Families remember hotel bomb victims
Twelve lilies laid in a special wreath – one for every life lost – today brought back painful memories of one of Northern Ireland’s worst terrorist atrocities.
Victims’ relatives and survivors gathered in east Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the La Mon House hotel bomb attack.
Families who lost loved ones in the IRA blast came from throughout the UK to pay their respects.
The floral tribute was placed at the start of the memorial service held at St Finnian’s Parish Church in Castlereagh.
Canon Noel Batty told those gathered that even though seven women and five men were killed in the February 1978 explosion, the violence had gone on.
He said: “When you witness, even at second hand and from a distance, the unutterable grief of family and friends in such concentrated form you wondered how people of any persuasion or none could ever allow such deeds to happen again.
“And yet they did.”
The service came just days after Strangford Democratic Unionist MP Iris Robinson renewed her demands for an independent public inquiry into the attack.
She also used parliamentary privilege to accuse Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams of being involved in planning the bombing.
