"La Mon house" Petrol Fire-Bomb Massacre
Irish Republican Watch
February 17th 1978
When will there be a £54 million pound inquiry set up to bring the
terrorists who committed this heinous crime to justice? Or are there
two laws in operation in Northern Ireland? Sinn Fein IRA lobby hard
for public inquires but their memories are very selective. All we hear
about is "Bloody Sunday", Dublin, Monaghan, Finucane and Nelson. What
about the atrocities against the Protestants of Northern Ireland? How
could they forget about "Teebane, Claudy, Enniskillen" and many many
more. They forget because the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein were the ones
who carried out these and many more atrocities.
Twelve people were "Incinerated" when the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein
left a fire-bomb at "La Mon House", Gransha, a country hotel outside
Belfast. Of the twelve people killed seven of the victims were women.
All who died were attending the Annual dinner dance of the Irish
Collie Club and were Protestant Civilians. Three married couples were
amongst the dead. Over 400 people were packed into the La Mon hotel on
the night of the bombing. Members of the Irish Collie Club and the
Northern Ireland Junior Motorcycle Club were settling down to enjoy
dinner dances at the popular hotel.
The people who died at in the "La Mon" fireball explosion were as
follows:-
Thomas Neeson 52 yrs old married with three children car salesman
Civilian
Dorothy Nelson 35 yrs married with two children Civilian
Gordon Crothers 30 yrs old married with one child Civilian
Joan Crothers 26 yrs married one child Civilian
Ian McCracken 25 yrs old married Civilian
Elizabeth McCracken 25 yrs old Civilian
Sandra Morris 27 yrs old married with three children Civilian
Sarah Wilson Cooper 62 yrs old married with children Civilian
Christine Lockhart 32 yrs old married and a Civilian
Daniel Magill married Civilian Carol Mills27 yrs old married Civilian
Paul Nelson 37 yrs married with two children Civilian
Carol Mills 27 yrs married Civilian
The Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein terrorist left petrol cans attached to
window grills with meat hooks.
The horror, the terrible unreality of that night is hard to imagine.
Guests stumbled out of the hotel or jumped out of windows with their
hair and clothes on fire. Some victims, horribly burned, had skin
hanging from them in strips. Others lost limbs in the blast.
Survivors, their clothes in tatters, stumbled around the car park in
shock. It was one of the most horrific and appalling attacks in the
history of the troubles. Others trying to escape the horror, or taking
victims to hospital, clogged roads leading from the hotel, making it
difficult for the emergency services to get through. Two hours later,
after firefighters had brought the blaze under control, the grisly
task of removing the bodies began.
The bomb was described as a blast incendiary. The bomb was hung on the
grille of a window with a meat hook. After tests the experts said the
device consisted of an electrical initiating system, and an explosive
charge in a steel container and at least four containers of petrol.
When experts later carried out trials to simulate the effect the
device was similar to napalm producing a fireball more than 60 feet in
diameter.
This atrocity rates as one of the most horrific of the 'troubles' ever
carried out. The dead were burned beyond recognition and over thirty
people were injured in the attack many suffering horrendous burns
which required treatment over twenty years later.
Left on a 58-minute timer, the bomb was designed to sweep the room
like a flame-thrower. As the plastic explosive detonated, it blew out
the glass of the window, vaporised the plastic containers and sprayed
the room with blazing petrol. The petrol had been mixed with sugar to
make sure it stuck to whatever it touched.
Alex Withers was a station officer with the Fire Service on the night
of the La Mon bombing. He still recalls the scene which greeted him as
he fought to get through to the blazing hotel. "Some appliances were
already there, but the hotel was a roaring inferno," he said. "The
road was very narrow and there were a lot of people trying to get
away. I had some difficulty getting past them to the scene. "It was
very windy and that fanned the flames. People were wandering around in
a daze, but the most seriously injured had already gone."
In the confusion, it was difficult to determine how many people were
still inside the ruined building. "Some people had taken wounded away
and others had left the scene," Mr Withers said. "As the scene
unfolded, one of the problems we faced was finding out who was
missing."
It was two hours before the fire was under control and rescuers could
enter the ruined shell of the La Mon to search for bodies. They found
them, under a pile of hot ash, charred beyond recognition. The corpses
had to be hosed down before they could be put into body bags and
removed.
The rescuers - who included many off-duty members of the security
forces who had rushed to the scene to help - saw scenes of horror that
they could never forget.
