0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains very strong language and scenes which some viewers might find disturbing.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11We held onto each other and just screamed at each other.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17I'll never see anything as bad as what thon was...never.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20SIRENS WAIL
0:00:21 > 0:00:25People in Castle Street were cheering every time a bomb went off.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31I thought we were going to be burnt alive.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35These memories will always stay in my head.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39It wasn't a tale somebody told you - you were there and witnessed it.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42On the 21st July, 1972,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46the IRA unleashed its biggest-ever day of bombing.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49It was known as...
0:00:49 > 0:00:51..Bloody Friday.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13By the summer of 1972,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16the Troubles had been raging for three years.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Somehow, normal life went on.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27# And they called it
0:01:27 > 0:01:30# Puppy lo-o-ve. #
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Donny Osmond provided the soundtrack to the summer.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38# Just because we're in our teens
0:01:39 > 0:01:43# Tell them all, please tell them it isn't fair. #
0:01:44 > 0:01:49There were only three TV channels...
0:01:49 > 0:01:51..full of industrial strikes,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53war...
0:01:54 > 0:01:55..and political upheaval.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00APPLAUSE
0:02:01 > 0:02:0512-year-old Neil Reid was the youngest chart-topper in history.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11# You gave to me. #
0:02:11 > 0:02:13SIREN WAILS
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Here, history had taken a darker turn.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23You had security gates across that street.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25You had dog handlers standing on the security gates.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27You went to go into a shop,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29you were searched, frisked, your handbag was opened.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34The IRA were at their peak.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38The introduction of internment
0:02:38 > 0:02:41and the bloodshed on Bloody Sunday had recruits flooding in.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Unionists protested when Stormont was abolished in March -
0:02:49 > 0:02:53it seemed like a victory for a confident Republican movement.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55On the other side of the barricade,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58loyalist paramilitary groups were growing, too.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00The UDA now had 40,000 members
0:03:00 > 0:03:03and dozens of sectarian murders to its name.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05Everybody became a Troubles junkie.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Where was the next atrocity?
0:03:08 > 0:03:11What was happening? Who was in it? Was it family, was it friends?
0:03:15 > 0:03:18The IRA had a new weapon - the car bomb.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21It was the perfect way to transport explosives.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24When it went off,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26it turned glass and metal into deadly shrapnel.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30The bombers could park wherever and whenever they liked.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32SIRENS WAIL
0:03:35 > 0:03:37The only blessing was that the IRA seemed
0:03:37 > 0:03:41to not want to go out laying bombs before lunchtime.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46So we always knew it was likely to be quiet in the mornings
0:03:46 > 0:03:48and it would kick off
0:03:48 > 0:03:51in the afternoon and evenings.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55With help from their deadly new weapon,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59the IRA believed it would take just 'one last push' to get victory.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02They started to plan an operation so big,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05the government would have to take them seriously.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09At the same time, a back channel had started secret talks.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And in June, they called a ceasefire.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14They felt they had arrived.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Showing that they were big-shots,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24that they were dealing at the top
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and that they held real power.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31In a community centre in Derry, the IRA's main players
0:04:31 > 0:04:34held a press conference and spelled out their conditions for talks.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Martin McGuinness was there -
0:04:37 > 0:04:40only 22, but already second-in-command in Derry.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Alongside him, Daithi O'Connell, overall number two,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Sean MacStiofain - chief of staff
0:04:49 > 0:04:52and Seamus Twomey, Belfast commander.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56They haven't beaten the IRA, they're not going to beat the IRA.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58The only way to establish peace in Ireland
0:04:58 > 0:05:01is to sit down and talk with the leadership of the IRA.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Seamus Twomey tried to claim the moral high ground.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09If we really wanted to commit sectarian war,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12we could start it in an hour, but we don't want to do that,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15we've no wish, we wish to avoid this at all costs.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20On the 7th July, the British Establishment met the IRA in secret.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24The venue was a palatial private house at 96 Cheyne Walk,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27beside the Thames in Chelsea.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31The delegation included the leadership team at the news conference -
0:05:31 > 0:05:34with a significant addition -
0:05:34 > 0:05:35Gerry Adams.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39At just 23, he was already a big enough player
0:05:39 > 0:05:43to be released from internment for the talks.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47There was no denial it was anything other than an IRA delegation.
0:05:47 > 0:05:48All were IRA?
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Yes, not Sinn Fein but IRA.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53- All of them?- Yes.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57For several hours they sat face-to-face.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The IRA's key demand was for British withdrawal.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03The IRA overplayed their hand
0:06:03 > 0:06:05and the British government representatives
0:06:05 > 0:06:08thought these guys are just preposterous.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12The state of mind was totally negative and the meeting a non-event.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15GUNFIRE
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Two days later,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21there was a gunbattle in Lenadoon.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25It looked and sounded very much like the end of the ceasefire.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28The army are up here in the middle of Lenadoon Avenue...
0:06:28 > 0:06:31GUNFIRE DROWNS SPEECH
0:06:32 > 0:06:35The ceasefire was over.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39For now, plans for peace talks were on hold.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Plans for that spectacular day of bombing, back on the table.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45They needed to show they hadn't gone away.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49In a school in West Belfast, the leadership met
0:06:49 > 0:06:52to organise the bombing.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54The plan - to pack as many explosions
0:06:54 > 0:06:57as possible into a single hour.
