A church service has been held in Newry this afternoon to mark the 40th anniversary of the largest single loss of police personnel in the history of the Troubles.
Nine RUC officers were killed when an IRA mortar bomb hit a mobile canteen in the grounds of Newry police station on 28 February 1985.
The device, one of seven fired over the rooftops of nearby houses, contained an estimated 18kg of explosives.
The attack happened shortly after 6.30pm and those killed were either eating dinner or playing pool in an adjoining games room.
The victims, seven men and two women, were aged from 19 to 41.
The mortar bomb that killed them was the only one of the seven devices - fired from the back of a lorry about 100 metres away - from the station that cleared a high security wall.
The six others exploded outside the wall causing some civilian casualties, while two others in mortar tubes on the lorry failed to fire.
Relatives of those killed, surviving injured and former colleagues were among those to attend the service in Sandys Street Presbyterian Church.
Senior PSNI officers and representatives of An Garda Síochána also took part.
Former RUC assistant chief constable Bill Stewart, who was divisional commander in Newry at the time, was among those in attendance.
He was not in the station when the mortar struck and was phoned by a colleague.
"I was coming out of a meeting when my phone rang and I was told there had been a mortar attack," he recalled.
He added: "I asked if anyone had been injured and I'll never forget his words, he said, there's bodies all over the yard - it was the way he said it, there's bodies all over the yard."
Mr Stewart visited the families of those killed and attended their funerals in the days following the incident.
"I knew many of those killed, mostly young people," he said, adding "there was a real sense of friendship and comradeship in Newry station at that time".
"It was very sad," Mr Stewart said.
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Others who took part in the service included PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher and Garda Superintendent Charlie Armstrong.
A victim's group, which helped organise the service, has produced a quilt listing the names of those killed in the attack, as well as many other lives lost during the Troubles.
Kenny Donaldson, director of victim and survivor support group the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) said the event was designed "to honour and remember those whose lives were stolen away".
"The mortar bomb attack upon Newry police station remains one of the lasting images of the terrorist campaign, the scale of loss for the policing family was hugely significant," he added.
Mr Donaldson said: "Seven men and two women from across the community fell together having served together, committed to upholding the rule of law and of disrupting the activities of committed and systemic terrorists.
"Many of the young officers had not had the opportunity of getting married, nor of starting a family, they were cut down in their prime years."
