A LONDONDERRY firefighter and the son of a woman whose life he saved will meet for the first time as Ballykelly marks the 30th anniversary of the Droppin’ Well atrocity.
However, an Army paramedic who was also involved in saving the life of Nicola George (later Lockett) will not be able to attend this weekend’s commemoration ceremony – because of the mental scars he still bears 30 years later.
After learning of their heroism through the Londonderry Sentinel, Steven Lockett expressed his thanks to firefighter Paul O’Kane for his courageous actions, and acknowledges that he would not have been born were it not for the Londonderry man’s bravery.
Mr Lockett’s mother Nicola survived thanks to the selfless actions of emergency personnel such as Mr O’Kane, and off-duty Army medic Steve Horvath who was in the bar at the time of the bombing.
Sadly, Mr Horvath cannot join Mr O’Kane and Mr Lockett at this weekend’s memorial service due to his ongoing struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, caused by the horrors of the bombing.
Mr Lockett told the Londonderry Sentinel that, 30 years on, his family still struggle to speak about the bombing.
“My mother had a really, really tough time afterwards – getting back on her feet. It had a really big impact on my father too. My family don’t like talking about it.
“At a time I thought; why did they [INLA] do it? I was angry about it. What they did was wrong but it is not up to me to judge them.
“It was evil what they did, and it was two girls who carried out that attack and they walked out, knowing what was going to happen. How they could have walked into that bar knowing what they had done and walked out, and then live with the consequences of 17 lives being lost? Anybody that glorifies the INLA, I would say, ‘shut your mouth’.
“I would love to meet the people behind it face-to-face. But no matter what they could tell me, it will never be good enough.
“The way that I have dealt with it is, I don’t talk about it. People don’t talk about it because it brings up a lot of memories.
“Everybody in this country in some area, in some way, through some sort of connection, through a certain part of their family, has been affected, directly or indirectly, by what happened in this country. But hopefully now we can move forward and people can get past it.
“Some people can’t get past it, and will hold that resentment. But I can say for myself that I don’t.”