0:06:59 > 0:07:00In the run up to Bloody Friday,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04we knew that a lot of explosive
0:07:04 > 0:07:06had been coming into the city.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08The reason we knew is that
0:07:08 > 0:07:12some of the vehicle control-point guys
0:07:12 > 0:07:14had stopped old chaps
0:07:14 > 0:07:17driving nice, new cars,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21full of explosives. They'd been coming up from the south.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26The timers came from parking meters in America.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29They'd been posted to a safe house in West Belfast
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and divided between bomb factories in the Markets,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36New Lodge in North Belfast, and West Belfast.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39The engineers started to assemble the bombs -
0:07:39 > 0:07:43adding timers and detonators to packages of Nitrobenzene.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47They were now ready to be driven to their targets.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04I have two images that come to mind -
0:08:04 > 0:08:08first was before the bomb, of a sunny summer's day,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13of the waterworks was full of bubbling water and people laughing,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15cars moving.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17It was just a real typical,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21lovely summer day. You know, really nice,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25warm weather and nothing unreal about it or strange.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28It was a fairly ordinary day,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32until about lunch time, until about 12 o'clock.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34It was the end of the Twelfth fortnight
0:08:34 > 0:08:37and many families had holiday plans.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45The boys were in Scotland with the Cubs,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and they were due back on the Saturday
0:08:47 > 0:08:51and we were thinking of heading to Newcastle the following week.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Hugh O'Hare was an accountant with a thriving practice.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59He and his wife, Margaret, had seven children.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03I was speaking to Margaret that Friday morning,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06and said I had a meeting in Dundalk
0:09:06 > 0:09:08and not to bother about tea.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11I'd be home sometime about eight or nine
0:09:11 > 0:09:15and we'd make arrangements to head off at the beginning of the week.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20She was really fantastic. She was very vivacious, very vibrant.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Loved children. Nothing was a problem.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26Everybody loved her.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29She was a fun, fun auntie.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33Around lunchtime, a series of hoax bomb calls brought chaos
0:09:33 > 0:09:35to the roads around Belfast,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38making it hard for the police and army to move around.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40It was all part of the plan.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48A man driving a grey Ford Cortina
0:09:48 > 0:09:51stopped at a pedestrian crossing at Oldpark Avenue.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Two men in their early 20s pointed a gun through the open window
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and said they wanted "the loan" of his car.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00The owner was forced to drive to Cliftonville Circus,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04down the Oldpark Road to the opposite end of Oldpark Avenue.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08In the Albert Street Mill on the Lower Falls,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13soldier Stephen Cooper was on his lunch break when he rang his sister.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15He was happy,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20he wanted everyone to know that he got all his birthday cards early
0:10:20 > 0:10:23because he was going to be 19 the next day.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27And I think the lads were going to take him out,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29and do something to celebrate his birthday.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Most of these entries
0:10:34 > 0:10:36are very brief,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39because there wasn't a hell of a lot of time to make notes.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41There was no real respite,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44other than you had a day when you were stood down.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Colin Tennant was on call with the bomb disposal team.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Around 1.30, they got their first call of the day.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Explosives had been attached to the pylons underneath the Albert Bridge.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01While we were dealing with that, trying to clear it up,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04the radio started really to crackle.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09Then we started to get these calls in from Brigade,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11saying here's another incident and another.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15On Oldpark Avenue in North Belfast,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19an IRA man took over the hijacked Ford Cortina.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21He collected a bomb from a house in the New Lodge
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and placed it on the back seat.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25He covered it with brown tarpaulin
0:11:25 > 0:11:28and drove it towards the Cavehill shops.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Around 2.15 he parked it outside the drapery shop
0:11:32 > 0:11:33next door to the fruit shop.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36TIMER TICKS
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Just yards away,
0:11:42 > 0:11:44milkman Richard Young had finished his round
0:11:44 > 0:11:46and was having a cup of tea.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48And when I came out,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53I noticed there was a grey car sitting here,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and I wondered at the time what it was doing there.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01As it was the end of the Twelfth fortnight,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04the train and bus stations were jammed with traffic.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06At Oxford Street,
0:12:06 > 0:12:1015-year-old Billy Crothers had just done his first week as a parcel boy.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13The only thing Billy was interested in was football.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17That was his life. And Bob Bishop,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20who ran the football training place.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24And they were just like two old mates together.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27After work that day,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Billy was due to go to a football camp
0:12:29 > 0:12:32run by the Manchester United scout.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Mum wanted Billy to stay at school, and he said,
0:12:36 > 0:12:40"No", he wanted to get a job, just to help mum.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Mum said he came home, proud as punch
0:12:43 > 0:12:47for his lunch and he gave her all the wage packet.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50A neighbour saw Billy running back to the depot
0:12:50 > 0:12:52for his afternoon's work.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57In the markets, a bakery worker noticed his car missing.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00The blue Austin 1100 had been stolen
0:13:00 > 0:13:03and the boot packed with a 100lb bomb.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05At 2:20,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08it was primed and began its journey from Stanfield Street
0:13:08 > 0:13:09towards the bus station.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11The 24-year-old man at the wheel
0:13:11 > 0:13:14had never even passed a driving test.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19That's horrific because that guy, carrying a fully-primed bomb
0:13:19 > 0:13:21that's ticking down, that's shocking.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29We had come from a youth camp on the Isle of Man by ferry.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Jackie Gibson was a bus driver
0:13:33 > 0:13:34on his way back to Oxford Street.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Coming up to the far end
0:13:38 > 0:13:40of the Castlereagh Road going out of town,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I can remember seeing an Ulsterbus sitting at a bus stop.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48I looked twice and realised it was my father.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51But it was a fleeting enough glance.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53That was about 2:30.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00The man driving the bomb found himself stuck in traffic
0:14:00 > 0:14:03until a policeman waved him through.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05He parked at the back of the bus station,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07where the drivers paid in their takings.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10With the bomb in place,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14he went round the corner to Mooney's pub and ordered a whiskey.
