This commemoration could well be the last big public one: peace builder Alan McBride
ALAN McBride, who lost his wife Sharon and father-in-law John Frizzell in the Shankill bombing, has said today’s public commemorations should be the last.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I think probably this year will be the last big commemoration on the Shankill.
“It’s been 25 years, I didn’t think I’d be talking on radio about my wife 25 years on.”
Mr McBride said this year’s commemorations “felt bigger” than previous anniversaries.
He added: “As people move on, you can’t keep doing these things every year. There comes a time when we have to leave the past behind and move forward.
“That is difficult for some people, and for families they will never forget.
“We did something on 20 years, and now on 25, will it be 30 years, or 35 years? It’s impossible to say, but it could well be the last.”
Charlie Butler lost his niece Evelyn Baird, her partner Michael Morrison and her sevenyear-old daughter Michelle in the atrocity, and was among the first people who scrambled to search for survivors.
He disagreed this year could be the last of the public commemorations, saying it would be difficult to say no to the family of anyone who lost a loved one if they wanted the occasion marked.
He said: “The families want to move on, we want to move on, but unfortunately it is the politicians that keep drawing us back in again,” he said.
“It’s 25 years to other people, to us it’s not... it doesn’t get easier but I do feel we have to talk about it.
“We really need to look back, particularly for the younger ones — this can’t happen again.”
Mr McBride acknowledged he got very angry at Gerry Adams in the aftermath of the bombing when the then Sinn Fein president carried the coffin of bomber Thomas Begley.
“I didn’t know where else to direct my anger,” he said. “(Adams) was on the TV, he was in the media and he was an obvious person to target, and I did.”
Sixteen years on from the bombing, Mr McBride and Mr Adams came face-to-face in a meeting and shook hands. He said as a “peace builder” he had to make peace with his enemies, not his friends. Mr McBride said as the years progressed he considered why his wife was killed.
He thought of his own upbringing on a loyalist estate, saying his father was in the UDA.
“So I knew people that got involved in terrorism and paramilitaries,” he said.
“While absolutely they are responsible for carrying out the Shankill bombing — and I am not trying to justify it in any shape of form, the people that did it were responsible — but they themselves were 19 years old, they were young people, children that grew up in this society.
“So I started to think if we are serious about building peace here we have to cast the net much wider in terms of just blaming paramilitaries and perpetrators and we must look at other issues.”
He added: “There were many people involved in terrorism, not just those that planted bombs and carried guns.
“Now I feel it is probably better to sit around a table and talk to people than sitting on the outside hurling insults.”