On This Day / February 13, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19710213
Reference Date
19710213
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 13th February 1971, a booby-trap explosion killed five BBC engineers in Tyrone, a child’s funeral occurred in Belfast, and two men faced trial for a Commons gas attack. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Five Die in Mountain Blast | On This Day – 13th February 1971
A BOOBY-TRAP explosive blew up a BBC maintenance unit Landrover on a track leading to a TV transmitter station in County Tyrone, killing all five occupants.
Two of the dead were BBC technicians, Mr Bill Thomas (35), married with a family of two of Glengoland Avenue, Belfast and Mr Malcom Henson (24) of Morecambe, Lancs.
The three others who were killed were employees of a Kilkeel firm of contractors who were repairing the transmitter building which was badly damaged by a bomb a month ago. They were Mr John Aiken (52), Mr Henry Edgar (26) and Mr Thomas Beck (43).
The explosion on Brougher Mountain, near Trillick, occurred as the men were going up to start their day’s work at the mast.
The BBC’s NI Controller, Mr W Maguire expressed his horror at ‘this senseless act of barbarity’.
Quiet Funeral for Little Denise
THE funeral of Denise Dickson, aged five, who was killed when struck by an Army scout car in the New Lodge area of Belfast on Monday night, passed off quietly yesterday.
The cortege at one time numbered 300 as it journeyed from Denise’s home in Lepper Street to Milltown Cemetery.
Denise’s six brothers and sisters walked behind the hearse. Several women wept as they saw the tiny coffin in the hearse.
Only a handful of mourners attended the funeral of Albert Edward Bell to the City Cemetery yesterday.
Bell, a labourer of Olympia Street, was found dead in a ditch near Aldergrove Airport.
Commons Gas Attack Recalled
The day two CS gas bombs were hurled from the Strangers’ Gallery of the House of Commons was described by prosecuting counsel to an Old Bailey jury yesterday.
Bowes Egan (28), publisher, West Kensington, London and James Anthony Roche (26), a labourer of no fixed address, had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to effect a public mischief by disrupting proceedings of one of the Houses of Parliament while in session between July 1 and 24.
In a written statement, Roche said he had seen the British Army using CS gas in Ballymurphy and had seen people suffering from the effects of it.
‘I decided that it would be better if the Government experienced it first hand’, he said.
Counsel said that the Crown alleged that Roche was not alone in planning the disturbance and that one of those who helped him was Egan.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The Brougher Mountain atrocity was strongly condemned by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.
It signalled the widening of the IRA campaign from urban centres.
Bowes Egan, a Fermanagh-born academic, had been a People’s Democracy candidate in the 1969 NI election.)
On This Day – 13th February 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
Brougher Mountain transmitting station
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710213
Reference Date
19710213
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 13th February 1971, a booby-trap explosion killed five BBC engineers in Tyrone, a child’s funeral occurred in Belfast, and two men faced trial for a Commons gas attack. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Five Die in Mountain Blast | On This Day – 13th February 1971
A BOOBY-TRAP explosive blew up a BBC maintenance unit Landrover on a track leading to a TV transmitter station in County Tyrone, killing all five occupants.
Two of the dead were BBC technicians, Mr Bill Thomas (35), married with a family of two of Glengoland Avenue, Belfast and Mr Malcom Henson (24) of Morecambe, Lancs.
The three others who were killed were employees of a Kilkeel firm of contractors who were repairing the transmitter building which was badly damaged by a bomb a month ago. They were Mr John Aiken (52), Mr Henry Edgar (26) and Mr Thomas Beck (43).
The explosion on Brougher Mountain, near Trillick, occurred as the men were going up to start their day’s work at the mast.
The BBC’s NI Controller, Mr W Maguire expressed his horror at ‘this senseless act of barbarity’.
Quiet Funeral for Little Denise
THE funeral of Denise Dickson, aged five, who was killed when struck by an Army scout car in the New Lodge area of Belfast on Monday night, passed off quietly yesterday.
The cortege at one time numbered 300 as it journeyed from Denise’s home in Lepper Street to Milltown Cemetery.