0:14:16 > 0:14:1712 minutes later,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20a caller rang from a house in Cromac Street in the Markets,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23and warned police there was a massive bomb at the bus station.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25But the line to the depot was busy,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29so the police rang the army who dispatched a patrol.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Among them - Stephen Cooper, who'd been on the phone to his sister.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36I heard someone talking in the background and he asked me
0:14:36 > 0:14:39to wait a minute because he got to talk to someone.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42And then when he came back to the phone
0:14:42 > 0:14:45he said his Sergeant needed him -
0:14:45 > 0:14:47he had to go out on a call,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51a hoax call, he thought,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53and the last thing I said
0:14:53 > 0:14:55was to keep your head down,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and he said, "Don't worry, I do. I'm not silly."
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Philip Gault was from the New Lodge in North Belfast.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06He was nine years old and was shopping with his mother
0:15:06 > 0:15:10on the Limestone Road when they were moved away from a bomb scare.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12They found themselves outside a bank.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17TIMER TICKS
0:15:17 > 0:15:20A vehicle was parked just about here.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22I was walking up
0:15:22 > 0:15:25and as all youngsters do... CAR BEEPS HORN
0:15:25 > 0:15:28just basically leant against the vehicle.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37EXPLOSION
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Philip and his mother had been moved
0:15:40 > 0:15:43towards a car that contained a 50lb bomb.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47That was 2:40pm and the first explosion of the day.
0:15:47 > 0:15:48There'd been no warning.
0:15:50 > 0:15:51It was so close proximity
0:15:51 > 0:15:54that when the bomb went off, I went off with it, basically.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Philip was blown ten feet into the air by the force of the blast.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03I always remember looking at the Ulster Bank sign.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06And all of a sudden, you're sitting on the ground
0:16:06 > 0:16:07looking at a pool of blood
0:16:07 > 0:16:12and seeing the aftermath, the wound.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Not knowing where my mother was at that stage,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17not knowing where anybody was,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20and just that sheer panic...
0:16:21 > 0:16:26You know, it's probably the worst panic you'll ever come across.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31Five minutes later, on Botanic Avenue in South Belfast,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33a bomb in a bread van went off...
0:16:39 > 0:16:41..and blew the leaves off the trees.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43SIREN WAILS
0:16:43 > 0:16:45I remember the ambulance going
0:16:45 > 0:16:47at tremendous speed, as I thought as a nine-year-old,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49through Belfast city centre,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52various instructions and information coming through
0:16:52 > 0:16:54from the different control areas
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and you were hearing a bomb's gone off, sirens going everywhere.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01Next was the Queen Elizabeth Bridge.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04EXPLOSION
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Two minutes later, the Gasworks on Ormeau Avenue.
0:17:11 > 0:17:12Move back now!
0:17:20 > 0:17:22In the midst of the chaos,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Jackie Gibson drove his bus into the depot at the end of his shift.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29He parked and went to pay in his takings.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31He came to the office window
0:17:31 > 0:17:34and he told people within the office to be careful.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38A bomb had exploded on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48We tried to get out there to see what we could do.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Couldn't get out, there were people running, panicking,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54not surprisingly, in all directions,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and one way and another, it was just mayhem.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01People were escaping from one bomb
0:18:01 > 0:18:04only to become the target of another.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06We were just running blind.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08The next crack that came
0:18:08 > 0:18:10among this cacophony of calamity that was exploding,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13a necklace of bombs all around the city.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18It was quite awful to see all that.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Particularly in Belfast, where usually people were very good,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26they used to clear areas down quickly, move out of the way.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28Not that day.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35This area was filled en mass with people
0:18:35 > 0:18:39and we all started to get pushed up towards the city hall.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Kevin Sheehy was a constable in the RUC.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45The police were struggling to cope in the chaos.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47People were streaming right and left
0:18:47 > 0:18:48and all of a sudden,
0:18:48 > 0:18:49there was this huge explosion
0:18:49 > 0:18:52that seemed to be just behind the City Hall.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54SIREN WAILS
0:18:54 > 0:18:57So everyone started to stampede back.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01It was like being in an amphitheatre with the gladiators coming at you
0:19:01 > 0:19:04because it was just next, "Where's that, where's that, where's that?"
0:19:06 > 0:19:08So far, six bombs had gone off.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11In the city centre, there was terror and confusion.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19On the Cavehill Road, just a short distance away,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22the normal rhythms of a summer's day went on.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Margaret came up to the house
0:19:24 > 0:19:26and she asked me, would I take her children to the shops?
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Brenda and her friend Jackie were inseparable, so she went along too.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36In total, five children headed towards the Cavehill shops.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41From the town, we could hear the sounds of bombs going off
0:19:41 > 0:19:42but we still kept walking...
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- We met Mum and Dad as well, Brenda.- Did we?
0:19:45 > 0:19:48My mum and dad were shopping and they came past us in the park
0:19:48 > 0:19:49and said, "Girls, don't be too long,
0:19:49 > 0:19:51"there's a lot of things gone off in town."
0:19:51 > 0:19:55Bridgetta Murray had finished her shopping for the weekend
0:19:55 > 0:19:57but had a sweet tooth
0:19:57 > 0:20:00and had called into Thompson's Bakery to buy cakes.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03They had a wonderful lifestyle. They were wealthy
0:20:03 > 0:20:08and lived in a quite... how can I say,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11upper-class area within the Antrim Road.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Also at the Cavehill shops was schoolboy Stephen Parker.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19He had a part-time job there.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22He was 14, always cheerful and helpful.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Stephen was a complete extrovert,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30full of life and fun and...
0:20:30 > 0:20:32always playing jokes
0:20:32 > 0:20:36I said, "You've got to go up the road to do your Friday afternoon job,"
0:20:36 > 0:20:38which was washing a car
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and getting messages for a lady who owned one of the shops up the road.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45He said, "I haven't got to be there till half past three,"
0:20:45 > 0:20:48and I said, "I think you ought to go early, she does like you early."
