Belfast bomb blasts

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33373, 3 November 1973, Page 15

Belfast bomb blasts

I. (N.H.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) I BELFAST. November 1.. A car-bomb exploded outside a bar in the centre of Belfast tonight. killing a man, aged 50, and injuring live other persons. Earlier a Roman Catholic man had been shot land killed by a hidden ! gunman when driving his car between Roman Catholic and Protestant areas of West Belfast. I Two huge bomb explosions j rocked the Falls Road district I of Belfast damaging a i hospital, destroying a bar, and injuring at least 10 persons. Security forces estimate the weights of the bombs, which exploded about a mile apart.

at between 3001 b and 5001 b :— huge, even by Belfast standards. The first of the Two bombs ruptured a water i main and sent a huge stream ;of water gushing down the e i roadway. -: The same bomb wrecked jlthe Beehive Bar — the headquarters of the Republican i Clubs, which represent the [Marxist Official wing of the (Irish Republican Army. It ' i also damaged the headquartlters of the Central Citizens’ ff; Defence Committee, a Roman y (Catholic vigilante organisation. 71 The second bomb extent 'sively damaged buildings and ; houses. The violence in Ulster has s 'increased since the escape by t( helicopter from a Dublin gaol a yesterday of three I.R.A. r, leaders. The three escapers — ) Seamus Twomey, Jim e O’Hagan, and Kevin Mallon h — were still free todav as t. scores of armed soldiers

> stood guard at two prisons ’ holding men regarded by the • I Government of the Republic ■:to be subversive. i Opposition leaders have accused the Prime Minister (Mr Cosgrave) of incomi petence, and the police have -[raided the homes of well-; i;known Republicans in Dublin) ;|and the remainder of the; ;) country. t) In Birmingham, the Rev.! .[Patrick Fell, aged 32, a ’[Roman Catholic priest, has i)been imprisoned for 12 years Jon charges of helping to run a unit of the I.R.A. in Eng- . land. and conspiring to dami age buildings. He was alleged to have recruited an I.R.A. ; unit from among his congre- ■ gation and their friends in I Coventry. In helping to run the unit, Father Fell was said to ■ have possessed documents ’ about explosives and a list 5 of possible targets, including s a police station and factories.