Brother of murdered soldier recalls killing on 40th anniversary

A SERVICE of remembrance for two UDR soldiers killed by the IRA in Castlederg 40 years ago took place yesterday (Sunday), as the friends and family of Corporal Heather Kerrigan and Private Norman McKinley gathered to honour their memory.

Cpl Kerrigan and Pve McKinley were blown up by a landmine whilst on foot patrol on the Corgary Road, Castlederg on July 14, 1984.

Speaking ahead of the service, which was held at 1.30pm at Castlederg New Cemetery, Heather Kerrigan’s brother David, who was also caught up in the blast, recalled the attack and the trauma he and his family endured as a result.

“Myself, my brother and my other sister, Heather, were in the same patrol, being flown out to outside Castlederg,” he recalled.

“We were about three-or-four hundred yards from the border, checking cars. We were out on the ground about 15 minutes when the fella on the left-hand-side had stopped a car. My sister was directly behind me. I went back and was sitting talking to her, and just as I got up to walk away, the bomb went off.

“I was thrown into the crater. I crawled out, and we returned fire into the direction that we thought the terrorists were.”

I heard my other brother shouting ‘she’s still alive’.”

Mr McKinley then fell to the floor, his collapsed lung and back badly injured. “About five minutes after that, the helicopter landed and we were both carried in.

“I was lying on the floor and Heather was being cradled… I could see her lips moving and nothing more.

“The blood was running out of her onto the helicopter floor, under my body. I was lying in her blood.”

After being flown to Omagh Hospital, Mr McKinley was taken into intensive care. It was there that he was told his sister was dead.

“Heather was only 20-years-old when she was killed. At that time, I didn’t know anybody else was injured until the next day.

“Then, I heard that Norman McKinley was blown into the next field – he was killed instantly.”

Heather was single and came from a family of eight, with one sister and six brothers. They were raised just one mile from the Donegal border.

She was a member of the women’s Orange lodge in Castlederg, and also worked part-time in a bar in the town.

Mr McKinley added, “Sunday will mark another milestone since Provisional IRA terrorists stole away my beautiful sister and our good friend Norman McKinley.

“Forty years, for some, is a long time, but actually for me, time has not moved forward in many ways at all.

“The events of that day stay with me morning, noon and night.

“The fact that I was with Heather throughout makes it all the more painful, and yet, there is a comfort in me knowing that she wasn’t alone in the aftermath of that savage attack.

“Heather was a beautiful young woman and a special sister; she was loved so dearly by us all.

“But she was someone who was filled with conviction; she knew what was happening in the country was wrong, and gender never got in the way of Heather’s will to do something about it….

“Whilst we have been filled with immense sadness over the years with Heather not being around, nevertheless we are filled with pride by the women she was; the leader she had been within the community.”

Concluding, Mr Kerrigan was frank about how his life has been ruined by the loss of his sister.

“Life has been very difficult for me (and for my family) since that fateful day; I have suffered complex PTSD, and depression is an ever present part of my life.

“I can take to the bed for weeks on end.

“I often feel hopeless, frustration and righteous anger at what is happening within the country.

“It is so important that Heather and Norman are not forgotten, nor the thousands of other innocents who were murdered and maimed through terrorism.

“Wider society needs to develop an appreciation and understanding for what some of us have endured.”