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Around 3pm, a van bomb went off without warning
0:20:53 > 0:20:57at an electricity sub-station in Salisbury Avenue, North Belfast.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06York Street Railway Station was next.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09A man and a woman left a bomb in a suitcase.
0:21:09 > 0:21:10It was just chaos.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14People screaming, people falling to the ground
0:21:14 > 0:21:18and glass everywhere.
0:21:18 > 0:21:19Just chaos.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Nobody knew what they were doing.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23People were running about all...
0:21:23 > 0:21:27I was the same, to tell you the truth.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29The shock kept me going.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32As the warning calls came in,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35the police tried to clear each area in turn.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Bill McKnight was based in Andersonstown RUC station.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42As a break from West Belfast,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46his boss sent him on traffic duty for a day in the city centre.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48My most vivid recollection
0:21:48 > 0:21:53was of a young woman
0:21:53 > 0:21:55with two or three kiddies
0:21:55 > 0:21:59and they all were in absolute and total hysterics.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04And I'm directing them down one street, and of course,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06some policeman doing his job at the bottom of the street
0:22:06 > 0:22:08turned them back up again.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I run into them two or three times,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and the terror in that young family's...
0:22:16 > 0:22:19..eyes. They were screaming hysterically.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24I remember working in this garage,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28well, it was a garage then, Dick and Company, Donegall Street here.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34John Linehan - better known as the entertainer May McFettridge -
0:22:34 > 0:22:37was a mechanic working underneath a jacked-up car.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Two men left a bomb at Smithfield Bus Station.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49As they ran off, they told two children to shout a warning.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55We left, and I came out to just this spot.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57The next thing, boom, the whole place shook.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06I went back in, and the car I'd been working on had fallen off the jack.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10There was no wheels on the back, it just hit the ground,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13so if I hadn't been out being nosy,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16God knows what would have happened.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20The IRA man who left that bomb was Gerry Bradley.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23He left another one at Eastwood Motors.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Historian Brian Feeney has written a book about him.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31He actually had to kick one of the people in the garage
0:23:31 > 0:23:34because when he came in with his bomb
0:23:34 > 0:23:36shouting to people that this was a bomb,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39they didn't react quickly enough.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42He walked out with the driver.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46And as they walked out, a military police jeep drew up
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and parked about 20 feet away
0:23:49 > 0:23:52and he said they just decided to keep cool
0:23:52 > 0:23:54and keep walking and not running.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58So they walked to the car and got in and drove away.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10John Linehan and the other apprentices
0:24:10 > 0:24:12were told to save the cars.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24When you think about it now, "Get the cars out," you know,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26"These are new cars." It doesn't matter about you!
0:24:26 > 0:24:29"Plenty of apprentices on the brew, get the cars out."
0:24:33 > 0:24:35At Oxford Street Station,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37a seven-man patrol from the Welsh guards arrived.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45The workers knew there was a bomb, but they didn't know where.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Tom Killops,
0:24:48 > 0:24:49Billy Crothers
0:24:49 > 0:24:52and Billy Irvine went to look.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56The soldiers' driver was 18-year-old Stephen Cooper.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59He dropped the others off
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and parked the armoured vehicle at the back of the depot.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Manager Jack Campbell saw a suspicious car
0:25:08 > 0:25:12and looked to see if it had a staff sticker.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14My father saw a car that he didn't recognise
0:25:14 > 0:25:16and he leaned across it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18TIMER TICKS
0:25:18 > 0:25:19Stephen and his sergeant
0:25:19 > 0:25:22were standing next to the car that the bomb was in.
0:25:25 > 0:25:26EXPLOSION
0:25:26 > 0:25:29The Oxford Street bomb went off just after 3pm.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35The warning had given staff and soldiers just 20 minutes to find it.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Colin Tennant was still gridlocked on the Albert Bridge.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42I remember the force of the explosion,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44even though it was the other side of a wall
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and thinking, "That was big".
0:25:47 > 0:25:51We could hear people screaming from where we were.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Milkman Bernard McTasney was on his way home from his deliveries.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00Turned into Oxford Street,
0:26:00 > 0:26:02the lights was against us
0:26:02 > 0:26:04and we were sitting there about two or three seconds
0:26:04 > 0:26:06when the bombs went off
0:26:06 > 0:26:09and every window in my car was shattered.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Richard Lennon, a student with a summer job at the depot,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16was one of the first on the scene.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19The thing that I noticed about it, it was so quiet.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23You know, all this devastation around and there wasn't a sound.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Not a sound of a bird or anything.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30In the aftermath, he found a workmate.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33He was wandering around the office,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35no shirt on and no shoes on.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38And I said to him, "What happened to you?"
0:26:38 > 0:26:41And he just looked at me, like he was gone.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49An ambulance man come over and grabbed me.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51He said, "Come on, you get into this ambulance."
0:26:51 > 0:26:54I said, "I'm all right, there's nothing wrong with me."
0:26:54 > 0:26:56He said, "Oh, yes there is,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59"big piece of shrapnel behind your left ear."
