Newtownhamilton a mixed town in south Armagh, was a scene of destruction yesterday. The huge dissident republican car-bomb which exploded in the town square shortly after 2.30 p.m. did not discriminate. Catholic and Protestant homes and businesses were wrecked in the blast.
A 13-year-old boy sustained chest injuries and was being treated in Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital last night. His condition was said to be stable. Five others who were being evacuated from the scene were treated for shock and minor injuries.
A 50-minute warning was given by a caller claiming to represent the INLA, but the area had not been fully evacuated when the explosion occurred.
Pupils in the local schools were instructed by soldiers to remain in their classrooms after the explosion. Some had parents or brothers and sisters living and working in or near the town square, which took the full force of the explosion. Teachers had to console children who broke down in tears.
Huge sheets of twisted protective perimeter fencing from the RUC-British army base was strewn around the square. The refurbished Vallendale Hotel alongside, which received substantial financial support from the International Fund for Ireland - ironically to promote local tourism - is now a shell.
Windows of all the buildings around were blown in, their roofs blown off. Private houses, the bank, the hardware store, the estate agents, local pubs, a drapery - all the elements of a small community - were in ruins.
A Protestant owner of a taxi firm, whose family had operated in the town for generations, met a local SDLP councillor, Mr John Fee, just outside the bomb scene as he returned from a fare. "What's happened?" he asked. Mr Fee said he was sorry to tell him his business premises was destroyed. "It's happened before," he shrugged in stoic fashion. "Maybe this'll be the last."
Local politicians were sure the bombers' intention was to promote the cause of the anti-agreement parties in today's Assembly poll. They certainly succeeded as far as Ms Andrea Clark from nearby Markethill was concerned. She didn't have the taxi-owner's restraint.
"I'm facing being homeless and being out of work," she fumed as she stood near the white-tape security cordon around the bomb scene. Last September her home was badly damaged in a dissident republican explosion in Market hill. Yesterday her bakery and chip shop in Newtownhamilton was damaged.
She voted No in the referendum and would be voting for an anti-agreement party today. "It's the same old story: there is no peace, there are no weapons handed over. The bombers keep bombing and the politicians keep giving in," she said, her voice shaking with indignation and dejection.
Mr Seamus Mallon, the local MP and also a resident of Market hill, commiserated with her after he had surveyed the damage. He could understand her anger when he heard she would vote for the No side. "But that's exactly what the bombers wanted. My message is: don't facilitate them," he said.
"To vote like that would be to give in to those on both sides who don't want a resolution of our problems. Voters should consign these pathetic creatures to the rubbish bin where they belong."
Newtownhamilton is 60 per cent Catholic, 40 per cent Protestant, with a population of 1,800. About 1,000 people were evacuated during the bomb alert yesterday afternoon. The polling centre for today's election, the local community centre opposite the security base, was also damaged. As the people of Newtownhamilton were deciding last night whether to vote for pro- or anti-agreement parties, election officers were deciding whether they would need an alternative polling station today.