Denise’s six brothers and sisters walked behind the hearse. Several women wept as they saw the tiny coffin in the hearse.
Only a handful of mourners attended the funeral of Albert Edward Bell to the City Cemetery yesterday.
Bell, a labourer of Olympia Street, was found dead in a ditch near Aldergrove Airport.
Commons Gas Attack Recalled
The day two CS gas bombs were hurled from the Strangers’ Gallery of the House of Commons was described by prosecuting counsel to an Old Bailey jury yesterday.
Bowes Egan (28), publisher, West Kensington, London and James Anthony Roche (26), a labourer of no fixed address, had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to effect a public mischief by disrupting proceedings of one of the Houses of Parliament while in session between July 1 and 24.
In a written statement, Roche said he had seen the British Army using CS gas in Ballymurphy and had seen people suffering from the effects of it.
‘I decided that it would be better if the Government experienced it first hand’, he said.
Counsel said that the Crown alleged that Roche was not alone in planning the disturbance and that one of those who helped him was Egan.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The Brougher Mountain atrocity was strongly condemned by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.
It signalled the widening of the IRA campaign from urban centres.
Bowes Egan, a Fermanagh-born academic, had been a People’s Democracy candidate in the 1969 NI election.)
On This Day – 13th February 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
Brougher Mountain transmitting station
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710213
Reference Date
February 13, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 13th February 1971, a booby-trap explosion killed five BBC engineers in Tyrone, a child’s funeral occurred in Belfast, and two men faced trial for a Commons gas attack. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Five Die in Mountain Blast | On This Day – 13th February 1971
A BOOBY-TRAP explosive blew up a BBC maintenance unit Landrover on a track leading to a TV transmitter station in County Tyrone, killing all five occupants.
Two of the dead were BBC technicians, Mr Bill Thomas (35), married with a family of two of Glengoland Avenue, Belfast and Mr Malcom Henson (24) of Morecambe, Lancs.
The three others who were killed were employees of a Kilkeel firm of contractors who were repairing the transmitter building which was badly damaged by a bomb a month ago. They were Mr John Aiken (52), Mr Henry Edgar (26) and Mr Thomas Beck (43).
The explosion on Brougher Mountain, near Trillick, occurred as the men were going up to start their day’s work at the mast.
The BBC’s NI Controller, Mr W Maguire expressed his horror at ‘this senseless act of barbarity’.
Quiet Funeral for Little Denise
THE funeral of Denise Dickson, aged five, who was killed when struck by an Army scout car in the New Lodge area of Belfast on Monday night, passed off quietly yesterday.
The cortege at one time numbered 300 as it journeyed from Denise’s home in Lepper Street to Milltown Cemetery.
Denise’s six brothers and sisters walked behind the hearse. Several women wept as they saw the tiny coffin in the hearse.
Only a handful of mourners attended the funeral of Albert Edward Bell to the City Cemetery yesterday.
Bell, a labourer of Olympia Street, was found dead in a ditch near Aldergrove Airport.
Commons Gas Attack Recalled
The day two CS gas bombs were hurled from the Strangers’ Gallery of the House of Commons was described by prosecuting counsel to an Old Bailey jury yesterday.
Bowes Egan (28), publisher, West Kensington, London and James Anthony Roche (26), a labourer of no fixed address, had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to effect a public mischief by disrupting proceedings of one of the Houses of Parliament while in session between July 1 and 24.
In a written statement, Roche said he had seen the British Army using CS gas in Ballymurphy and had seen people suffering from the effects of it.
‘I decided that it would be better if the Government experienced it first hand’, he said.
Counsel said that the Crown alleged that Roche was not alone in planning the disturbance and that one of those who helped him was Egan.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: The Brougher Mountain atrocity was strongly condemned by the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.
It signalled the widening of the IRA campaign from urban centres.
Bowes Egan, a Fermanagh-born academic, had been a People’s Democracy candidate in the 1969 NI election.)
On This Day – 13th February 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
Brougher Mountain transmitting station
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.