0:26:59 > 0:27:02I didn't even know, didn't even feel it going in.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Bomb after bomb had gone off with just a few minutes in-between.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12The bombers found themselves caught up in the very chaos they'd created.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17As the bombs started to go off
0:27:17 > 0:27:21and road checks were mounted and chaos started to happen,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24as they drove in, they're starting to run out of time.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30They can't stop the bomb. They don't know how to do it.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35In a couple of cases, they actually had to leave the car and run.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42In just 32 minutes, 17 bombs had exploded across Belfast.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49The Cavehill shops seemed to be outside the danger zone
0:27:49 > 0:27:52but the timer on the 18th bomb was ticking down.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00- We passed the car, which was outside this shop.- The vets.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03The five of us walked past, we would have been right up against this car,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07we walked past it, and then, we heard a bomb go off down that way
0:28:07 > 0:28:10and we went out to the edge and had a look down or whatever
0:28:10 > 0:28:13and then we walked back up past the car.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16- And into the sweet shop. - And then into The Choc Box.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Stephen Parker had seen the bomb on the back seat of the car.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22When the girls were in the sweet shop,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26he was running from door to door shouting, "Bomb, bomb".
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Margaret heard the explosions going off across the city.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35She ran from her brother's house and drove off to find the children.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39She parked, then ran towards the shop.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41I thought I saw Margaret get out of the car.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43I went to say to Brenda, "There's your aunt."
0:28:45 > 0:28:51And of course, she walked across the pavement. The car was sitting there.
0:28:51 > 0:28:52And off it went.
0:28:54 > 0:28:55EXPLOSION
0:28:57 > 0:29:03Suddenly, there was the most terrific blast
0:29:03 > 0:29:07and I looked, I could see the smoke rising from the Cavehill Road
0:29:07 > 0:29:10and I knew without any doubt it was there.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16I could see the pencils falling down and rubbers
0:29:16 > 0:29:18and, you know, little exercise books and things.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22I just remember this deadly silence.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24You know, deafened, I felt really deafened.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27I felt I couldn't hear, but I knew we were screaming and panicking.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I think we held onto each other and screamed at each other.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36- We didn't think we were going to get out.- We didn't.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39As nine-year-olds, we thought we were going to die in the shop.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44I just ran as I was.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46I remember running without my shoes
0:29:46 > 0:29:49because they were these flip-flops that slip off your feet
0:29:49 > 0:29:52and I took them off and ran because I knew he was there.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01We tried to get out at the front, but the front was on fire.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05We were trapped in. I mean, it was absolutely on fire,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08there was no question of getting out of the front of the shop.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13I thought we were going to be burned alive.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And, um, we were just screaming and holding on to each other.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Across the city, plumes of smoke scarred the skies.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28At the bus station, the rescuers were starting to see the horror through the haze.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40There was a military policeman standing in the middle of the street
0:30:40 > 0:30:43and he was trying to hold people back and shouting at people,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45trying to get to the dead and injured...
0:30:45 > 0:30:47"Do you not understand English?!"
0:30:49 > 0:30:53The full horror of Bloody Friday was beginning to sink in.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03And there's soldiers just about to put a blanket,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07what was left of a blanket, over one of their dead colleagues lying on the ground.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21A bus cleaner came down with a shovel
0:31:21 > 0:31:23and he started clearing up.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Now, he was clearing up glass and bits of brick and everything else,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28among which, of course, were bodies.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34The keening of the wounded,
0:31:34 > 0:31:38and the distress of the people who went to help them...
0:31:38 > 0:31:41And the heroes were the ambulance men, the policemen
0:31:41 > 0:31:44who went in there, not knowing if there was another device.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57A lot of blood and bodies,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00bits of bodies lying all around the place.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04One of those policemen was Jack Dale,
0:32:04 > 0:32:08who was blown off his feet on his way to the bus station.
0:32:11 > 0:32:17We found a woman's or a man's skull which had gone through railings.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Into the worst of it went the ambulance crews of Belfast.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34It was just devastation, complete devastation.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Buses were burning and people were running about.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41John Knox was a part-time fireman.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Well, there was obviously lots of smoke
0:32:47 > 0:32:51and fire from the building. People seemed to be going in and out,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53as if they were going in and out of clouds,
0:32:53 > 0:32:57and it wasn't always possible to see the bodies on the ground clearly.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03Andy Jenkins had been dealing with the Ormeau Avenue bomb
0:33:03 > 0:33:06when Oxford Street went off.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08We actually had a tarpaulin out
0:33:08 > 0:33:11and most of the chaps that were there
0:33:11 > 0:33:15were over and were looking, and it was absolutely horrendous.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19I don't know whether there were mangled bodies and bits and pieces,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22it was unbelievable.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32Some of the crew were given plastic bags and a shovel
0:33:32 > 0:33:35to go round collecting bits of bodies.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46We got two or three different patients, as you would call them,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48to take into the ambulance,
0:33:48 > 0:33:53but they weren't really patients for us at that particular time.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02When I saw the ambulance crew bringing one of the bodies
0:34:02 > 0:34:06out of the bus station, there wasn't a stitch on him.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08His body was just like a raw piece of meat.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14You knew what you were handling and we knew it was somebody's loved one.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23We were told to stand by
0:34:23 > 0:34:27and that we would have to take these people to the Royal
0:34:27 > 0:34:28to get them certified.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39When we got to the Royal, one of them was so badly injured
0:34:39 > 0:34:43that they had to get a special doctor down for to look at it
0:34:43 > 0:34:47to try and make up his mind whether it was a male or female.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51It wasn't just the mutilated bodies
0:34:51 > 0:34:53that shocked the rescue workers that day.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58There was a large group of people standing down at the markets area,
0:34:58 > 0:35:03and every time a bomb went off they jeered and shouted and yelled...
