Attempted bombings in Ballycastle widely condemned

Several bombing attempts in Ballycastle have drawn widespread condemnation.

On Wednesday August 29 a suspect device was discovered at the town’s Marine Hotel, and earlier in the day a device was dealt with outside licensed premises in the Diamond.

A car bomb parked in Castle Street on Tuesday August 28 caused chaos as the Country Antrim seaside town was packed with thousands of visitors and tourists attending the annual Auld Lammas Fair.

The incendiary device was discovered by a police officer on foot patrol who noticed a smell of fuel around a white Ford Sierra car parked in Castle Street.

As police were attempting to clear the crowd attending the second day of the Fair from the area around the car, a telephone call was received warning that a bomb had been left in Ballycastle.

Army bomb disposal experts defused a device consisting of a timer, detonators and two containers filed with flammable liquid.

The Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used in the past by the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force, claimed responsibility for the attempted car bomb.

The Auld Lammas Fair is one of the province’s most popular tourist attractions regularly drawing thousands of visitors to the seaside town.

RUC Superintendent John Bustard said that the attack had been executed by “ruthless individuals”.

Dr Sean Farren, the SDLP Assembly member for North Antrim, said it was hard to adequately express the contempt he felt for those who have carried out the attempted bombing.

“The Auld Lammas Fair is one of the main events in the North’s summer calendar, an event which is as innocent as it is well attended,” he said.

“There were literally thousands of people in the vicinity of this device - what would the loss of more innocent life have achieved? Those who carry out and support this kind of action are worthy of our utter contempt.”

DUP Assembly member for North Antrim Ian Paisley Jnr said that the bomb could have caused devastation and he was “absolutely appalled that anyone would have attempted to bomb a holiday town whenever it is at the height of attracting tourists to the locality”.

“If the device had detonated it would have made the Omagh atrocity look like a minor incident.” (SP)