SHANKILL BOMB: victim's mum calls for bomber to "tell the truth about what happened"

Q Radio News

The heartbroken mother of a young Shankill bomb victim says she wishes the IRA man who survived had died at the scene - where he lay injured and begged her for help...

Gina Murray and her son Gary have also condemned the loyalist murders in the days after the 1993 attack saying the killings were not carried out in their name...

25 years ago today, Leanne Murray (13) was one of nine Protestants murdered in the Shankill bombing. Mother Gina & brother Gary have condemned the IRA killers - also the loyalist killing of Catholics in the following days. More on air throughout the day & https://t.co/boX2EdCtC7 pic.twitter.com/DO9bZiV5z4

— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) 23 October 2018

Mrs. Murray's 13-year-old daughter Leanne was one of nine victims of the no-warning attack on Frizzell's fish shop 25 years ago today.

Bomber Thomas Begley was also killed as the device he was carrying exploded prematurely - but his accomplice Sean Kelly survived. 

Gina says she had no idea the man crying out for assistance in the rubble was an IRA killer...

She says Kelly should now 'do the decent thing' and tell the truth about what happened...

Meanwhile, a man who lost his wife in the bombing has used the 25th anniversary to appeal to Northern Ireland's politicians to get back to Stormont.

Alan McBride's wife Sharon and father-in-law Desmond both died.

A victims campaigner whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the Shankill bomb, 25 years ago today, is urging our politicians to get back into government, “please neighbours” and set aside their personal “red lines” for the sake of peace in Northern Ireland. More on air at 12 pic.twitter.com/ZmdvNq2Bx7

— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) 23 October 2018

Ahead of a church service on the Shankill to mark the anniversary, Mr McBride reflected that five years after the bombing Northern Ireland's politicians came together to sign the historic Good Friday peace agreement.

He suggested the current generation of politicians lacked the same leadership qualities.

Northern Ireland has been without a properly functioning devolved government since the DUP/Sinn Fein led coalition imploded in a row over a botched green energy scheme in January 2017.

The rift subsequently widened to take in more traditional disputes over language and legacy and there appears no immediate prospect of a return to powersharing, as the region's rudderless public services struggle to operate amid the impasse.

Mr McBride said the political leaders of 1998 "risked their own interests, their parties and potentially their lives for the sake of putting an end to conflict".

He added: "Where are those kind of leaders today?"

Mr McBride's daughter, Zoe, who was two when her mother was killed, is due to deliver a reading at today's service at the West Kirk Presbyterian Church.

"On this day, 23rd October 2018, twenty five years after the death of my wife, I implore our politicians to get back into government," he said.

"The Agreement didn't have much to say on victims, but it did say that 'the achievement of a peaceful and just society would be the true memorial to the victims of violence'.

"I believe that's still the goal and I want you to work together to deliver it."