0:35:03 > 0:35:06as if they thought it was a good thing.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Jack Campbell, who'd been leaning on the car that exploded,
0:35:11 > 0:35:14was blown onto the bus station roof.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18By the standards of the day, he had a remarkable escape.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23He was practically unrecognisable.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26His teeth had been blown out, his arms were broken,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30his legs were broken, his ribs were broken.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33A lot of the skin on his body had been blown off,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37the jelly in the back of his eyes had been shaken up.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39When they looked, they did realise that it was him
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and that he was just about alive.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49In Cavehill, the five children aged from three to 11
0:35:49 > 0:35:52had managed to get out of the sweet shop,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54but had to step over the shop owner, Vera Boden.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00Just in front of me, I remember this distinctly,
0:36:00 > 0:36:02was this Boden sister.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Her clothes were torn to shreds and there were hacks out of her body
0:36:06 > 0:36:10and I remember looking at this and I just couldn't take it in.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15Vera Boden survived the bomb but was badly injured.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18For the rest of her life, she needed constant care.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21I remember, even as a nine-year-old, counting one, two, three, four, five,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24and I said, "Oh, thank goodness, there's five of us".
0:36:24 > 0:36:25You know, "That's OK, five's OK".
0:36:29 > 0:36:32I went into the fruit shop and I seen a piece of hair and that,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34and I went to pull it away...
0:36:34 > 0:36:36and I seen a young fella, I just seen his face,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38and he was blew to pieces.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40Stephen Parker risked his own life
0:36:40 > 0:36:43warning other people to get away from the bomb.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47When it exploded, he was hit with the full force of the blast
0:36:47 > 0:36:49and died instantly.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Then I went in to the bakers' shop and there was an old woman lying.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58The woman was 68-year-old Bridgetta Murray.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03It was a very safe, nice area,
0:37:03 > 0:37:05you would go about your daily business and then,
0:37:05 > 0:37:10all of a sudden, a massive explosion just removed her from this earth.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14Then we came up here and there was some other woman lying here, she was dead.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19Margaret O'Hare had parked her Mini right beside the car with the bomb.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23As she ran to find her children, it exploded.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26She died instantly. She was just 35.
0:37:38 > 0:37:4218 bombs had exploded in less than an hour.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55The final explosion of the day was at Great Victoria Street Station.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58A bomb in a van went off at four o'clock.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08The IRA had planted 23 bombs.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14They had intended their bombing spree to be even bigger,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18but two failed to go off and two were defused.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24I remember wakening up in a hospital bed with my mother and father there,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28and the first thing I seen was a cage over my legs,
0:38:28 > 0:38:33and the fear, this total fear of, where are my legs?
0:38:36 > 0:38:40I ended up in blind panic, as you can imagine, when I got home.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Pram sitting in the driveway, nobody there, empty house.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49Within minutes, people seemed to emerge from everywhere...
0:38:50 > 0:38:53Don't ask me, I don't really know where they came from.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58They'd obviously been told and were waiting on my return.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04I had to pass Limestone Road corner, where the bank was.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Then I had to pass Oxford Street bus station.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Milkman Richard Young, who had been in a cafe on the Cavehill Road
0:39:11 > 0:39:16had a miraculous escape - he passed THREE of the explosions.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18I heard all the bombs going off, obviously,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21but no idea where they were till I got home.
0:39:28 > 0:39:29Not everyone was so lucky.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Because I'd just had the conversation with him,
0:39:36 > 0:39:41I heard the news but it didn't click because I had just spoke to him
0:39:41 > 0:39:43so I thought, "It can't be him".
0:39:47 > 0:39:50I can certainly remember, about 6:30pm, all getting a bit anxious
0:39:50 > 0:39:52what might be happening.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54We'd no word from my dad.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57I think the whole thing got a bit of a blur from that point on.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03I remember being put in front of the telly,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05watching The Monkees...
0:40:05 > 0:40:10# And people say we monkey around But we're too busy singing... #
0:40:10 > 0:40:13'..being given these strawberries.'
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Just sitting there staring at the TV and, I think, shell-shocked.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19# ..to put anybody down... #
0:40:28 > 0:40:33Even up to the last minute, the prospect of political talks had remained alive.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Three days before Bloody Friday,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38an IRA delegation had a secret meeting
0:40:38 > 0:40:41with the leader of the opposition, Harold Wilson.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45The man who set it up was Dr John O'Connell,
0:40:45 > 0:40:49an elected member of the Irish Labour Party.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51On the afternoon of Bloody Friday,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54leading IRA man Joe Cahill arrived at a house in Dublin
0:40:54 > 0:40:58to discuss a possible new ceasefire with him.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01He went to the house at 4pm, but Joe Cahill was running late.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03He'd been in Belfast and was on his way back.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04Joe Cahill arrived at the house
0:41:04 > 0:41:06but was very distracted
0:41:06 > 0:41:09and didn't really give my grandfather his full attention
0:41:09 > 0:41:11and was more concerned with hooking up an aerial
0:41:11 > 0:41:13into a television in the house...
0:41:13 > 0:41:17and he saw the images coming through of Bloody Friday.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24He became upset with Cahill, saying, you know,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26"How could you do this?" You know?
0:41:26 > 0:41:28"Things were going so well,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30"we were so close to a peace, how could you do this?"
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Cahill, without even looking at him, and completely unapologetically,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37said, "This is the way it has to be until they come to their senses."
0:41:37 > 0:41:42And my grandfather says that as he watched the images on the television
0:41:42 > 0:41:45he became physically sick and very, very upset.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47He felt utterly betrayed.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Dr O'Connell wasn't alone in those feelings of revulsion.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59My mother and I were sitting by the fireside watching
0:41:59 > 0:42:01teatime television news.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06We watched as they shovelled up the pieces.
0:42:10 > 0:42:16Our telephone rang, and when we answered the call
0:42:16 > 0:42:21we were told by my uncle that Tom had been killed.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26Yes, his body was blown to pieces.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31There was nothing - there was nothing to bring home.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37Joan and her uncle were taken to Musgrave Street Police Station
0:42:37 > 0:42:39to identify her cousin's personal items.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42There were several boxes,
0:42:42 > 0:42:47big cardboard boxes with all kinds of everything in there.
