John was yards from Church Street bomb - and didn’t get a scratch!

And it’s little wonder that John has such a clear recollection of what happened that day, because he was still in one of the buildings in Church Street when the massive explosion took place!

Back in those days, Johnny was in charge of maintenance at Morton and Simpsons bakery and their associated Griddle Room cafe which was situated right in the centre of Church Street.

“I remember the policeman running in and shouting for everybody to clear out because there was a suspect device outside,” says John. “I went back through the building telling everybody to move out immediately and I was going back to the front of the building when I saw the girl on the cash till was still there.

“She asked me what to do with the till, which was full of money. I told her to never mind about it and to get out of the area right away. I can still remember she was really worried about the cash so I grabbed the bag the money was in and headed up to the very back of the shop where the safe room was.

“I was just inside and set the bag down when there was a tremendous ‘boom’ .. no joking, the whole floor lifted underneath me!”

Moments later he emerged having survived an explosion which had literally ripped the centre of Ballymena apart.

“I went out through the shop and it was just wrecked - the damage was awful. There was clouds of dust and the whole street was covered with rubble and thousands and thousands of pieces of glass.

“I was crunching through it up towards Broadway when a big policeman grabbed me by the arm and asked me where I’d been and what I was doing! I told him I had been in the safest place of all and he looked at me as if I wasn’t wise! I had to show him where I worked and told him about the safe room which had saved the day for me.”

In the aftermath of the explosion, John was surveying the destruction when his eye was caught by a lump of metal which had embedded itself in the wall of the bulding, just above the cash desk.

“It was rammed right in with the force. It turned out to be a bit of the engine from the car bomb. It must have flown about 100 feet through the air like a rocket - there must have been all sorts of shrapnel like that zooming around during the explosion .. it was lucky the police got the place cleared out as quick as they did or there would have been massive casualties,” he says.

And, having had such a lucky escape, it’s little wonder that John kept that very piece of heavy metal as a memento of his most fortunate day!