The following article appeared in the Dundalk Democrat, 26 January 2002. It recalls the UVF murder of Patrick Mohan in Castleblayney, County Monaghan. Mr Mohan was one of the forgotten victims of the Loyalist bombing campaign along the border during the 1970s. He was murdered less than two months before the killing of Seamus Ludlow near Dundalk on 2 May 1976.
Mr Mohan was a 53 year old married farmer and, according to his widow, he had only driven into the town that evening so that he could buy some milk. The Ford Cortina car that was used to carry the bomb into Castleblayney was stolen in Belfast's Shankill Road area and false Irish number plates were attached to it.
Mr Mohan's widow (now Mrs Anna McAnenaney), was present at Dundalk Town Hall, accompanied by her second husband, on 18 February 1999 at the Ludlow family's public meeting. They came in an act of solidarity with another family that had suffered a great loss during the Troubles. Their presence was deeply appreciated by all in the Ludlow family who wish that they should see truth and justice for the late Pat Mohan.
Blayney bombing to feature in new book.
A book, which is expected to be published, will, according to its author shed some light on the Castleblayney Bombing, which happened twenty-six years ago. The book is expected to name loyalists involved in the bomb, which killed one man Pat Mohan, injured seventeen others and caused widespread damage in the Main Street of the town. It will also focus on the Monaghan and Dublin Bombings, which caused widespread carnage and loss of life.
There is a delay in publication because the author is in dispute with Yorkshire Television regarding the ownership of some of the information. But he is confident that this dispute will be resolved. He has been working on the book for the past fifteen years and plans, after publication of this book, to hand over his information to the inquiry which has been set up to investigate the bombings.
He doesn't expect anybody to be convicted for these dreadful crimes though, according to the author, a number of those involved are still alive. He hopes that through his book a veil of secrecy will be lifted over these events, which happened at a time when the Northern Troubles were at their height.
The bomb exploded at 8.21 pm in the centre of the main street on Sunday 7th March 1976 just before people were due to return from evening Mass. Had that bomb exploded a half an hour later, there's little doubt many more lives would have been lost.
Mr Mohan, the man who was killed had been parked close to the car, a blue Mark 3 Ford Cortina, which exploded. The car had been parked in the town at 4.00 pm that same Sunday afternoon.
Mr Mohan, who was parked beside the car with the bomb had just stepped out of the car when the bomb exploded and he took the full force of the explosion. The Three Star Inn was the building, which was badly wrecked as was Mulligan's and many other business premises. A number of premises in Main Street had subsequently to be demolished and rebuilt.
There was pandemonium in the town that evening after the bomb exploded. The town's Civil Defence and emergency services acted quickly and the injured were brought to St Mary's Hospital and to Monaghan General Hospital.
This event brought Castleblayney into the full contact with the Northern Troubles and like other border towns such as Dundalk and Monaghan it was now added to the list of targets. For a long time afterwards there was a great sense of anxiety within the community. It came as a great shock to the local people that Castleblayney should have been targeted for such an atrocity. But no explanation was ever given and no one was ever arrested for this bombing.
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