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Ten years after the IRA bomb

Devastation - aftermath of the Manchester bomb in 1996

Ten years after the IRA bombed Manchester, Inside Out's Andy Johnson investigates why nobody has ever been brought to trial.

He also looks at the effect the attack has had on the regeneration of the city centre.

Huge explosion

Ten years ago the biggest mainland explosion in Britain blew away most of Manchester's city centre.

It still remains the biggest terrorist bomb ever detonated in Britain.

The IRA had packed 3,500 kilograms of explosives into a lorry.

When the bomb went off, it exploded at 2,000 feet per second.

The sheer power of the blast shattered the city centre around Marks and Spencer and the Arndale shopping centre.

Two hundred people were injured, some seriously, mostly by flying glass and debris.

Despite a huge police search and a million pound reward, nobody has ever been arrested for the bombing.

John Stalker, former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, remembers it well:

"As a cop, I don't normally believe in miracles, but how on earth you can explode a lorry load of high explosives in the middle of Manchester on a busy day and not kill someone?"

Living with the trauma

Ten years on and Manchester has changed with a new skyline, new city centre, new hope, and new dreams.

But for some the nightmare still lingers.

In 1996 Cathy Malcolm had a thriving business selling fashionable lamps and clothing in Manchester until the day the bomb changed her life forever.

Cathy had to leave Manchester after the bombing - the cost of trying to start again was too much, as were the daily reminders of the bomb.

She lost 拢36,000 stock in her shop as a result of the bombing.

Cathy now lives in a village near Milton Keynes with her daughter Bethany, and runs a face painting business and works as a photographer.

Another person to experience similar feelings is Vera Featherstone who is just thankful to see each new day.

She had an extraordinary escape. Vera hadn't heard the urgent police warnings to leave the area and was alone in the flats behind the Arndale Centre when the bomb went off.

She now suffers from Chrohn's Disease which she believes was brought on by stress.

Noreen Tehrani's one of Britain's leading experts on post traumatic stress disorders.

She dealt with several people badly traumatised by the bomb as she explains:

"Their lives were shattered. People found that they weren't able to do the things that previously they'd been able to do.

"Their marriages were breaking up, they weren't able to go on with their career - very much curtailing their lives.

"And I think there's nothing worse than having a trauma of the mind."

She believes that the psychological scars can be more significant than the physical.

"If you break your arm or your leg, it will be healed within six months," she says.

"Scars to the mind can go on for 20, 30, 40 years."

Devastating scene

The scars of Manchester's deepest crisis were even evident in its spiritual home, the cathedral, a place many people turned to find comfort, as Canon Denby recalls:

"I think that when the community is attacked there is a community spirit which emerges that may never have emerged for years, perhaps as far ago as the last war.

"And when the community is affronted or challenged, there is a bond that suddenly emerges, an intangible bond that is so real you can almost feel it."

The blast was so great that it lifted the medieval cathedral roof up in the air and then sent it crashing back down.

"What happened for the cathedral was devastation," says Canon Denby.

"All of the windows were blown out... a lot of damage occurred around the west side of the cathedral.

"It's very difficult to come to terms with the surprise that here you are in the middle of it yourself and suddenly you've become a part of the whole issue, whereas before it was at a distance and you're unaffected."

Operation Cannon

The police set up Operation Cannon, one of the biggest ever terrorist investigations, to find those responsible.

A million pound reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.

The police quickly discovered the IRA bought the Ford Cargo lorry involved in the blast in Peterborough.

They traced its movements through motorway cameras to Manchester.

It was an early breakthrough in what was already becoming a complex and at times frustrating inquiry.

A large squad was also detailed to look at hours of CCTV images recovered from around Manchester.

It was a race against time - there were fears the IRA could strike again.

At one stage a report was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service seeking advice on if they could arrest a suspect.

Despite all their efforts the police were told there was a lack of evidence.

One man who's closely followed the police investigation is the former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester John Stalker.

He was near to the bomb when it exploded:

"I was about six or 700 hundred yards away. I heard that 'krump!' of a bomb that's absolutely distinctive. There's no mistaking it for anything else.

"All my instincts as an ex-bomb squad detective and as a journalist, which I then was, was to turn my car in the direction of the bomb but I had my grandchild with me so I went pretty fast in the opposite direction."

Why Manchester?

So why does John Stalker think the IRA chose Manchester?

"They were intending to achieve sheer terror... To beat people in to submission, to terrify them in to creating some kind of political change.

"The sheer size of it was not intended to warn, this was intended to change attitudes and to change minds, and to make people afraid of leaving their front doors."

Although Manchester had borne the brunt of several previous IRA attacks, this was unprecedented in its size.

"This had clearly involved a great deal of planning. It had clearly broken the boundaries of size and to some extent was breaking new ground for the police," says Stalker.

Fore warning - 1991 attack on Manchester

"I think if the perpetrators had been arrested right away, it wouldn't have been a problem but because the investigation went on for a long time - I think that it became more political.

"You cannot, under any circumstances, ever separate politics and crime, particularly terrorist crime, in Northern Ireland affairs. The two are so inextricably linked to each other."

Professor David English, has studied the activities of the IRA for a number of years and has his own views:

"Decisions about large scale attacks like the Canary Wharf bombing in London or the Manchester bombing in June 1996, unquestionably were sanctioned by the top level of the IRA."

English believes that the choice of Manchester comes from long standing IRA thinking that bombs in England cities have always created far more attention at a political and public level than those in Northern Ireland.

"The IRA had had a ceasefire between 1994 and 1996, and in their justification for the Manchester bombing, they said that the British government had effectively squandered their first ceasefire," says Professor English.

