Bomb victims’ funeral brings town to halt

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 8

Bomb victims’ funeral brings town to halt

'by CHRISTOPHER WALKER of “The Times” (through NZPA) Bangor (Northern Ireland)

The grief and anger felt 'throughout Northern Ireland I at the La Mon House bombing last Friday was given public expression on Tuesday as the first two of the 12 victims were buried. The funeral halted the usually bustling seaside resort of Bangor. i More than a thousand mourners crowded into the First Presbyterian Church, where the murdered couple lan and Elizabeth McCracken, both aged 25, had been married less than two years earlier. Many people had to stand in the gangways, while in the wet and misty streets outside, sympathisers lined the route five deep. The Rev. W. McKinstry Wallace launched a bitter attack from the pulpit on the Government’s security policy. His sentiments will be echoed in many other parts of Ulster as services for other victims are held, and many businesses shut in a combined memorial and protest called by leading Protestant paramilitary groups and politicians. Although intended primarily as a family affair, the McCracken funeral inevitably focused feeling against the Irish Republican Army. Mr McKinstry Wallace, said: “Each new atrocity takes its toll on all of us, and we feel helpless in a society in which law

appears to protect the criminal. and attitudes inevitably harden. We must make in creasing demands for changes in the law which will ensure that criminals are brought to justice and the proper punishment to fit their horrible crimes. “History will record these events and wonder that they were human beings and not brute beasts that perpetrated them.” United Press International reported in Belfast that the police arrested 13 people on Tuesday in a round-up of suspects in the bombing of the hotel. It was the second arrest of what police termed known Provisional Irish Republican Army sympathisers since the bombing. Twenty I.R.A. suspects were arrested within hours of the attack and special branch police were still questioning eight of them in Belfast. Under the Suspension of Terrorism Act, the police can hold suspects for questioning for seven days. The police said information received from the » original detainees led to the 13 arrests. Leaders of militant Protestant organisations have reported widespread demands by their members for revenge against Roman Catholics as a wave of revulsion continued to sweep the province. But informed Protestant sources reported that so far none of the extremist groups had sanctioned reprisal raids.