Shankill bomb: church service and new memorial to mark 30th anniversary
Nine people including two young girls were killed in the IRA blast
Last updated 23rd Oct 2023
A church service to mark the 30th anniversary of the Shankill bomb was held in Belfast today (Monday).
A new memorial was also unveiled.
Nine people, including two young girls, were killed in the IRA bombing of Frizzell's fish shop on October 23 1993, while more than 50 were injured.
One of the IRA bombers was also killed in the blast.
The victims were the fish shop owner, John Frizzell, 63, his daughter Sharon McBride, 29, Michael Morrison, 27, his partner Evelyn Baird, 27, their daughter, Michelle, seven, George Williamson, 63, Gillian Williamson, 49, Wilma McKee, 38, and Leanne Murray, 13.
As people on the normally busy Shankill Road in Belfast fell silent at lunchtime, the only sound to be heard was a solitary bell which rang nine times.
The ringing represented the nine innocent victims of one of the most infamous terrorist attacks from Northern Ireland's troubled past.
The new memorial shows a clock face (main pic) with the hands forever stopped at 1.06pm, the exact moment when the bomb detonated.
The plaque also contains the names and ages of the nine victims, as well as an image of the former Frizzell's fish shop, which was destroyed in the bombing.
Onlookers today lined the streets and many remembered a sunny Saturday three decades ago when lives were devastated.
Alan McBride, who lost his wife Sharon in the attack, said the anniversary represented a rare opportunity for the families to come together.
He said: "It is always hard.
"I think for me the last two years have been the most difficult and I think that is not so much about the anniversaries, they come and go - for me it is about my daughter getting older.
"Two years ago she surpassed Sharon in age she was when she died at 29, and last year she gave birth to my first little grandchild, and her mum wasn't there to see it.
"Those things are really hard."
Mr McBride said he believed that more needed to be done by politicians to deliver peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
He said: "I just hope that this place can get its act together.
"One of the things in the 30 years I've been campaigning for peace and for reconciliation is that our politicians have badly let us down, and these are people who didn't suffer anything near what people like myself and others have suffered.
"Our government is still down today. We were promised in 1998 peace and a prosperous society would be a lasting memorial to all those who were murdered.
"We don't have that because we don't have a functioning executive at the minute. So I think: shame on them.
"I am frustrated because I've put a lot of my life into building reconciliation, trying to build peace right across the divide. The fact that they can't make this work for all the people that were killed, it is shameful.
"Thank God we are not going back to those days but we do need to press on now with peace and reconciliation."
Meanwhile, crowds turned out on the Shankill Road on Saturday (see pic below) for a procession and an act of remembrance at the site where Frizzell's fish shop once stood.
Later today, a new memorial will be unveiled at the site ahead of a church service to mark the date of the 30th anniversary.
Speaking ahead of the event, UUP leader Doug Beattie challenged Sinn Fein to "recognise the suffering" caused by the actions of the Provisional IRA, and to "condemn all terrorist actions, regardless of the perpetrators".
"On this, the 30th anniversary of the Shankill bombing, the Ulster Unionist Party joins with the entire community in remembering the nine innocent people who were murdered by the Provisional IRA on October 23 1993," he said.
"We also remember the many others who were injured, both physically and mentally, by this atrocity. The scars of the Shankill bombing run deep, and the pain of loss and trauma is still felt by many today.
"The Shankill bombing was a cold-blooded act of murder that targeted innocent civilians. It was an act of pure evil, the images of which sent shockwaves around the world."