I.R.A. guerrillas mine train

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 1

I.R.A. guerrillas mine train

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

BELFAST, July 21.

I.R.A. guerrillas blasted a goods train off Northern Ireland’s main rail line early today as they kept up their hit-and-run war against British troops and Protestant extremists.

The engine and 10 waggons ploughed off the line linking Belfast and Dublin, in the Irish Republic, when it detonated a 501 b mine near Lurgan, 20 miles south-west of Belfast.

None of the train' crew were injured. Army sappers found | another home-made ; mine on the line nearby. 1 A railway spokesman I said that the line, broken by a 6ft crater J would take two days to, repair. I.R.A. guerrillas have already made several attempts to blow up the line. Last month, two barrels of explosives were found on the track near the border. As violence continued throughout the province during the night, townspeople :n Killen, 60 miles west of Belfast, thwarted guerrilla bombers who had planted a 1001 b bomb in a car in the village’s main street. They pushed the car into an open space and ran for cover. The bomb exploded two minutes later. The only damage done was a half dozen windows broken. Several other bombs ex-

ploded in other towns, but no major damage or casualties were reported.

Stringent measures

Meanwhile, Britain today announced she would introduce stringent new security measures in Northern Ireland and gave a warning that they would make life more difficult for people. The administrator in Northern Ireland (Mr William Whitelaw) did not specify what the measures would be, but told the House of Commons in London that they were aimed at protecting both life and property in Belfast and Londonderry. “These are bound to be irksome to innocent people, but they are necessary if the security forces are to carry out successfully their paramount function to protect the people of all communities and their property," Mr Whitelaw said. Mr Whitelaw, making his | weekly review of the Northlem Ireland situation in Par-

liament, also confirmed that he would have a meeting tomorrow with Dr Patrick Hillery, Foreign Minister of the Irish Republic. Dr Hillery, who would be

passing through London, had asked to see him, Mr Whitelaw said. But this did not mean that the Irish Minister was involved “in the discustions I am having with the people of Northern Ireland about their particular future.”

Mr Whitelaw said, in answer to questions, that the new security measures would involve people walking considerable distances and leaving their cars “far from their places of work.”

This appeared to indicate that the security forces will further restrict the movement of vehicles in the two major cities, where I.R.A. guerrillas have caused tremendous damage with bombs planted in parked cars. Shot in back In Belfast today gunmen shot a woman in the back as she knelt over her dying husband in the predominantly Roman Catholic Springfield 1 Road area, the Press Association reported. Minutes earlier, two armed men had walked into the couple’s news agents shop and planted a bomb. The police said that as the gunmen tried to escape, the news agent ran after them. One turned, and shot him down. His wife was kneeling over his body when the gunmen shot her in the back, seriously injuring her. Despite the wound, the wife telephoned the police. She managed to struggle out of the shop. Minutes later, the bomb exploded, completely wrecking the premises. The killing occurred not far from a bar where Mr Harold Grey, a 71-year-old nightwatchman, was killed on Wednesday by a burst of sub-macihne-gun fire as he tried to stop terrorists planting a bomb. A police spokesman said: "The district where these murders have been committed is on the borderline between the Catholic and Protestant areas of the Springfield Road. “It looks as though the I.R.A. are determined to shoot, bomb, or intimidate every Protestant out of the district.”