite a few people contributing weren't there?
03:38 There was.
03:39 Was there any part of it in particular or any contribution in particular that touched you?
03:43 All of it, all of it did. The whole thing, the people that helped out, the people who
03:49 organised it, fantastic turnout.
03:52 So it was a fitting legacy for Leanne?
03:55 It was a fitting legacy yes.
03:57 And your mum's here today as well?
03:58 She is indeed.
03:59 And how has she found it?
04:01 Hard.
04:02 That's Gina is her name?
04:03 Yes, her wee heart's breaking all over.
04:06 And what about your hopes for the future Gary?
04:10 My hopes for the future are that there's no more troubles, there's no more hurt caused
04:19 by anybody for future generations. From my kids and my grandkids I would like to see
04:25 that happen.
04:26 And have you got any ideas how you think that could be brought about?
04:30 No, no.
04:33 It's kind of a big ask at the minute isn't it?
04:35 It is, it is. The way Storm Mount is, yeah.
04:38 Was it difficult for you coming up here today?
04:43 Very. I don't come up here too often and I don't stand here that often so when I do
04:53 come here it's very hard to look out.
04:57 And we see photographs of your sister up here around the shank all today.
05:02 She was a lovely wee girl, 13 years of age and she just looked so mischievous in that
05:08 photograph of her.
05:09 She was, yeah. She was very outgoing, lovely little girl, very bubbly and as you said very
05:16 mischievous indeed.
05:17 And you were 15 at the time when she died?
05:19 I was.
05:20 And you're saying that you used to fight like cat and dog?
05:23 We did.
05:24 But you loved each other to bits?
05:25 We loved each other to bits but fought like cat and dog constantly.
05:29 She used to tout on me and I'd ring a dung on my mum.
05:32 Just a normal family life?
05:34 Just a normal family life.
05:36 I'm speaking to Michelle Williamson here in the Memorial Garden just after the 30th
05:43 anniversary bombing. Michelle, can you just tell me what your thoughts are after that
05:48 service and what your hopes are for the future?
05:52 It's hard to say what my thoughts are at the moment. It's mixed emotions. I think like
05:56 so many people here today, it's hard to believe we're 30 years on. And we're 30 years on and
06:02 I have to say there's been no closure for victims or no justice. But it's never ending.
06:11 What would justice look like for you, do you think?
06:16 Everybody responsible for the shank bomb was gotten.
06:20 So that would be quite a list of people you'd like to see convicted and jailed basically?
06:24 It would be. But we know yourself, we live in Northern Ireland. There never is justice
06:29 because it upsets the politics of Northern Ireland.
06:33 What did you think of the service today?
06:35 The service was beautiful. To see the children there and singing their songs and they're
06:40 so innocent. That's like the two wee girls on the Shank of Road that day were so innocent.
06:45 So were the other victims on the Shank of Road that day.
06:48 Yes. And was it difficult for you to come up to Belfast now for this today?
06:54 It's like a build up to the anniversary. You know it's coming and the day up to it, the
07:00 night up to it. And when I go home, all I just want to do is just hug a donkey. That
07:05 just gives me a lot of pleasure, my animals and just try and be the girl I used to be.
07:10 But it's hard.
07:11 Yeah. You've got a collection of animals. You've got donkeys and alpacas, isn't that
07:15 right?
07:16 I wish I had alpacas. I have donkeys and dogs and cats.
07:20 And they're your kind of sanctuary.
07:22 They are. I just love it there with the mourns in the back of me and the animals. It's another
07:27 side of me, put it that way.
07:29 And that's where you gain your solace really?
07:31 I do. And the love and support of my husband and my mother-in-law.
07:34 Bye.
