St Bricin’s to honour teen bomb victim

A classroom at St Bricin’s College is to be permanently dedicated to one of Belturbet’s youngest victims of the Troubles in an emotional act of remembrance more than five decades after the devastating bombing that shook the town.

The double classroom, located within the school’s newly installed modular building, will bear the name of former student Geraldine O’Reilly, who was just 15 years old when killed in the explosion on December 28, 1972.

Geraldine, from Staghall, died alongside Patrick Stanley (16), a gas delivery assistant from Clara, Co Offaly, when a 100lb bomb hidden inside a parked red Ford Escort exploded at 10:28pm in one of the darkest nights in Belturbet’s history.

The poignant dedication was revealled by Independent Councillor Brendan Fay during last week’s meeting of the Cavan-Monaghan ETB at St Bricin’s.

The meeting of ETB members was held inside the very classroom now set to carry Geraldine’s name, with South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) expected to fund the commemorative plaque to be installed as part of the tribute.

Cllr Fay said the dedication reflects the school leadership’s wider vision of “building a community for all and extending the hand of friendship to everyone”.

Currently outside the classroom a mural depicts the statue at the site of the bombing that honours the two teenagers who lost their lives.