0:42:47 > 0:42:53Handbags, shoes, bits of clothing, jewellery...
0:42:55 > 0:42:59My uncle had told him that Tom had a ring,
0:42:59 > 0:43:03a signet ring with his initials on it.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05And so they produced the ring
0:43:05 > 0:43:10and said that the only means they had
0:43:10 > 0:43:15of identifying Tom was by his thumbprint.
0:43:18 > 0:43:26And it was devastating to watch my little uncle as he took that ring.
0:43:30 > 0:43:3318-year-old Billy Irvine had a tattoo on his right arm.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38That was the only way his brother could recognise his body.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45Billy Crothers - who had gone home at lunchtime with his wage packet -
0:43:45 > 0:43:47could only be identified by his clothes.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55It was lucky, because the guy across the road knew exactly
0:43:55 > 0:44:01what Billy was wearing, and he had to go to the morgue
0:44:01 > 0:44:07and he could only identify Billy's body by his jumper.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Stephen Parker's parents faced the ordeal of identifying his body.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18My wife waited outside and his body was very badly...
0:44:20 > 0:44:27His face, his head, was very badly, you know, well...disfigured,
0:44:27 > 0:44:32and it wasn't possible to recognise him as my son.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38I felt sorry for the man in the mortuary.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He came up and he said, "I don't think that's your son."
0:44:41 > 0:44:43I said, "Look in the pockets."
0:44:43 > 0:44:48And, of course, he pulled out a box of safety matches.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51And, of course, Stephen had fooled me two nights before.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54He was always buying these trick games and so on.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56- They were joke matches? - Joke matches, yes.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Stephen received a posthumous award for bravery
0:45:00 > 0:45:04for warning people away from the bomb that killed him.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09The scenes at the bus station were unimaginable.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13It was hours before anyone could be sure who had lived and who had died.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17There were six deaths.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22Among them, the aspiring footballer 15-year-old Billy Crothers.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Billy Irvine, only working that day
0:45:26 > 0:45:29because he'd swapped shifts with a colleague.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37And Tom Killops, clerk in the parcels office.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40The three bus workers died together,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44searching for the car that contained the bomb.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Jackie Gibson, bus driver and father of five,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50was struck by shrapnel as he paid in his day's takings.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Two soldiers from the Welsh Guards were killed.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03Philip Price, 27, had been clearing the area around the bus station.
0:46:05 > 0:46:11And Stephen Cooper, the driver, died the day before his 19th birthday.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18It was the next morning.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21My husband was away at the time,
0:46:21 > 0:46:25so my parents wouldn't tell me when I was on my own. Em...
0:46:29 > 0:46:34So it was the next morning that my father came down to tell me.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Afterwards, there were claims and counter-claims
0:46:45 > 0:46:49about what telephone warnings were given.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52None, said the police, that gave them time to act.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Because there weren't mobile phones in those days
0:46:57 > 0:47:00and they had to rely on public telephones
0:47:00 > 0:47:02or phones in the houses of supporters,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04that was a precarious situation.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08The IRA blamed the police and army,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11saying THEY hadn't responded to the calls.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15"The IRA set out to cause economic damage and gave warnings
0:47:15 > 0:47:18"to avoid any civilian casualties.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22"If the British authorities had acted as they should have
0:47:22 > 0:47:24"there would not have been any casualties."
0:47:25 > 0:47:30The truth was, in most cases the IRA HAD given warnings.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34But in the chaos they had created, they were of little use.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38Normally the IRA weren't bad at giving warnings in time,
0:47:38 > 0:47:43but when you've got so many places where they've laid bombs,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47you're going to get people moving from one bomb in to another.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52The system couldn't possibly have coped with Bloody Friday,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54the number of hoax bombs, the number of incidents.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01Because the IRA brought the road system to a complete standstill,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03they couldn't get through the traffic
0:48:03 > 0:48:06to attend to these incidents.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11That was the story of the Cavehill attack. There was a warning.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15But the bomb sat for an hour in a street busy with shoppers
0:48:15 > 0:48:18because the police couldn't get to it.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24At first, the IRA thought Bloody Friday had been a big success.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Bradley told me that he and his commanding officer
0:48:31 > 0:48:35had gone to the top of one of the high flats in the New Lodge
0:48:35 > 0:48:37to watch the bombs going off.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41And they could hear the crump and bang, and watch the black smoke.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42It was only when they came down
0:48:42 > 0:48:45they realised that there were so many casualties
0:48:45 > 0:48:47and that it had been a complete mess.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52The following Sunday, members of the Belfast IRA
0:48:52 > 0:48:56met in a house in Beechmount Grove in West Belfast.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Some joked that the bombing would "toughen the bastards up."
0:49:00 > 0:49:03But others said it was "a fuck-up and a bollocks."
0:49:19 > 0:49:23I remember my Uncle Hugh clinging to the walls.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27And, as a nine-year-old, it was just extraordinary.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29The house was full of people,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and he was actually clinging onto the walls with grief.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34I mean, his grief was unbelievable.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43We buried her on our 12th wedding anniversary.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48Billy Crothers had been waiting for a letter from the shipyard.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50It came just after he died.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54He got word to say they had an apprenticeship for him.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58But...it was too late then.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01We'd had the bomb at the bus station
0:50:01 > 0:50:03and that was it.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10I found it so hard.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18I mean, Billy is with me every day.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22It's just... Excuse me.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26I'll never forget. Never, ever.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32I mean, you don't expect to bury your brother when he's 15, do you?
