DUP lashes out at pending amnesty for Troubles killers as murders of 11 men in London 40 years ago remembered

Princess Anne was in attendance at the 11am service to mark the murder which took place exactly 40 years ago on Wednesday in central London (she holds the post of Colonel in the Blues and Royals regiment, to which the dead in the Hyde Park attack belonged).

The names of the four men killed in the explosion were read out, followed by the names of the horses.

The bombing was soon followed by another one in nearby Regent’s Park, which claimed the lives of seven military musicians. Both were the work of the IRA.

Kenny Donaldson from the South East Fermanagh Foundation, one of the groups working with the bereaved families, estimated there were about 300 people in attendance at the Hyde Park event.

Afterwards, a joint statement from the three Northern Irish MPs present – Ian Paisley, Gregory Campbell, and Carla Lockhart – was issued saying: “It is important that such anniversaries are marked and the memories of what took place during the troubles are kept alive for future generations to properly understand what took place.”

However, the wounded and bereaved have never seen anyone criminally convicted over the killings, and the MPs added: “That has now been compounded by legislation being pushed through Parliament by the current government that would see all those responsible granted an amnesty.

“Such actions are a far cry from comments from the Prime Minister at the time who said of those responsible for the attacks that ‘we will not rest until they are brought to justice’.

The Order of Service contained a message from the massacre, journalist James Whitaker, who happened passing on his way to work at the time.

It read: “Seconds before it had been a beautiful summer day and I had been driving to work down the South Carriage Road...

“Idly, I watched a detatchment of Household Cavalry clip-clopping down the road 100 yards ahead of me, plumes dancing, breast and backplates gleaming in the sun, their horses groomer, and their equipment burnished.

“It was at that moment that my bright red Ford Cortina car shook as the very earth trembled under me. It was at that moment that I looked at my watch and it was at that moment the world went into slow motion.”

He recalled a fireball, an “ear splitting thud” and then “saw bodies – huge misshapen masses – start to raindown from the sky; they were horses, animals that seconds before had been so beautiful and sleek”.

He adds that “coming down after them were the men”.

He concluded: “I have seen men die like animals, and animals die like men and nothing, ever again, will seem the same.”

A service was also held in Regent’s Park today, at the bandstand where the IRA detonated their second bomb of the day.

Earlier this year, Keith James Powell Jnr, son of Keith Powell, spoke to the News Letter about the heartache around his father’s murder at age 24.

“The bomb was underneath him,” said Keith James (who was too young to remember his dad).

“My brother was seven years old when it happened, so he had a little time with him. He can’t really talk about it. It just upsets him too much. It was senseless. It was uncalled for. He was literally just a young lad.”

For the stories of more such lesser-known Troubles victims by this reporter, see here:

WATCH – IPLO murder 30 years on: Random Protestant victim Billy Sargent had survived Nazi machine gun attack only to be shot while having a pint

50 years of silence broken: sisters tell of anguish over IRA murdering their brother in bed

DUP brother of UDA sectarian murder victim Gavin Brett breaks 20 year silence

Police family speaks out for first time 35 years after IRA murdered their brother and three other young officers