Shankill service held as tribute to bomb victims 50 years on

A memorial service was held at the scene of the bomb on Saturday

A memorial service has been held in Belfast for those killed and injured in an IRA bomb 50 years ago.

The attack on the Balmoral furniture showrooms on Shankill Road happened on 11 December 1971, days after a bombing in a nationalist part of the city.

Two adults and two babies, one aged 17 months, the other a two-year-old were killed in the Shankill explosion.

A piper played and representatives from the emergency services attended the Shankill service

On Saturday relatives of those who died and survivors gathered at the place where the bomb exploded.

Exactly a week earlier loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), bombed McGurk's Bar in the nationalist New Lodge area, killing 15 people and injuring 17 others.

A vigil to mark that bombing was held last Saturday at a memorial in north Belfast to those who lost their lives.

Speakers at the memorial service included Jackie Nicholl, whose son Colin, was the youngest victim of the attack.

"Colin was our life and soul, and still is to this day, no one can ever take that away from us," Mr Nicholl told BBC News NI.

"What helps today is to see the people here remembering what had happened on that particular day."