Manchester bomb 25 year anniversary

[buryboy]

Only just found out today is the 25th anniversary of the Manchester bomb.

I remember it well even though I knew nothing about it for a week !

I was probably on the runway at Manchester Airport at the exact time the bomb went off , on our way to our first trip to Florida .

I knew nothing of the bomb until a week later , still In the USA when I read a Sunday paper and it said Mick Hucknall was raising money after a bomb had destroyed his home city .

I used to work in Manchester at the time and debris had landed in our office blocks central courtyard . The block was I think 6 storeys high and probably 600 yards or so from the centre of the blast .
Astonishing no-one was killed

What are your memories of it ?

[SteveC]

Hearing a loud bang in our house in Middleton probably about 5 miles away.

[Fluffypenguin]

I don’t remember it, my mum was actually four months pregnant with me at that time, but it’s something I’ve pretty much always been aware of from a young age.

My mum was actually on the phone to my auntie at that time (my mum lived in Greater Manchester and my auntie in Swinton) my mum actually heard the bang and her and my auntie were wondering what it was.

[JackyH]

I went into Manchester the day after it happened. I cried when I saw what damage had been inflicted on this great city. Thankful as it could have been so much worse and like the phoenix Manchester was reborn. It’s a fantastic city.

[Gryff]

Our first trip to Florida DS3 was weeks old and we flew from Manchester
We’d gone down the day before to my brothers to show off the new baby and see their newly renovated Water Mill home and left Mum and Dad there as Mum and Dad were doing the garden for them as it’s a listed property and needed British native plants and they were skint so M&D did it/to get the Reno signed off
We=were the family who booked the Florida trip the morning of 9/11 as well

[marypoppins38]

I was on the M62 on my way into Manchester with my now husband as we were going to a dinner dance that evening just outside the city centre and staying over at the hotel. We were going to have some lunch and a bit of shopping first in Manchester. We saw the cloud and were turned back by police so went straight to the hotel we were staying at.

[Mazbar]

I remember that day, the warning was deliberately vague, I saw police cars racing to a boots in Liverpool.

[Smilesonfaces]

I worked in Manchester at the time. The bomb went off just a few yards from where I had been waiting for my bus the day before. I remember the months and months of upheaval afterwards. The city did get massive investment which it wouldn’t have received otherwise. I do miss my old city though, before it went posh with Harvey Nic’s and Selfridges etc !

What I remember far more clearly was the first Manchester bomb in 1992 that everyone seems to forget. Not on the same scale but two IRA bombs went off that day. One was near the Cathedral very close to my office. The windows of the office blew in, luckily on the side of the office where all the filing was ! I was on the phone and tried to wrap it up calmly telling the caller I had to leave a bomb had gone off !
We all piled out of the building ( probably the wrong thing to do and lessons were learned for next time). It was total confusion, there was no public transport in and out of the city. A random stranger said he lived near me and I took a lift off him the 20+ miles home ! In an emergency common sense just went !

So lucky there was no loss of life at either of these events which no one has ever received justice for.

[Colette-S]

Remember it well, we were in another part of Manchester shopping that day.
Terrible times

[Colette-S]

Originally Posted by Gryff

Our first trip to Florida DS3 was weeks old and we flew from Manchester
We’d gone down the day before to my brothers to show off the new baby and see their newly renovated Water Mill home and left Mum and Dad there as Mum and Dad were doing the garden for them as it’s a listed property and needed British native plants and they were skint so M&D did it/to get the Reno signed off
We=were the family who booked the Florida trip the morning of 9/11 as well

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Where was your brothers watermill Helen. My friends lived in one locally in the 90’s and there can’t even too many about. Wonder if it’s the same one