Member's statement: Belfast Telegraph Building; Bomb

Member's statement by Miss Michelle McIlveen on 15 September 2026.

MLA

Miss Michelle McIlveen

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

15 September 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Belfast Telegraph Building; Bomb

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5705493

Read the official Assembly record

Text

On 15 September 1976, the Provisional IRA drove a van packed with explosives into the loading bay of the Belfast Telegraph building in Little Donegall Street. It was a bomb that risked many lives, including those of schoolchildren who had to be evacuated from the nearby Central Library just minutes before the bomb went off. The explosion caused enormous damage to the newspaper's premises and injured 14 people. One man would die from his injuries on 19 September 1976. For his family, the consequences of that tragic loss were devastating and permanent. When we speak about the Troubles, it can sometimes be easy, after half a century, to reduce individual lives to statistics, but behind every name was a family, a home, a community and a future that was taken away.

Joseph Paton was 63 years of age. A married man, he was a father and grandfather. He worked as a stereotyper at the 'Belfast Telegraph' and lived on the Drumalig Road in Temple. Joe was a working man going about his daily life. He had a family who loved them, a home and a job. He had grandchildren who grew up knowing him only through the memories, stories and photographs passed down by the family. He played bowls, and, in his younger days, he boxed, and he ran with Willowfield Harriers. He supported the Glens. He also ran a shop in east Belfast. The 'Belfast Telegraph', its journalists and staff were engaged in the ordinary work of a free society: reporting events, informing the public and giving people a voice. The bomb that day was designed to silence that voice. The response from the newspaper staff was remarkable. Despite the destruction, they produced an emergency edition that became known as the 'Penny Marvel', with the editorial message, "Our Answer". Today, the 'Belfast Telegraph' is marking 50 years since that bomb, and it is telling the story of Joe Paton. Joe's granddaughter is present today to hear this statement and to hear Joe's name and story being recorded into the Official Report of the Assembly. To her and the wider Paton family, I say that Joe is remembered not as a statistic from the Troubles but as a father, husband, grandfather and colleague. At noon this Saturday, 19 September, which is the 50th anniversary of Joe's death, his family will gather at St Anne's Cathedral for a special service of acknowledgement, remembering a man whose life was cut short and the years of loss that followed. It will also be an opportunity for everyone to remember the courage of families such as the Patons who have carried the same grief. There is no justification for what was done to Joe Paton. There is no excuse for the deliberate use —

— of violence against innocent people. Today, as —

— we mark 50 years since his death —

— we remember Joe as a person, a family man who went to work one day and a man who should have returned home.

502 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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