Local punters caught up in Aintree bomb scare

April 1997

LOCAL punters are caught up in the chaos as the Aintree Grand National is abandoned following an IRA bomb warning.

An hour before the big race is due to start, a bomb threat is made via telephone to Aintree University Hospital in Fazakerley, and three minutes later a second is made via telephone to the police’s control room in Bootle, both using recognised code words of the IRA.

Police evacuate 60,000 people from the course, stranding 20,000 racegoers. Two controlled explosions are carried out. Jim Byrne, from Dromiskin, says he was quite near the main entrance when the announcement was made to evacuate.

‘Outside, we grabbed a taxi, and were back in our hotel in the centre of Liverpool at 3.45pm, the time the race was due to start.

‘It was after six before the last of our group made it back to the Adelphi Hotel from the track.’

Dundalk publican Brian Brady and his group are lucky, as they end up parking their car in a side street outside the course, so are able to walk back to it.

Police only start to let people back into the car-park at 2pm the following afternoon.

‘I was in one of the huge tents, which hold about 2,500 people, when the announcement to evacuate was made, but there was no panic, although the announcer did get a bit panicky with the people who were slow to leave, saying there was only ten or twelve minutes before a bomb was to go off,’ he recalls.

The 150th renewal of the big race goes ahead two days later than scheduled. Lord Gyllene wins easily under Tony Dobbin.