A town in chaos: The day firebombs devastated Ballymena in 1976

Yvonne Dunlop was killed when a firebomb destroyed the shop she was working in

Sinn Féin has been criticised for paying tribute to an IRA hunger striker and ignoring a young mother who died in the bombing raid he was involved in.

Thomas McElwee took part in the bombing of Ballymena in October 1976 in which Yvonne Dunlop was burned to death. McElwee was imprisoned and later died on hunger strike in 1981.

BBC NI political correspondent Stephen Walker, who is from Ballymena, was in the town the day of the bombing.

Ballymena was in chaos.

The town reverberated to the sound of sirens and smoke hung over the buildings.

My father had just returned to the house with news of the bombings. A series of firebombs had been placed in a range of shops. There were police vehicles and fire engines everywhere.

I ran to the back garden and gazed towards the skyline of the town and listened to the rumble of noise. Above the rooftops there was a cloud of blackness.

What was happening?

At 11 years of age, I was not equipped to take in the full sense of it all.

I obviously knew about the Troubles but was trying to make sense of why people had come to our town to burn it down? What was this all about?

Then as the day rolled on, we slowly heard who had been targeted. Word reached us about a long list of stores that read like an A to Z of Ballymena's commercial centre.

A community stunned

These were the very shops we visited, run by people we knew. We were their customers and they were our neighbours.

We heard that a firebomb was placed in the hardware store run by a family friend.

A sweet, funny, industrious man who was never short of a word about the weather or the state of life in Ballymena.

My dad went there often on Saturday mornings with a list of things to buy. Screws, light fittings, paint, garden equipment, whatever you wanted, it would be found usually in the shop or in the back storeroom.

A list of shops targeted in Ballymena was found in Thomas McElwee's coat

Standing and greeting customers often with a pencil behind his ear, and a tape measure in his pocket our friend had a ready answer for any DIY problem.

He was one of the town's characters. We were sorry he had been singled out by the IRA, but most thankful when we heard that he was not injured.

However, as the day wore on terrible news would soon emerge.

Burned to death

A firebomb had been left at the Alley Katz boutique in Bridge Street.

Yvonne Dunlop, a mother of young boys, was working in the store and was checking a shopping bag left by two women when a firebomb started.

She shouted a warning to her nine-year-old son who escaped but she could not get out and was burned to death.

That night my Mum who was a staff nurse at the Waveney Hospital in Ballymena went to work. She did night duty, two or sometimes three times a week. In order to avoid child care costs, my dad worked days and my mum worked nights.

That Saturday night shift was like no other.

On Sunday morning, my Mum returned home with news that some patients injured in the bombing were being guarded by armed police officers.

The bombers were in the hospital receiving care.

Soon it would emerge that Thomas McElwee from Bellaghy was one of those who had bombed Ballymena.

He had been in a car with two others in the town when an incendiary device exploded prematurely.

A number of commercial premises were targeted that day

He and the others were thrown from the car. He lost an eye and the two other IRA men were seriously injured, with one of them losing part of his leg.

Retaliation

The horror of that autumn day did not end with the death of Yvonne Dunlop.

A 40-year-old Catholic man Sean Mc Crystal was set upon and killed by loyalists in Ballymena that night. His burning body was found close to North Street.

Two men from Ballymena were later sentenced for the killing which the judge described as "an act of savagery'.

People were sickened that weekend in Ballymena.

Suddenly, the horror of the Troubles, normally reserved for the television news bulletins was on our doorstep and it was real and painful.

As the weeks wore on, the full story of the bombing of Ballymena began to emerge.

A list of the shops targeted was found in Thomas McElwee's coat.

He was arrested and eventually found guilty of murder which was reduced to manslaughter. A republican all his life, he joined the Fianna when he was 14 and he was just 19 when he took part in the bombing of Ballymena.

It was a town he was familiar with, as he began working there as an apprentice motor mechanic. He left that apprenticeship after he claimed he was intimidated by loyalists.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill has been criticised for her support of Thomas McElwee

He joined the IRA hunger strike in 1981 along with his cousin Francis Hughes.

For the McElwee family it was an upsetting time.

During the H block campaign he became a household name and his face adorned posters and placards as republicans marched in support of the hunger strikers.

His friends and supporters annually commemorate his life and many, like the Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, say he died for Ireland.

In a recent tribute Sinn Féin say he was "a political prisoner, unbowed and unbroken".

His life took a dramatic turn the day he drove into Ballymena with a car full of bombs. A day of chaos, confusion and death.

Thomas McElwee was jailed and in 1981, after 62 days, he died in the Maze prison on hunger strike. He was just 23 years old.

In recent days his death and the events of Ballymena from 1976 have prompted much comment and debate on Twitter and in the wider media.

There is little agreement and inevitably some political point scoring.

This is just one story from the Troubles, sadly as we all know there are thousands more.

Yet, it illustrates our difficulty with remembering and analysing the past.

Like standing in my garden 45 years ago as a schoolboy, it is often hard to get a clear picture amidst the smoke and the noise.