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Not in them sort of circumstances anyway.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43For the Parker family, life was never the same.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Reverend Parker set up the anti- violence movement Witness for Peace
0:50:47 > 0:50:50and detailed every death in the Troubles.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54But eventually, worn down by the violence
0:50:54 > 0:50:58and by their own memories, they emigrated to Canada.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Stephen lived every minute of his life.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04This is the one thing - he never sat still for a moment.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Many's a time I said to him "Oh, for goodness' sake, sit still."
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Now I just wish he was here, making all the noise again.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20I could say, "Sit still, Stephen. Be quiet."
0:51:23 > 0:51:28130 people were injured. Philip Gault was one of them
0:51:29 > 0:51:33My leg was sliced round the back and then up to the knee.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35The leg was basically hanging off then.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37It had basically been cut open
0:51:37 > 0:51:42with all the nerves and the muscles severed.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44So the muscle has gone from here and here...
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Philip has been left with one foot that hasn't grown since he was nine.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52It's about a size four and a half.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57These days, he's a health and safety officer, living with constant pain.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01Because he has a job, he has to pay for his treatment himself.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06You know, it's one thing having the pain in the first place.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08It's another thing now being told,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11"Well, now you have to pay to have the pain."
0:52:11 > 0:52:17You're talking an average of maybe £60-70,000 spent over 40 years.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21I'm actually financially paying for somebody else's criminal activity.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25For Hugh, the strict rules of the compensation system
0:52:25 > 0:52:27added to his grief.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Because Margaret had no income, she was deemed to be no loss.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36She would have got compensation for injury.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41But because she was killed, had no income - no compensation.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44I just feel...
0:52:44 > 0:52:50If you want to call it an insult to Margaret's memory,
0:52:50 > 0:52:56that everybody just passed her by as if she had no meaning in life.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59It wasn't pounds, shillings and pence,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03it was just the sheer disregard for human life.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08There was a compensation payment in the end.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11I got paid for the Mini. It was blown to pieces.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Jack Campbell lived out the rest of his days
0:53:17 > 0:53:20with shrapnel from the Oxford Street car bomb in his body.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22It sometimes worked its way out.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26And when it did that it caused great pain.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28If he had a pain in his face and he rubbed it like that,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31a bit of black shrapnel would come out.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34The bomb had permanently damaged his lungs.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38He eventually died from his injuries - 25 years later.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42He just said his greatest wish would be for a new pair of bellows,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44and that would have changed his life again.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49He had been in Atlantic convoys during the war,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and he said if Hitler couldn't beat him,
0:53:52 > 0:53:57he was pretty sure he wasn't going to let somebody destroy his life by being blown up at his day's work.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Family and housekeepers helped Hugh raise his seven children -
0:54:02 > 0:54:06the youngest just a year old when their mother died.
0:54:06 > 0:54:12I coped. I just said, "If I have to do this, I must do it." You know?
0:54:12 > 0:54:15And I did.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19I had to get up in the morning, get to work, try to organise things.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23You can't sit back, as I say,
0:54:23 > 0:54:27trailing the ball and chain behind you.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31It's too much of a load, so you have to look for the children
0:54:31 > 0:54:35and see what you can do, and get on with things.
0:54:35 > 0:54:36The O'Hare children
0:54:36 > 0:54:40grew into doctors, dentists and business executives,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44making a success of the lives their mother never lived to share.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53For all but the grieving families,
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Bloody Friday was just a single thread
0:54:55 > 0:54:57in the tapestry of the Troubles.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01They felt they were the forgotten victims.
0:55:03 > 0:55:09A lot of people feel that they don't have a hearing.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19It just seemed to meld into history.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22You didn't discuss it and wouldn't have been found discussing it.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25It was nearly expected, you know, stiff upper lip,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27get yourself together, get on with it.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31It was a very cold, callous world.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35But that's how people survived the Troubles back in the '70s.
0:55:35 > 0:55:41Around 150 IRA members carried out the bombings that day.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46Just three were convicted and only one served a jail term.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50The IRA never attempted anything on the same scale again.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52Shortly after Bloody Friday,
0:55:52 > 0:55:56Seamus Twomey, the Belfast commander, left for Dublin.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01On the 30th anniversary in 2002,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04the IRA apologised for killing civilians on that day.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11Last year, Gerry Adams was asked what role he played.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13None.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18I regret very much that we had a conflict.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22I regret that so many people died in the course of that conflict,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25most particularly innocent civilians,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29people who had no role to play whatsoever,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32were caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
0:56:32 > 0:56:38And I think all of that is something that I'm very, very sorry about.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44The day before Bloody Friday, Stephen Cooper wrote home.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47He said he was enjoying himself in Belfast
0:56:47 > 0:56:49and his work was interesting.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56The biggest question with anyone that dies suddenly like that is why?
0:56:57 > 0:57:01An innocent young man, gone.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Without, you know, living properly.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11I don't really know what their thinking is
0:57:11 > 0:57:14and I never could figure it out. Absolute mindless morons
0:57:14 > 0:57:19who would plant a bomb outside a block of small shops.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Who are the customers going to be at 2pm on the Friday afternoon?
0:57:23 > 0:57:24Women and children.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32I would quote the American playwright
0:57:32 > 0:57:34who said that there's no flag large enough
0:57:34 > 0:57:37to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39And I think that's all I could say
0:57:39 > 0:57:42because it was all done, I suppose, in the name of the flag.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47It doesn't matter what the flag is, it was a shameful act.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54The only question I'd ever ask is,
0:57:54 > 0:57:56did they achieve anything by blowing me up?
0:57:58 > 0:58:01I don't care what they say about the peace process.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04Did they achieve anything by blowing me up in '72?
0:58:04 > 0:58:07I was a nine-year-old child.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10Explain how that achieved a goal,
0:58:10 > 0:58:12because it's beyond me.
0:58:45 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd