Post by Wasp on Mar 24, 2008 22:33:52 GMT
EXCLUSIVE by JIM McDOWELL,
Forgotten Victims of Provo Murderer
Daughter of bomb victim says she understands McGreevy grief
THE daughter of man blasted to death by a bomb planted by Frank 'Bap' McGreevy holds no malice towards the Provo murderer.
Soft-spoken grandmother Jean Morrison's father was killed in an IRA bornb blast just a few streets, away from where she now sits in her spic and-span home in Schomberg Court in Sandy Row. But like a lot of other people in Sandy Row, they were left wondering why, when news of Mr McGreevy's callous and cruel murder was being reported, no mention was made of them, and the grIef they suffered.
Because the bomb Frank McGreevy planted on the cold Monday night of January 30, 1976, not only killed Jean's father, John Smiley, then aged 55. It left many other drinkers in theKIondyke Bar on the front of Sandy Row seriously injured.
And it left a barmaid, later to' give evidence in court against Frank McGreevy, with only one eye.
That girl was to die just three years after the devastation caused by the no warning, indiscriminate bomb left at the door of the popular pub.
Thirty two years later, there is no hatred or spite felt by the people of Sandy Row. Just wonderment at how the history in this country is sometimes 'airbrushed'.
Burden
Sitting in her living room as her two grandchildren pIay outside, Jean Morrison, who was 32 when her father was murdered, simply says: "That man Mr. McGreevy suffered a bad death. But so did my Daddy. "And my father seems to be just another victim who is just forgotten about. Just like the barmaid who lost her eye in the blast, and never got over what happened. "And just like the many other people injured in that bombing."
She appreciates that the terror attack happened at the nadir of The Troubles, one of the worst years on record for sectarian killings and terrorist atrocities.
She says: '"There were so many tragedies on both sides.
Still, she says: "You never expected it, even then, to come home to your own door. But it did. "It is the people who are left behind who have to carry the burden.
"And we are still carrying that burden of tragedy and sorrow and grief."
. That is something, she, and the people of Sandy Row, believe can be over
looked when awful stories, like that of the murder of Frank McGreevy, are reopened, as in the past week.
And she brings the point home even more keenly when she says that when
the trial of the Klondyke Bar bombings came up, her mother didn't even tell her or her two sisters. "She just went along her self, and listened to what happened to my father," she recalls.
She tells the story of how John Smiley, from the old Rowland Street - now rebuilt at the Ulster Folk Museum at CuItra as -part of a heritage site only - went tothe Klondyke a couple of nights a week for a couple of bottles of stout.
But on that Monday night of January 3O, 1976,an old friend had returned to town
"My father had been diagnosed with throat cancer. But they caught it early. The doctors told him he couId live for another 20 years. "But his friend sent a message that he was in the Klondyke and wanted to see my Daddy.
"My father said he'd be round after eating his dinner.
"He went, there about half past six. He was standing at the bar when the
bomb left at the door exploded about 20 minutes later," Jean says, recalling that the tragedy occurred just three days before her own birthday.
Understand
Now, it is clear she is not talking from bitterness, or revenge, or recrimination.
But it is also clear that she, and the people of Sandy Row, don't want what happened to her father, and the other victims of that IRA bombing, simply erased or airbrushed' as one resident put it, from history.
They, understand the grief and sorrow now being suffered and endured by Mr McGreevy's friends and family'
Forgotten Victims of Provo Murderer
Daughter of bomb victim says she understands McGreevy grief
THE daughter of man blasted to death by a bomb planted by Frank 'Bap' McGreevy holds no malice towards the Provo murderer.
Soft-spoken grandmother Jean Morrison's father was killed in an IRA bornb blast just a few streets, away from where she now sits in her spic and-span home in Schomberg Court in Sandy Row. But like a lot of other people in Sandy Row, they were left wondering why, when news of Mr McGreevy's callous and cruel murder was being reported, no mention was made of them, and the grIef they suffered.
Because the bomb Frank McGreevy planted on the cold Monday night of January 30, 1976, not only killed Jean's father, John Smiley, then aged 55. It left many other drinkers in theKIondyke Bar on the front of Sandy Row seriously injured.
And it left a barmaid, later to' give evidence in court against Frank McGreevy, with only one eye.
That girl was to die just three years after the devastation caused by the no warning, indiscriminate bomb left at the door of the popular pub.
Thirty two years later, there is no hatred or spite felt by the people of Sandy Row. Just wonderment at how the history in this country is sometimes 'airbrushed'.
Burden
Sitting in her living room as her two grandchildren pIay outside, Jean Morrison, who was 32 when her father was murdered, simply says: "That man Mr. McGreevy suffered a bad death. But so did my Daddy. "And my father seems to be just another victim who is just forgotten about. Just like the barmaid who lost her eye in the blast, and never got over what happened. "And just like the many other people injured in that bombing."
She appreciates that the terror attack happened at the nadir of The Troubles, one of the worst years on record for sectarian killings and terrorist atrocities.
She says: '"There were so many tragedies on both sides.
Still, she says: "You never expected it, even then, to come home to your own door. But it did. "It is the people who are left behind who have to carry the burden.
"And we are still carrying that burden of tragedy and sorrow and grief."
. That is something, she, and the people of Sandy Row, believe can be over
looked when awful stories, like that of the murder of Frank McGreevy, are reopened, as in the past week.
And she brings the point home even more keenly when she says that when
the trial of the Klondyke Bar bombings came up, her mother didn't even tell her or her two sisters. "She just went along her self, and listened to what happened to my father," she recalls.
She tells the story of how John Smiley, from the old Rowland Street - now rebuilt at the Ulster Folk Museum at CuItra as -part of a heritage site only - went tothe Klondyke a couple of nights a week for a couple of bottles of stout.
But on that Monday night of January 3O, 1976,an old friend had returned to town
"My father had been diagnosed with throat cancer. But they caught it early. The doctors told him he couId live for another 20 years. "But his friend sent a message that he was in the Klondyke and wanted to see my Daddy.
"My father said he'd be round after eating his dinner.
"He went, there about half past six. He was standing at the bar when the
bomb left at the door exploded about 20 minutes later," Jean says, recalling that the tragedy occurred just three days before her own birthday.
Understand
Now, it is clear she is not talking from bitterness, or revenge, or recrimination.
But it is also clear that she, and the people of Sandy Row, don't want what happened to her father, and the other victims of that IRA bombing, simply erased or airbrushed' as one resident put it, from history.
They, understand the grief and sorrow now being suffered and endured by Mr McGreevy's friends and family'
