THE mother of a Catholic UDR soldier murdered by the IRA has condemned sectarian vandals who destroyed a memorial to him near Castlewellan, Co Down. Mrs Irene Cochrane said she was "heartbroken" by the destruction.
The granite memorial, erected only two weeks ago at Burrenbridge, was ripped out of the ground and destroyed. It commemorated the death of Jim Cochrane, who along with UDR colleagues Ricky Wilson and Robert Smyth, died in an IRA land mine explosion in January, 1980.
Mrs Cochrane, from Downpatrick, said she felt heartbroken, let down and cheated. "I don't think I'll ever trust anybody again. I feel sick about it. I don't feel anything for those who did this because, if this is peace, they should be giving victims' families peace of mind," she said.
"It was a simple memorial, not offensive to anyone. I would not destroy anything belonging to anyone else, certainly not commemorating the dead," Mrs Cochrane added.
"They have destroyed a stone to his memory, but not his memory or his spirit".
