The year started badly. January ended with Bloody Sunday, when thirteen unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment, and a fourteenth was fatally wounded. ira recruitment accelerated as a result. Loyalist killings of Catholics intensified. ira car-bombs – a new tactic – caused death, injury and widespread panic in Belfast and in towns across the North. Two bomb attacks in March were particularly horrific. On the first Saturday of the month, a bright, sunny afternoon, the centre of Belfast was packed with people shopping. They may have been uneasy; the city was a dangerous place to be, and there had been shootings, bomb scares and two explosions that day. The A & E department at the Royal was experiencing an unexpected and unusual lull. There were no patients. Five nurses – three of whom were students – and the staff nurse in charge, Norma Grindle, were enjoying the break. There were also two junior doctors on duty – as it was a weekend, there was a minimum of doctors on duty and no surplus nurses, just the number required on duty in each unit.
