17 February 1978: An IRA Bomb at the La Mon Hotel near Belfast Co Down  killed 12 innocent people and injured many more in a horrific no warning attack.

The IRA unit had tried to issue a telephone warning but claimed that a vandalised phone box and a UDR checkpoint had delayed them. An incendiary device attached to an outside wall and fuelled by the addition of a number of jerrycans caused a devastating explosion that swept through the dining area where guests had taken their seats at a number of functions that were being held there that night. There were 450 diners, hotel staff and guests inside the building when the bomb went off.

The dead were all Protestant civilians. Half were young married couples. Most of the dead and injured were members of the Irish Collie Club and the Northern Ireland Junior Motor Cycle Club, holding their yearly dinner dances in the Peacock Room and Gransha Room, respectively. The former took the full force of the explosion and subsequent fire; many of those who died had been seated nearest the window where the bomb had gone off. Some of the injured were still receiving treatment 20 years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mon_restaurant_bombing

There was widespread anger and outrage in the wake of the attack and the IRA were forced to apologise for their terrible blunder that cost the lives of so many innocent people.

Even today the relatives of the victims are calling for an inquiry into who exactly gave the orders to go ahead with the attack. But with some files listed as 'missing' its unlikely that the exact circumstances behind one of the worst incidents in the 'Troubles' will ever be forthcoming.  

Those who died in the bombing were:

Thomas Neeson (52), from Lisburn, Co Antrim.

Sarah Wilson Cooper (62), from Alliance Crescent, north Belfast

Sandra Morris (27), from Alliance Crescent, north Belfast. *

Ian McCracken (25), from Bangor, Co Down

Elizabeth McCracken (25), from Bangor, Co Down.

Daniel Magill (37), from Dundonald, Co Down. 

Gordon Crothers (30), from Gilbourn Court, east Belfast.

Joan Crothers (26), from Gilbourn Court, east Belfast. 

Paul Nelson (37), from Dundonald, Co Down. 

Dorothy Nelson (34), from Dundonald, Co Down.

Christine Lockhart (33), from Richhill, Co Armagh,

 https://www.irishnews.com/news/2018/02/17/news/la-mon-40th-anniversary-1257295/

* pictured above with her husband Joseph who survived.