Remember This As If It Was Yesterday

[Bathsheba]

and not 20 years ago. Am posting it in Chatterbank so sad pedants don't complain if it wanders off topic


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/new-video-ira-manchester-bomb-10850795#ICID=FB-MEN-main

Baths

x x x

[Elina]

Bath, absolutely chilling to watch. All those that walked past that van that day before must have thought themselves very lucky my to still be alive x

[Elina]

That day before it was realised it was loaded!

[Mamyalynne]

Yes your blood runs cold, only two days before that I was stood on that walkway with my youngest daughter.

[Elina]

Massive explosion wasn't it Mamya, I heard it go off in my back garden!

[Mamyalynne]

Don't live close enough to have heard it , was at my nephew's wedding when we heard the news.

[Elina]

Ah right Mamya, I'm about 3 miles away. Everyone remembers where they were that day.

[DTCwordfan]

Hope you weren't in the mayhem, Baths....

I remember the one at the boatshow and my old man and I were interviewed about that as we had been on the Riva boat some thirty minutes before it went up.

[Elina]

Where was that Dt?

[Elina]

I worked for a blind lady at the time who lived in 'Victoria Square' which is very close to the City centre. She said it shook the building.

[Sir Alec]

My Dad was the co-inventor of 'the Wheelbarrow', which was the nickname they gave to the robot bomb investigator, used in that clip.
Ironically, during 'the troubles', the 'wheelbarrow' in Ireland broke down and my Dad was chosen to go there to see what the problem was. They had forgotten to put oil in it!
Whilst there, he visited a cinema, where they showed a Pathe-type news story of a bomb going off in England. He said that the crowd cheered and clapped the deaths and destruction their countrymen had caused. Needless to say, he sidled out of there quick and kept his mouth shut in case they heard his English accent.

[Elina]

SirA! How fantastic!

[Elina]

Have to go. Interesting thread Bath x

[DTCwordfan]

London in Earls Court - we had just left before the phone call warning came in and the evacuation of 25000 folk took place. Our stand had debris on it the next day.....a first bomb went off at Mme. Tussauds, Jan 1974

[Bathsheba]

sorry lovelies, was called away soon after I posted this.
No, DT, thankfully I was a few miles away.
Sir Alec, I agree with Lina,...how interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Baths
x x

[Ken4155]

Sir Alec; I did 3 tours of Belfast between 1973 and 1977 and, by then, the nickname for the bomb disposal machine had been changed to 'Goliath'. On my 3rd tour, i was a photographer/collator with the Regiment's Intelligence Section and, as such, i was afforded a close up view of this amazing machine in action on the numerous occasions i was called out to a 'bomb warning'.

[Elina]

How worrying that must have been Clarion! I was thinking about the buses going in to the City centre ferrying people in just before it went off.

[Elina]

Ken, you must have a few stories to tell there!

[Ken4155]

Pull up a sandbag, Elina:-)

[Elina]

Ken, I'm listening! My brother served in Ireland.