Culture

The Belturbet bombing: The story of two young lives destroyed

TV review: A wrenching account of the largely forgotten killing of two teenagers in Fermanagh

Patrick Stanley (16) from Clara, Co Offaly, was killed by the bomb in Belturbet, Co Cavan, in 1972

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Ed Power
Tue Dec 15 2020 - 14:23

Beyond the sectarianism, the cover-ups and the incompetence, RTÉ Investigates: Belturbet, A Bomb That Time Forgot is a story of unimaginable loss and of emotional wounds that will never heal.

Geraldine O’Reilly, 15 and Paddy Stanley,16, were just two ordinary teenagers going about their business when a loyalist car bomb went off in the Co Cavan town on December 28th, 1972. This account of their deaths and the internecine conflict that led to an explosive device being planted in this sleepy Border settlement make for wrenching viewing.

Above all it is a reminder of how much Ireland has changed in the intervening 48 years. The contested borderlands of south Fermanagh, just a few miles north of Belturbet, were riven with violence as Republican and Loyalist thugs murdered with impunity, leaving both communities under siege.

Geraldine O’Reilly (15) had been about to leave a takeaway when the bomb exploded in Belturbet, Co Cavan

Nearly half a century later, the grief of the O’Reilly and Stanley families has yet to diminish. Paddy’s siblings recalled how their father had gone to his grave not knowing who had killed his son – or if the perpetrators would ever be brought to justice.

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RTÉ Investigates' "Belturbet: A Bomb That Time Forgot" will reveal new evidence about the 1972 bombing in Cavan.

One of the cruellest aspects of the bombing was the degree to which Belturbet has been written out of history. The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974 are regarded as among the Trouble’s worst atrocities. Yet when the Barron report on loyalist attacks in the Republic and claims of British collusion was published in 2004, Belturbet was virtually a footnote: the families had to pour over the document looking for it.

A doctor walks through soldiers at the scene in Belturbet, Co Cavan, following the bombing in December 1972. Photograph: Paddy Ronaghan

Back in 1972, the level of distrust between security services on either side of the border was stunning. Among Unionist communities in south Fermanagh it was felt that a porous Border was facilitating the Provisional IRA’s campaign of murder. But it was equally obvious that loyalist terrorists and British security services were conspiring – which is how a crossing at Aghalane Bridge three miles from Belturbet came to be blown up.

Anthony O’Reilly’s car following the bombing in Belturbet, Co Cavan. Photograph: Paddy Ronaghan

A temporary bridge erected by Cavan County Council was regarded by loyalist gunmen as a provocation. And as licence to take their own campaign of murder south and to bomb Belturbet. It was a bloody, grubby business, aided by the tin-pot incompetence of the Republic, which tried to seal the Border using inexperienced and poorly resourced gardaí. All these decades later nobody in authority seems in any hurry to uncover the truth of what happened (RTÉ’s conclusion is that the likely bomber died last year in the UK at age 83).

Yet even as the documentary conveys the poisonous atmosphere of the time it never loses sight of the fact that this is ultimately the devastating story of two young lives destroyed.

“I don’t think there were too many stones turned at all,” says Geraldine O’Reilly’s older brother, Anthony. “They are waiting for someone to come [forward] that feels guilty about it – which I don’t think will ever happen.”