50 years since ‘cruel’ attack on Brougher Mountain

IT’S exactly 50 years ago this week since five people died on a local mountain in what has been described as ‘one of the forgotten atrocities of the Troubles.’

On February 9, 1971, a bomb exploded on Brougher Mountain near Trillick killing five men, two BBC technicians and three civilians working with a contracting firm.

No-one ever claimed responsibility but the bomb was believed to have been planted by the IRA as a British Army mobile patrol was the intended target.

Under the heading of ‘Cruel and bloody deed on mountain,’ the UlsterHerald reported that, ‘Horror and revulsion were the instinctive reactions of the community to the horrifying news that five men were killed instantly when a booby-trap heavily charged with explosives blew up a landrover in which they travelled on a track at Brougher Mountain near Trillick’.

The mine-type bomb was triggered when the landrover, a BBC maintenance vehicle, which was travelling to the mast on the mountain, broke a line that had stretched across the path. Nationwide condemnation of the deed was voiced by the leaders of the church and state.

‘Appalled’

People were appalled at what, at the time, was the biggest single loss of life in the growing tragic stories of violence during the early years of the conflict in the North.

The dead men were Bill Thomas, a married man with two children, from Dunmurray, Belfast, and M D Henson of Morecambe, Lancashire. Both were BBC technicians.

The other three killed were employees of a contracting firm from Kilkeel, Co Down who were engaged in repairing the transmitter building which was badly damaged in a bomb a month earlier.

The three from Kilkeel were: John Aiken (52) a labourer married with seven children, of Cormagh Road; Harry Edgar (26), an unmarried builder of Finleave Place and Thomas George Beck (43) a joiner married with two children of Ardrinan, Newcastle Road.

No-one was stationed in the Brougher transmitter station but it was visited by BBC technicians at regular intervals.

An army spokesman said the booby trap, made up with 10-15 pounds of explosives, was hidden under boulders at the side of the track.

The explosion blew the landrover 20 yards off the road onto the bog and scattered the bodies around the mountainside.

The blast occurred as the men were going to start a day’s work at the mast. Fifteen yards beyond the scene, army bomb disposal experts, with the help of mine detectors, found a similar bomb.

An army spokesman said at the time, “If the landrover missed the first booby trap it certainly would have caught the second one. Even if a ferret scout car, which normally patrols the area, was involved it would have had disastrous results.

“The scene was not very pleasant; there were pieces of body lying all over the place.”

No-one was ever charged in relation to the incident.

Poignantly, the father of one of the men killed in the bomb travelled to the scene every year from his home in England to play a Scottish Lament for his son.

Malcolm David Henson, 24, was one of the BBC technicians killed in the blast. For years after the deaths his father, Leonard Henson, would leave his home in England to come to the mountain where on the pipes he played ‘Lakeland Hills’, which he wrote himself.

The father and son were members of the same pipe band. On the year of the explosion In 1971, Leonard Henson took away heather from the mountain and planted it in his garden in England.

‘Horrific loss’

On Tuesday morning, a special film made in tribute to the five men was broadcast on the Facebook page of victims organisation, SEFF (South East Fermanagh Foundation).

There are also plans to unveil a granite monument commemorating the men on the mountain later this year.

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF’s director of services, said it was important to mark the anniversary and acknowledge the “horrific loss” felt by the mens’ families.

“Five hard working men, the majority of whom had their own families, perished at the hands of the actions of Provisional IRA terrorists that fateful day. There is no formal recognition of the tragedy at the site, no memorial or plaque was ever placed there,” he said.

“Now, 50 years later, we have secured the consent and wishes of the families that a granite plaque marking the atrocity be placed at the site and we are indebted to the landowner and also Arqiva who now manage the transmitter at Brougher Mountain for working positively with us in facilitating the placement of the plaque.”

Saturday, October 2 has been set as the date for the dedication of the plaque.