The explosion at the Benny Bar

Since its founding in September 1971, the Ulster Defense Association has begun to hunt Catholics, and by the fall of 1972, more than 30 people were killed. They mainly engaged in entrepreneurship. On September 13, 1972, in the Divis Castle bar on Springfield Road, the Ulters shot the son of the bar owner ^[2] , and on October 5, a bomb was blown up in the Capital bar, and a Protestant died from the explosion there ^[1] .

On Tuesday evening , October 31, 1972, in the Sailortown quarter, where both Catholics and Protestants lived, numerous children walked on the street who celebrated Halloween and played around the fire on Sheep Street. Two girls, six-year-old Paula Strong and four-year-old Claire Hughes ^[1] were dressed in witch costumes. They were met by a fair-haired man in a suit and asked for directions to the Benny Bar, giving one of the girls a two-penny coin and heading down Garmoyl Street to the intersection with Ship Street, where the pub was located ^[3] . He was followed by both girls who knocked on the door and uttered the traditional Halloween phrase “ Trick or treat ”, asking for money ^[4] .

At that moment, a 45-kilogram bomb detonated in a brown bag hidden against the wall ^[3] . The building of the bar was destroyed: Paula Strong died on the spot from a blast wave and flying fragments of marble and glass, Claire Hughes was hospitalized and died in the hospital ^[5] . Another 12 people were injured. The woman who discovered the bodies of the dead girls said that they were lying like bloodied bags with rags ^[4] . The radius of the bomb explosion with a small fuse was 18 meters, and it was there that the girls ended up by unlucky chance ^[6] . The damage was done to many houses near the bar. The sensation of the explosion was experienced by the family of the deceased Paula, who lived in the house on Maryn Street: the brother of the deceased girl Tony said that the whole house shuddered from the explosion, and photos and paintings fell from the walls ^[5] . Paula’s father, Jerry, was in the pub at the time of the explosion and helped to remove rubble and get the bodies of dead girls ^[5] . Claire’s brother, Kevin, was playing around the fire at the time of the explosion (their house was on Sheep Street), and after the tragedy, Claire’s mother ran out into the street and sent her dying daughter to the hospital.

The girls' funeral was held in the Roman Catholic Church of St. George, at the funeral there were a lot of people who went behind the tombs up to Milltown cemetery, where Paul and Claire were buried ^[3] . The investigation established that the explosion turned out to be the work of the loyalist Ulster Defense Association ^[1] , and the target of the attack was specially chosen, since there were many Irish Republicans ^[6] . The three people who installed the bomb confessed to their deed: it turned out that one of the attackers was Paula Strong's father’s colleague at work in the port ^[5] . However, the Ulsterians did not stop their terror on this and two months later, on December 20 , started shooting at a pub in Derry, killing five Catholics ^[7] .

The Benny Pub and many houses on Sheep Street have been demolished, and factories are now in place. Sheep Street was closed during the construction of the M2 motorway. On the building of the Church of St. Joseph, a tablet is installed in memory of the dead girls.

• Ulster Defense Association Action Chronology