Veterans gather in Shrewsbury to remember eight young men killed by the IRA
A group of around 30 veterans and their families gathered in Shrewsbury on Sunday to remember eight young men who were killed on duty in Northern Ireland.
Thirty-three years ago, almost to the day, the men aged 18,19 and 21, were victims of a roadside bomb planted by the IRA as 36 of them were being taken back to barracks by bus.
"We kept warning them," said organiser Bob Diprose, aged 75, from Shrewsbury and the organiser of Sunday's brief memorial ceremony.
"I has been on the bus the day before the bombing.
"All it needed was for them to have a spotter on the road to tell them which way the bus was going."
After the attack at Ballygawley on August 20, 1988, the military used helicopters to ferry the troops back to their barracks.
Among those from the 1st Battalion The Light Infantry at the Ballygawley Memorial service were two survivors of the bombing. But they declined to comment, the memories of that day remain raw.
Ex-forces organisations the Royal British Legion and the Royal Air Forces Association joined a small parade of standards, which were lowered when four buglers performed The Last Post and raised again for Reveille.
Mr Diprose read out the names of the eight young men following the laying of wreaths and flowers at the small memorial which sits inside the Quarry opposite St Chad's Church.
"We will remember them," said Mr Diprose.
