Senator shot in Ulster

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 1

Senator shot in Ulster

STRABANE (Northern Ireland), December 13. The mutilated body of a Northern Ireland Protestant Unionist senator was pulled out of the nibble of his wrecked home early today after Irish guerrillas shot him dead before blowing up the building.

Senator John Barnhill was killed by two armed men last night at the doorway of his twostorey farm-house half a mile from the Irish Republic border as his wife watched television inside. They laid his body in the living room and placed a 401 b gelignite bomb beside it Mrs Barnhill was given two minutes to leave the house. She fled to a neighbour's cottage just as the explosion toppled her home. The killing was the first political assassination in Northern Ireland since the troubles re-erupted just over two years ago. Senator Barnhill was the 163rd person to die this year in Northern Ireland's violence; his death followed what an Army spokesman called the bloodiest week in Ulster.

Senator Barnhill, who was aged 68, took office in 1962 and was chairman of the local branch of the Protestant Unionist Party. He was not considered a controversial

figure although his uncompromising stand against terrorism was well-known in political circles.

Police believe that a gang of terrorists from across the border was responsible for the outrage. The same group is also blamed for the killing of four people in the same area during the past few months.

The immediate reaction of the Northern Ireland Government was one of cold fury. The Prime Minister, Mr Brian Faulkner, said that anyone with a spark of humanity would be appalled by the murder.

“The people of Northern Ireland have known for some time to expect ever-

increasing viciousness from the LILA, but an atrocity such as this is shocking beyond words in its cowardice, its cruelty and its senselessness,” he said. TWO SHOTS

Just after dusk Senator Barnhill answered a ring on his doorbell. His wife heard two shots and ran into the hallway where she saw a gunman leaning over her husband's body. A second man then carried a box containing the bomb into the house and left it in the living room. Mrs Barnhill was ordered into the the kitchen and told to clear out of the house in two minutes.

Police and troops worked throughout the night under arc lamps to recover the body. Rescue attempts were i hampered initially when an- ' other bomb was discovered in i a car parked inside the ! Senator's garage. A Northern Ireland tnem- • ber of Parliament said in Bel- ; fast yesterday that Protes- ' tants would set up a vigilante I movement to patrol the ! streets of Belfast if the City i Council did not take measures to protect streets and > buildings.