Security fears have been “reignited” among civilian staff working for the Police Service of Northern Ireland following a bomb attack outside a police station, according to a union representative.
Tracey Godfrey, who has 42 years’ experience as a police employee, said the explosion at Dunmurry police station in Belfast brought back some of the worst memories of the Troubles.
She represents more than 2,000 PSNI civilian workers – from 999 call handlers to crime prevention workers – and has been “inundated” with calls since speaking publicly about her concerns.
Her “heart sank” when the news broke about the car bomb explosion on Saturday night.
READ MORE
“I don’t want to go back to that,” she said.
Godfrey paid tribute to the “professionalism” of the civilian contractor who was in the sangar of Dunmurry police station and first raised the alarm.
Dissident paramilitary group, the New IRA, claimed responsibility for the attack, during which a delivery driver was hijacked and forced to drive his car with the device to the station.
A 66-year-old man was arrested by police under the Terrorism Act on Tuesday.
“It just brought back all the times I worked through the Troubles. My husband was in the RUC/PSNI and injured a few times” said Godfrey, currently on secondment to Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (Nipsa) trade union as PSNI departmental secretary.
“From speaking to others, it just reignites things and fears you’d buried in the back of your mind. They do come to the fore again.”
Such was the level of concern about their personal security during the Troubles that Godfrey and her husband kept their jobs “hidden” from their daughter.
[ ‘No one wants this’: Dunmurry residents resolute after car bomb attackOpens in new window ]
“When our daughter was young, we pretended we were looking for the cat under our car when we were really checking for bombs. It was our ‘story’ to explain why we were getting on our knees every morning before we took her to school.
“She didn’t know what we did for a long time.”
There are around 6,300 serving PSNI officers and 2,500 civilian staff.
Photographers, custody detention centre workers, forensics and communication staff are among the civilian police staff.
Their role is “integral” to policing in Northern Ireland, according to Godfrey.
The Dunmurry bomb was “an attack on the whole community”, she said.
“People need to remember that police officers, police staff and police contractors are all part of that community,” she added.
The bomb triggered memories of an early fatal attack for her.
“In the eighties we had a cleaner for the RUC, his car got hijacked and he had to drive it to a police station with a bomb in it. It did explode and kill him,” she said.
“I kept thinking the Dunmurry bomb could have gone off when that delivery worker was driving that car.”
Stormont Minister for Justice Naomi Long said she was “completely horrified” when she heard about the bomb and praised the civilian worker who raised the alarm.
“I think the fact they did so effectively and efficiently is remarkable,” she told the BBC.
On Wednesday, First Minister Michelle O’Neill accused the Democratic Unionist Party of “electioneering” after criticising Sinn Féin over its support for policing in the North.
Earlier this week, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Sinn Féin needed to do more in its “visual and vocal support” for the PSNI, as opposed to condemning attacks on officers.
On Wednesday, O’Neill accused the DUP of “spoofing”.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has called all political parties to show support for police in the wake of the dissident attack.
