From the pages of the Down Recorder, September 21, 1976

From the pages of the Down Recorder, September 21, 1976

21 September 2016

DOWNPATRICK — Schoolchildren on their way to Downpatrick on Monday escaped certain injury when an incendiary device failed to explode in their school bus. The device, which as planted a the mouth of the fuel tank, was one of five discovered in the town on the same day.

Army technical officers successfully defused three of the devices, a fourth was destroyed and the fifth exploded, causing moderate damage to another Ulsterbus. Undoubtedly the device planted overnight at the mouth of the fuel tank in the school bus could have caused serious repercussions.

The bus made its customary run bringing schoolchildren from Drumaness and Killyleagh to the county town. The alarm was raised when the first incendiary exploded underneath a parked Ulsterbus at the town’s Market Street depot. Moderate damage was caused to the engine and the interior of the bus.

A subsequent search was made at the depot and two other devices were found. One was in the bus which had earlier brought the schoolchildren to the town and the second was spotted under the 8,000 gallon fuel tank.

Army technical officers raced to the scene and dealt with the device under the fuel tank which had a plastic container of petrol attached. The other device was also successfully dealt with.

Meanwhile, a double device was found hidden in a stack of timber at the Downpatrick Timber, Slate and Coal Company’s premises in Church Street. Again a container of petrol was attached, but on this occasion one of the firm’s employees destroyed the device.

SAINTFIELD — A Presbyterian minister in Saintfield has said it is time for the people of Northern Ireland to get the “bully boys” off their backs. The Rev David McKee, who was installed in First Saintfield Presbyterian Church lat May, has warned that it may not be long before “sinister powers” take control.

He said: “The time for political leaders to take the law into their own hands, either directly or by instigation, is past and if we are ready to pay the price, we can order the bully boys to get off our backs.

“It is not too late to find a way out of our problems, but there may not be much time left before the sinister powers who manipulate the young, undisciplined, unthinking hooligans of both sides, attempt to take effective control of our land.”

Mr McKee spent six years in Switzerland before returning to the province and taking up the post at Saintfield.

DUNDRUM — A Dundrum fish and chip shop owner and his family had a narrow escape when a fire gutted their premises in true early hours of Tuesday morning.

Mr Michael Cunningham and his wife, Elish, and daughter, Bernadette, were asleep in the family flat above Bernie’s chip shop in Main Street when the alarm was raised.

The fire was discovered by Mr Cunningham’s son, Francis, who had just returned from a party with his wife, Eileen. They came in at 4am to find the shop filled with smoke. Francis Cunningham immediately ran upstairs and got everyone out through a back door.

One of the shop windows  fell out into the street on top of the local police sergeant, John Kelly, who had arrived at the scene.

“After this the shop became an inferno,” Mr Cunningham said, “and despite the arrival of the fire brigade from Newcastle the whole place was gutted.”

The blaze has left the family homeless and almost literally without a stitch — they were wearing only their night clothes at the time.

Mr Cunningham would like to thank the people of Dundrum for their help. “The neighbours and customers were absolutely marvellous,” he said. “They worked right through the night to clear up, but nothing was salvaged.

ARDGLASS — One of the juveniles charged with arson in burning down the Fisherman’s Rest in Ardglass has allegedly said it was done as Mr Enoch Powell has once spoken there. It was also fired to commemorate internment day, the High Court heard on Tuesday.

The story was told when the court applied for bail. They are charged with incidents in and around Ardglass when they were on holiday at Coney Island in August. All four were granted bail.

BALLYNAHINCH — A Ballynahinch man, Mr Samuel McDowell, was the victim of a hit and run accident on the Ballynahinch-Dromara Road on Friday night. Mr McDowell was knocked off his bicycle by a Ford Escort and received injuries to both his legs, one seriously.

He was taken to Downe Hospital afterwards. The police have since traced the driver of the car.

STRANGFORD — Police are anxious to hear from anyone who can assist them in their inquiries into an assault on a 17 year-old girl near Strangford. The assault took place at Black Causeway Road on September 14. They are trying to trace a youth aged 16-18 and about 5’ 4” to 5 8” tall.

BANBRIDGE — The Temperance Hall in Banbridge played host on Thursday evening to the unopposed re-adoption of Mr Enoch Powell as the Official Unionist candidate for South Down. More than 300 people gave him a standing ovation.

In spite of the low turnout of delegates, it was a night of triumph for the sitting MP. The rumoured challenges from within his own association had not materialised and the disenchantment felt by several of his Parliamentary colleagues had not brought repercussions from within the Official Unionist party.

After his re-adoption as a constituency candidate for the next Westminster election, Mr Powell, fresh from his Sicilian holiday, launched into one of his typical fiery speeches.

DRUMANESS — Drumaness Mills Football Club has won its fight for reduced charges for the council-owned playing fields and pavilion in the village.

The club had argued that they should not be expected to pay the full rental for the facilities because the pitch was not marked on a number of occasions and because the local hall, used as changing rooms, was not heated. Their rent has been cut from £55 to £40.

ANNACLOY — A 21 year-old Annacloy man appeared on ITV’s This Is Your Life spectacular last night — not as the victim, but as a member of the audience.

A mixture of skill and luck earned Michael Marner his chance to sit in on the show. Being born on the date that ITV took to the air — September 22, 1955 — he was able to enter a quiz run by UTV David Dunseith, which he won.

BALLYTRIM — Col James Cunningham, of Ballytrim, Killyleagh, was among the 500 people who attended a memorial service at the weekend to his brother, Sir Knox Cunningham, the former MP. The congregation at Gloucester heard Sir Knox described as a “kind and sympathetic man with a sacred attachment to the country of his birth.”

DROMARA — Dromara bandsman Harold Kirk carried off the All-Ireland senior piping title for the second successive year at Banbridge on Saturday. Harold, the Dromara pipe major, won the senior piping section ahead of M Dodds, of Sinclair Memorial.

In the senior Strathspey and Reel section, he was second to another local man, Ian Jess, of Ballynahinch.

CROSSGAR — The annual meeting of Crossgar Women’s Institute was held recently. Office bearers for the coming year were elected with Mrs M Ellison as president. This was followed by an ‘Any Questions’ panel with Mr T Hewitt as question master, ably assisted by a panel consisting of Mrs R McCann, Mrs C B Williams, Mr W B Mullan and Father Gabriel.

NEWCASTLE — Hundreds of people from many denominations gathered each day last week to take part in the ever growing Newcastle Convention. Large crowds of Christian people gathered to ponder the Keswick Movement’s teaching on practical holiness.