MBE to RUC man targeted in attack

MBE to RUC man targeted in attack

6 January 2016

A FORMER Downpatrick policeman, who survived a murder attempt at the height of the Troubles more than 40 years ago, has been awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours.

Detective Constable Ian Forbes and his nine year-old daughter, Wendy, were both shot at their Ardmore Avenue home in the Knocknashinna area of Downpatrick shortly before midnight on January 31, 1973.

Mr Forbes was hit by two bullets and Wendy was shot twice as she lay asleep in bed. Two bullets passed through the clothes of his wife, Carrie. Another daughter, Jean, came through the ordeal uninjured.

Almost 43 years later Mr Forbes vividly remembers that terrible night when his family came so close to death.

‘It was dreadful,” Mr Forbes said. “The gunmen were outside the house. I thought they were going to come in and finish me off.

“Wendy was asleep. She was hit twice and there was blood coming out of a hole in her back. She was traumatised by what happened for years afterwards.”

Neighbours rushed to give assistance and Mr Forbes and his daughter were accompanied to the Downe Hospital by a nurse who lived nearby.

As a result of the attack the Forbes family had to leave Downpatrick after 14 years, despite the protestations of their neighbours.

“They begged us not to go, but we could not take the chance,” Mr Forbes continued. “Our neighbours were very kind and we loved Downpatrick. You could not have got better people.”

This wasn’t the first time that the Forbes family had suffered at the hands of terrorists. Mr Forbes was just nine when his father, Constable Thomas Forbes, died after being shot on duty in Dungannon in 1942.

He was only the fifth RUC man to die after the establishment of the force 20 years earlier. His widow, Evelyn, was left with ten young children to raise — the oldest aged 14 and the youngest just nine months.

Mr Forbes, who now lives in the Bangor area, retired from the RUC in 1988. His daughters followed in his footsteps by joining the force. Two of his brothers also served in the police, along with three sisters, five nephews and a niece.

Mr Forbes, who received his MBE for services to the RUC George Cross Foundation, has visited the graves of over 300 RUC officers killed in service during its 79-year history, including that of his father in Bailieborough, Co Cavan.

During a five-year pilgrimage, he travelled over 80,000 miles throughout Ireland tracing and photographing all the graves.

“I knew 29 of the officers very well and there was one grave in particular that I cried over,” he said.

“I would like to dedicate my award to all of the murdered RUC officers. I am very proud to have served in the RUC and I have many memories, both happy and sad.”