"So what they were doing with their return to bombings like the Manchester bomb was saying, 'We can still return to war if we want to. We can still put off a huge bomb in your cities and devastate them and therefore you have to deal with us.

"'If and when there's another ceasefire, don't spend a year and a half dithering about. Get in to talks, try and resolve this.'"

Prime suspect

The police operation was extensive - and then came a crucial moment in the investigation.

Greater Manchester Police sent a report to the Crown Prosecution Service seeking advice on arresting a suspect involved in the bomb plot.

Despite all their efforts the police were told there was insufficient evidence to mount a prosecution.

The details were revealed by the Manchester Evening News, as Paul Horrocks, the newspaper's Editor explains:

"Our crime reporter came to me one morning and said 'I've got this story to tell you,' and it was the most amazing tale of how the police not only had a prime suspect but it was felt that there was compelling evidence that could put a person before a court.

"And yet in a few days time the whole police incident room was to be closed down and the enquiry was to end.

"Yet we also had information that special branch officers had monitored this individual in Manchester for many months after the blast...

"And then he returned back to Ireland and had not been detained or arrested. Indeed there were no plans to arrest or detain him."

The newspaper had been given leaked documents of the police report - they eventually printed the story and named the suspect.

The man issued a statement through his solicitor denying any involvement.

So why does Horrocks think no one was arrested or charged?

"I think the CPS clearly played a very big part of this in deciding that there was insufficient evidence - and there may have been perfectly justifiable legal reasons for that.

"I also know that there were individuals within Greater Manchester Police who felt that there was sufficient evidence to mount a trial.

"My own view is that they should have put that person on trial and let the evidence be tested by a court."

Who were the bombers?

The extraordinary thing is that the men who bombed Manchester appear to be well known in Belfast聟 and yet they've never been arrested

Professor English says it's known who carried out the attack:

Who were the bombers? Looking for answers in Armagh

"The Manchester bomb was carried out by the IRA's South Armagh brigade which is the main big bomb making unit that the IRA had.

"It had a lot of expertise in doing it and had made bombs that had been used in London.

"And they'd, in a sense, perfected the use of semtex and fertiliser as a way of making big bombs quite easily.

"And in the rural setting of South Armagh, it was quite easy to put these things together in barns without being under surveillance."

English claims that some of the names of those involved are known, but they have not been brought to justice.

There are a number of explanations for this says Professor English:

"The kind of acquisition of informal evidence that you can pursue as a journalist, or as a commentator is one thing, but getting people to tell you on the record the kind of things they'll tell you off the record is different for obvious reasons in a place like Northern Ireland.

"The other explanation... During the peace process period, the British government and the British authorities were keen, above all, that the IRA shift from something like war to something like peace...

"There was a desire not to rock the boat... there was a sense that you could forget the past atrocities if the future was going to see Republicans be political, rather than being violent."

Inside Out wanted to interview Greater Manchester Police about Professor English's revelations and their efforts to find the bombers during the last 10 years, but they declined.

They issued the following statement instead:

"The investigation remains open and new lines of enquiry that have arisen during the last 10 years have been and are being considered.

"It is therefore not appropriate for further information to be provided as it may compromise any future legal proceedings. The people of Greater Manchester can be reassured that we are continuing to review the case."

John Stalker says that, "I can't imagine any circumstances where anyone will be brought before the courts for this offence.

"They would have to do another one and be linked to the one 10 years before for that to happen."

In the months that followed the Manchester Evening News' investigation, Horrocks is convinced that the things turned from who put down the Manchester bomb? to how did the paper get to this information?'

"I'm convinced that phones were tapped, I'm convinced that bank accounts were checked and that there was a level of surveillance on us.

"Of course I don't know the full extent of it, but I'm sure it was there...

"It was a hard time for the paper but I think at the end of it we were right to do what we did, in that the public of Manchester... I felt that there was a duty to inform them that there was indeed a prime suspect, and we did name that individual who never took any action against us."

So 10 years on, many still believe that there's been no justice for Manchester because people haven't been convicted.

For Cathy Malcolm and the other victims, life has to go on but they will never forget their experiences.

A city reborn

One of the side effects of the bomb was the reshaping of Manchester's city centre by planners.

Today - the city centre regenerated

Architect Ian Simpson feels the bomb actually had a liberating affect on the design of the city.

The Arndale Centre and the area around the Royal Exchange is now one of the most vibrant city centres in the UK.

Canon Denby reflects back on the impact of the bomb: "When the bomb went off I think the whole of the life of Manchester changed in that one moment.

"The expectations, the dreams, everything changed in that one moment."

But for those affected on 15 June 1996, it's been a high price to pay for the human impact of the bombing.

Help for those affected

If you've been affected by anything that you've seen in this Inside Out programme...

The Traumatic Stress Clinic
The NHS's national centre for PTSD.

Address: 73 Charlotte St, London, W1T 4PL

Assistance Support and Self Help in Surviving Trauma (ASSIST).
Registered charity that offers support to those affected by PTSD.
01788 560800 (Helpline: 10am-4pm, Mon-Fri.)

Address: 27A Church St, Rugby, CV21 3PU

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Find a therapist in your area.

Address: 1 Regent Place, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 2PJ

MIND
Mental health charity with online information on PTSD.
Tel: 08457 660 163 (Information line: 9.15am-5.15pm, Mon-Fri).

Address: 15-19 Broadway, London, E15 4BQ

Victim Support
National charity that helps support victims of crime.
Tel: 0845 303 0900 (Helpline: 9am-9pm, Mon-Fri. 9am-7pm, Sat & Sun).

Email: supportline@victimsupport.org.uk
Address: Cranmer House, 39 Brixton Road, London, SW9 6DZ

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