Mr Withers, who is now a deputy senior fire safety officer, said he
will take the memory of that terrible night with him to the grave. "I
can only speak personally, but you really did run the whole gamut of
emotions. "Your training kicks in at first and you get on and deal
with it. Then as the full horror of it sinks it you feel a great
anger. Why did this happen to all these innocent people?"
A senior police officer at the time of the attack, who has since
retired from the force, said there had been "absolute confusion" at
the scene. The officer, who prefers to remain anonymous, recalled how
police had been told there were further devices in the car park.
"There were people standing at the edge of the flames, looking in," he
said. "They knew people were in there when the bomb went off, but I
think a lot of them hoped they had gotten out. "We of course were
trying to get them back, but it was very difficult."
Among those members of the public who rushed to the scene was Michael
Stone, who later went on to murder three people at Milltown Cemetery
in 1988. If the Provisional IRA had not committed this and other
atrocities would there have been as many Protestants in Jail who is
sheer frustration turned to paramilitaries for help and guidance?
The Rev. Roy Magee speaking at the funeral of Paul Nelson and his wife
Dorothy said "Try to picture the scene at 4-30pm on Saturday when two
young girls were still waiting in vain for their parents to come
home." All of the victims who died were attending the annual dinner
dance of the Irish Collie Club. Many of the people killed in the
fireball explosion were seated close to the window where the device
exploded. When Thomas Neeson service was taking place his three
daughters wept uncontrollably during his service. When one of his
daughters seen a newspaper picture of their father one of the little
girls said "Daddy has died and just gone to heaven."
Read below statements from people who were there at the time of the
fireball blast
A witness said "I heard an explosion, then a ball of flame and intense
heat. He said some people were in flames, the lights went out, and
there were a lot of fumes, "I was on fire and I dropped to the floor
and rolled in a ball trying to get air."
A waitress said "People were on fire, actually burning alive. I
watched men pulling long curtains off the rails and wrapping people up
in them to try to put out the flames. I could smell the burning flesh.
I didn't realise at the time what I was smelling but I realised later
what that dreadful stench was. I could never describe it."
Another witness said "People started being brought out without legs
and arms and I knew it was far worse than I first thought."
When the bodies were being recovered some of the corpses had shrunk in
the intense heat and it was thought that the bodies included a number
of children.
On the right is the shocking poster released by the RUC detectives
hunting the killers
Christine Lockhart (32), from Annareagh in Richill, was married to
well-known country and western singer Terry Nash. She had an
artificial leg after an amputation 11 years before the attack and
walked with the aid of crutches. Her body was identified by a metal
belt used to hold the limb in place.
A report from the Newtownards Chronicle stated "Evidence of the
intense heat and the blast became evident when the bodies were found
huddled against a brick wall directly opposite the bomb position. It
was gruesome, people with their clothes and flesh on fire trying to
get out of the burning building which was a raging inferno in a few
minutes. For those who were there to see this holocaust it was
sickening. Sickening to see pieces of a human body, limbs and other
parts of the body being lifted. Many of them were just pure red flesh
so indistinguishable that even forensic science experts found
difficulty in sifting out their identification. It was only by getting
down to some of the most minute details - teeth, hair, steel items
belonging to the victims - that it was possible to arrive at
identification."
At the inquest on the bodies of dead, three of the men and two of the
women were finally identified only after extensive studies of blood
type from living relatives. Two other bodies could not be identified
at all except by a process of elimination.
In the aftermath of this bombing twenty five people were arrested in
West Belfast among those arrested was Gerry Adams the present leader
of Sinn Fein/IRA.
At a memorial service in 1998 twenty years later a woman who was
injured in the firebomb attack was still receiving treatment for
severe injuries from the blast.
At the funeral of Ian and Elizabeth McCracken the minister said
"History will record these events and wonder if they were human or
brute beasts who perpetrated them."
The minister at the funeral of Gordon and Joan Crothers who had a two
and a half year old child said "What makes men behave in a fashion
worse than the animal creation about them? Animals kill only to eat
when they are hungry and, within that law, they are clean. But when
men kill in wrath, brutally and without mercy and consideration from
some misguided sense of racial hatred, then they are worse than the
mad dogs. They are without mercy and deserve none in return."
The Rev. Magee, at a 1998 anniversary interview said "I actually felt
that it would be a watershed, that things couldn't get any worse, that
surely the fact that people had been killed who were unquestionably
innocent would mean that everyone would take a step back and begin to
look at their actions. Unfortunately there have been many others
killed in a senseless way since then