Service of remembrance at Narrow Water

By Brónagh Murphy

A service of remembrance is to take place at the scene of the Narrow Water bombing outside Warrenpoint to mark the 30th anniversary of the explosions.

The IRA attack on August 27th 1979 led to the highest death toll suffered by the British Army in a single incident during the Troubles when eighteen soldiers were killed in two booby-trap bombs.

Sixteen of the soldiers were from the Parachute Regiment, the remaining two coming from the Queen’s Own Highlander Regiment.  One civilian was also killed in the attack.

The bombings marked a landmark day in the history of the Troubles as Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the Queen, was killed in a bomb attack by the IRA in Co Sligo just hours earlier.

The ambush had been carefully planned. The first bomb, weighing half-a-ton, was concealed under bales of hay on a flat-bed lorry parked at the side of the dual carriageway.  It was detonated by remote control as a convoy of two army trucks and a Land Rover passed by en route to Newry.  Six soldiers were killed.

Believing they were under fire from IRA gunmen just a short distance away across Carlingford Lough, the Army opened fire, killing English man Michael Hudson who was on holiday in the area at the time.

Helicopters and reinforcements were drafted in from Bessbrook to tend to the injured and, as was normal procedure after such an attack, an army control point was set up close to the scene.  This routine proved to be a fatal mistake as the IRA capitalised on this procedure.  A second bomb exploded thirty minutes later, just as an army helicopter was taking off.  Twelve more soldiers were killed in this explosion.

The service of remembrance will be held this Thursday August 27th at 3.00pm.

It is expected that members of the Parachute Regiment will be in attendance at the event.  Members of the public are also invited to attend.