Nine evergreen trees representing the victims of the Shankill Road bomb are a “beautiful living memorial”, a church service marking the 30th anniversary of the atrocity has heard.
Shops closed and hundreds of people lined the road on Monday as a clock with its hands stopped at six minutes past one, the time the bomb exploded on a sunny Saturday afternoon in 1993, was unveiled at the site of the blast at the former Frizzell’s fish shop.
Families then attended a service at West Kirk Presbyterian Church, next to a garden where the newly planted trees were surrounded by flowers. Each has an individual brass plaque at its base with the victim’s name and family tribute.
“I think it’s good they’re going to be remembered in this way,” said Alan McBride, who lost his 29-year-old wife, Sharon.
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“I’m glad the trees will be here long after I’m gone because I’m hoping that my granddaughter and maybe my great-grandchildren will come and look at the tree and actually hear stories about Sharon because she was such a wonderful, wonderful woman.”
Mr McBride’s daughter, Zoe, celebrated her second birthday a month before the tragedy.
“It was great to sit beside my daughter in church today and during the first hymn. I leaned over to Zoe and told her that it was a hymn her mother would have sang. Sharon was in a little gospel band, she played guitar.
“Zoe surpassed her mum in age a couple of years back and I still see her as my child. Now she has to remember her mum through photographs and stories. She has no real lived memory; for me and my family, I think that’s the greatest tragedy of the Troubles.”
Survivors of the bomb and first responders who attended the scene that day were also present at the church service, as well as some families of the Ballymurphy massacre victims from west Belfast.
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DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and former SDLP MP Joe Hendron were also present.
The service was told how “mayhem” was visited upon the Shankill community this day 30 years ago.
On October 23rd, 1993 two IRA men, Thomas Begley and Sean Kelly, posed as fishmongers and carried the bomb into the shop where lunchtime shoppers were queuing for food.
Begley was also killed.
Two children were among the nine victims while dozens were injured.
Welcoming the congregation, Rev David Clawson said relatives who lost loved ones were seated in the centre of the church to “gather in the embrace” around them.
“We have our hearts and eyes on the past today. But as we look back, we also look forward,” Rev Clawson said and referred to the evergreen trees as a “beautiful living memorial remembering nine innocent people”.
Children from three different schools who are related to those who died left the church to lay floral tributes in the memorial garden next to the church.
As a bell tolled nine times, the victims’ names the were read out: Frizzell’s fish shop owner John Frizzell, 63, his daughter Sharon McBride, 29, Michael Morrison, 27, his partner Evelyn Baird, 27, their daughter, Michelle, seven, George Williamson, 63, Gillian Williamson, 49, Wilma McKee, 38, and Leanne Murray, 13.
Gary Murray, whose sister Leanne was 13 when she was killed, said the bombing had devastated his family.
“I always think of the woman she would have become, I think about that every day: would she be married, would she have children, would I be an uncle?” he said.
“The service was beautiful but really difficult for me today. I don’t think I can look to the future because I’m always going to be our Leanne’s voice for years to come.”
