Just watching this now about the IRA bomb in Town.

They’ve just shown a scene where an Irish Club, I’m presuming Orford Lane, is on fire.

Did this actually happen? If so, was it arson? A revenge attack for the bomb?

I have no recollection of it ever happening, but there again, I was only 10 at the time of the attack.

Remember it being bricked but not set on fire...could be wrong. Nice bit of research with the 1993 wire kit in one of the opening scenes.

I remember the gasometer ablaze after an IRA attack prior to the bombing of Bridge Street.

I've lived all my life by the gas works.
They evacuated the whole of the area where I live. The torpedo tanks didn't go off. Neither did the half full the compression tank.
Only the tank that was bearly empty detonated...however it went with some bang.

The Mirror headline next day..."BAS TARDS".

I remember that the evil .... gave the code wrong...something the IRA never previously did. They gave a coded warning that the bombs were to go off in Chester.
I think Chester was evacuated.

I thought the gas station bombing was after Bridge Street? If the high pressure tank had blown (the horizontal ones) it would have destroyed all the houses on the opposite side of Winwick Road.....thank god it never went off...we'd be talking about a lot more deaths.

I think about all the people with serious, life changing injuries....losing limbs etc....truly awful events.

I was very impressed with the dramatisation....thought it was powerful stuff...very well acted.

Definitely beforehand. It was the keen wits of the local law who caught the bombers and foiled the gasworks plot. Could've been a lot worse without police intervention. At the time, I recall a conversation with friends when we said the IRA weren't going to like that. There'd be consequences. Nobody envisaged what followed though.

But it was certainly a revenge attack, returning to Warrington...

Rocky is spot on.
It was in retaliation for the foil.
That copper Mark....? took a bullet.
Following the plot Warrington BC put traffic lights and CCTV on all the major roundabouts.

Yes that's why we have them..

PC Mark Toker/Coker? (sp) Took three bullets for his troubles as I recall. Brave lad, as were the others who gave chase that night.

Such dark, dark times. I was going to write "I hope we never revert back to the senseless acts in N Ireland and on the mainland", then I stopped and thought there's so much gun and knife crime at the present, not to mention the Westminster and Manchester incidents.
We still live in dark, dark times.

Behind almost all conflict stems religion, fruitful territory or women.

Didn't they catch the gas works bombers when they were pulled over for driving the wrong way up a one-way street near where Lizard Records is now?

Perhaps Golborne st was up for buses only. Both coming down if I recall.

No it was just bricked from what I recall. Not sure if they closed it for a few days but no fire. ...
Plus the Parrys wouldn't have drove home from the hospital down Orford Lane with them living on the Sankey side of town.


But other than that I thought it was very good
I remembered some of Colin Parrys press lines word for word.

Tough to watch.......how he shook hands wIth Martin Mcguiness.years later I'll never know...

Mcguinness played a big part in the peace process.

A murderous bas tard.

The grace and dignity shown by Colin and Wendy Parry is nothing short of inspirational.

yeah that's like saying Osama Bin Laden played a big part in Airline Security improvements..


love me read some of the Mcguiness got up to.......

My thoughts on Adams/McGuinness would break the internet.

I met Colin Parry recently. Nice fella. His resolve as to what has happened to his family is staggering. A true man of peace.

Didn't watch the programme. I don't like these "dramatisations" of personal loss (see also Rhys Jones, the Liverpudlian boy who got shot in 2007).
I remember going into town, that fateful evening. The whole place was numb.

Going back to the Gasworks incident. Iirc didn't the terrorists take a hostage, who was just walking the town centre streets?

I know plenty about M.Mc and I'm no sympathiser...but he had a part. I wouldn't of shook his hand, but the Parry's are better placed than any of us.

Same here, it doesn't sit easy with me at all.

I had no problem with it. It was a story that needed telling to a new generation, and a timely reminder for those older also. It had the blessing of the Parry family, and was written by a local lad, Nick Leather, so its heart is firmly in the right place. The Peace Centre provided direction throughout as well. There was nothing sensational or titillating about it. Nothing indecent, provocative or improper. But it was hard as hell to watch, undoubtedly for those of us with connections to the town and, harder still, the families directly affected by the atrocity.

Nothing short of brilliant dramatization.

Yes Rocky.
And with some of us that have met the Parry's....how good was the characters acting of them!?

And in contrast.... I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: BBC presenter Rachael Bland dies aged 40 - www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45410652 That was heartbreaking reading for me. Especially the birthday presents for her son.

And in contrast.... I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: BBC presenter Rachael Bland dies aged 40 - www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45410652 That was heartbreaking reading for me. Especially the birthday presents for her son.

As a family we indirectly knew the Parry's. Mum and Dad went to night school learning French with Colin and Wendy, and Dom (and later Tim) went to my Sea Scout Troop, the 10th Warrington, who met in the scout hut next to the Woodys every Friday night. So we had connections. But years later I did a number of events with Wendy at the Peace Centre. The performances of Mays and Maxwell Martin are flawless. Mays impression and voice of Colin, Maxwell Martin's mannerisms of Wendy. Yeesh.

Have followed the Bland story for a while, as always listened to her on Five Live. Awfully sad story. What an incredible woman.