Nine people died in the explosions- seven civilians and two soldiers. The injured were -77 women and girls and 53 men and boys. It was at first thought that 11 had died.

This is the timetable of terror on this day of murderous, ruthless bombing of the civilian population:-

A wanton attack on innocent men,
women and children

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT WAS MADE BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND, MR. WILLIAM WHITELAW, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 24 JULY 1972:-

As the House will know, the City and people of Belfast suffered a murderous sequence of explosions last Friday. Most of the 27 explosions in Belfast that day occurred within a 3½ hour period in the afternoon-at a time when, and at places where high civilian casualties must have been expected and intended. No adequate warnings were given.

Seven civilians and two soldiers were killed and at least 130 civilians injured-many gravely. I hardly need point out that all sections of the community are indiscriminately affected by these outrages. Of the dead two were Roman Catholics. Of the 130 injured at least 40 were Roman Catholics. 53 were men and boys, 77 women and children.

I am sure the whole House will wish to join with me in expressing sympathy to the families of all those involved in this wanton attack on innocent men, women and children.

After the appallingly bloodthirsty and criminal events of last Friday, there cannot be any remaining shred of support for the men who perpetrate them. Even those sectors of Roman Catholic opinion throughout the world which have traditionally identified themselves with and perhaps given the benefit of the doubt to any group of men who claimed to speak for the Irish Republican movement can surely no longer continue to uphold the men who were responsible for Friday's horrible catalogue of slaughter.

Supporters of the Republican movement in this country, in Northern Ireland, in the United States and elsewhere, will no doubt notice the revulsion in some circles in the Irish Republic.

Since Parliament at the end of March entrusted the Government with complete responsibility for all administration in Northern Ireland, we have made the most patient and reasoned effort to secure the end of violence.

No one can deny that Her Majesty's Government have now an absolutely unchallengeable right to ask this House, this country, and indeed the whole world for their support in an absolute determination to destroy the capacity of the IRA for further acts of inhumanity.

They have degraded the human race, and it must now be clear to all that their sole object is to promote their aims by violence and by violence alone.

Funeral with no shouted commands
but only sobs of four small children

TO-DAY (Monday) I went to a funeral-that of one of "Bloody Friday's" victims.

It wasn't one of those funerals we know so well in Belfast, with the uniformed men, the ceremonial shots, the shouted commands, the graveside oration.

The only uniforms were the black and white vestments of the clergy. The only arms were those of Christ crucified on the Cross which led the Cortege.

No shouted commands- only the sobbing of four small children. No graveside oration, only the tears in the eyes of a husband as final tribute.

If there is power in the sobs of children and the tears of husbands and fathers, wives and mothers then the cause espoused by the terrorist is on the point of death:

its followers now are but walking. dead, animated husks, soulless and mindless. rejected and disowned by any creature capable of pity and compassion.

The earth which thudded on that coffin covered only a body, not the bestial deed which sent it there, an ever-pointing finger of condemnation to all involved - the terrorists who planned the bombing campaign, the terrorists who made the bombs, the terrorists who planted them: the politicians who wouldn't talk until all their demands were met and the politicians who talked too much and too often said the wrong thing; the leading churchmen, who merely mouthed pious attitudes. condemning violence in general but never aiming at specific deeds and organisations:

The trade unionists who permitted discrimination to be the unwritten rule in our industrial life and the industrialists and businessmen who bowed to this evil on their premises; the neighbours, who were true neighbours and friends-until intimidation entered their street.

To-day's victim had the dignity and honour of innocence and motherhood to take to her grave and Maker, and leaves her legacy of a peace-loving, and In the course of time, happy family.

Her killers will face their Maker with her blood and many others on their hands and can only leave a. their legacy hatred, sorrow and despair.
A FACE IN THE CROWD,
Belfast 13.

'Streets swept by terror'

"Such warnings as were given were so vague and imprecise as to be almost useless; For much of the afternoon Belfast was reduced to near total chaos and panic. Girls and men wept openly, hugging each other for safety in the main streets as plumes of smoke rose around them and dull thuds echoed from wall to wall.

It was impossible for anyone to feel perfectly safe As each bomb exploded there were cries of terror from people who thought they had found sanctuary but in fact were just as exposed as before.

'A day of horror and shame'

Friday, July 21, 1972, was a day of horror and shame in this stricken city. Even hardened newsmen recoiled with shock from the scenes of carnage witnessed in Belfast as firemen lifted the mangled bodies where bombs ripped through crowds of unsuspecting men, women and children at bus depots and other locations.

In all my years of journalism, which included the worst days of the wartime blitzes, I have never seen scenes so horrible in this city and one felt a deep feeling of anger and shame that such deeds were planned and carried out by fellow Irishmen.

All Ireland has been shamed by the events of this terrible July afternoon in Belfast.

'A deed of sick men'

"The chief injury is not to the British Army, to the Establishment or to big business but to the plain people of Belfast and Ireland. Anyone who supports violence from any s i d e after yesterday's events is sick with the same affliction as those who did the deed.

"Can anyone now believe that anything worth while can be established by these methods? That the country of anyone's vision can live with more memories of this kind?"

"Irish Times", Dublin.

"A black sin ... that will never be erased"

These are dark days for Ireland. We live in an age of cowardice, with the guilt spread evenly between the highest and the lowest in the land.

We fostered the men who planned the murders of innocent men, women, boys and girls in Belfast on Friday. We fed these people with propaganda. We took advantage, when we could, of their exploits. And because we are not a morally courageous people, we never seriously tried to stop their terrible excesses.

Those among us who could have acted to halt the course of tragedy preferred to do nothing. Those who could have spoken out, when words might have meant something, chose to hold their tongues. And the rest of us were content to let matters slide.

Now all of us must pay the price for this neglect. There is a black sin on the face of Irish Republicanism today that will never be erased. Murder now lies at the feet of the Irish nation and there is no gain-saying that fact.

We cannot change past, however much we regret its record. But if we wish to restore the honour of our people, now is the time to act.

We must break the paralysis that leaves the good name of the Irish people in the hands of unscrupulous men. And we must find a way to make restitution for our failings.

The gallantry of those who planted bombs in the middle of Belfast's shopping areas on Friday (and then ran like hell) will be sanctified by the almighty god of Irish republicanism and reverently embalmed- in what we are pleased to call our national heritage.

We won't have a ballad to commemorate the butchered fragments of a woman we saw on the telly being shovelled up by a fireman.

Who said Dan Breen is dead? His spirit is alive and well and looking forward to a cosy corner in whatever parliamentary system we are going to have for the next 50 years.

Is nobody going to shout stop!