Man who saved Shankill bomber Sean Kelly reveals he has ‘regretted it everyday since’ (2024)

Shankill Road pensioner Jim Verner used his bare hands to drag the dead and injured — including IRA bomber Kelly — from the rubble at Frizzell’s fish shop after a no-warning bomb ripped it apart.

And until today, he has never spoken about the incident on October 23, 1993 which changed his life forever.

Yesterday, Mr Verner told the Sunday World: “Instead of saving Sean Kelly’s life that day, I wish I had strung him up from the nearest lamppost. I have suffered every day since.”

The 66-year-old widower spoke out after his application for a Troubles pension was turned down.

Ten people died — including IRA bomber Thomas Begley — and another 51 were injured in what became known throughout the world as ‘the Shankill bomb’.

Bomber Sean Kelly’s face was so badly disfigured by the force of the blast that one of his eyes was blown out of its socket and his leg was also badly damaged.

But without knowing the identity of the unconscious victim lying in the rubble, Jim Verner and a friend carried nine-time killer Kelly across the road to safety.

And believing he was a victim and not one of the IRA bombers, he comforted Kelly outside a chemist’s shop as they awaited the arrival of the emergency services.

Jim urged ambulance staff to rush Kelly to the nearby Mater Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.

But as soon as Kelly’s identity became known, he was transferred to another hospital for his own safety.

Jim Verner immediately returned to the chaos at Frizzell’s shop where he and others continued to pull away at the debris looking for survivors.

Jim helped bring out 38-year-old Wilma McKee from the rubble. And he settled the mum of two on the same spot outside the chemist’s shop where he had moments earlier put Kelly, while they waited the arrival of another ambulance.

But Mrs McKee later died of her injuries.

It was later that Saturday evening that Jim Verner discovered the young man he dragged from the rubble was in fact 21-year-old IRA bomber Kelly.

And speaking to the Sunday World this week, Jim said that if he could relive that awful day when nine innocent Protestants were blown to bits by the IRA bomb, he would have “strung up Sean Kelly to the nearest lamppost”.

“Do you know, I couldn’t even attend the funerals of those who died because I was so ashamed I had saved the life of the man who had killed them? It has been on my mind every day since,” he said.

“It took me 20 years to pluck up the courage to attend the anniversary commemoration on the Shankill.

“I did what I could for him and when the first ambulance arrived, I urged the medical staff to take him to hospital. Later, when I discovered who I had saved, I felt sick.

“From doing my best for the dead and dying, I suddenly became the man who saved the IRA man who had killed nine people on the Shankill. It floored me.

“I still have great difficulty dealing with this and at one stage I was so depressed, I even contemplated taking my own life. The feeling of depression never leaves me.”

The father of three spoke out after learning his application for a Troubles pension to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder was turned down.

Mr Verner recently received a letter from the Victims Payment Board (VPB) informing him his application under the Troubles Permanent Disabled Scheme had been rejected.

A letter confirming the board’s decision stated: “The Panel regrets you are not entitled to Victims’ Payment in respect of injury caused by a Troubles-related incident as specified in The Victims Payments Regulations, SI 202.”

Other documentation received from the VPB acknowledged that Mr Verner had played a heroic role in the aftermath of the Shankill bomb, but it regretted he didn’t meet the criteria for payment.

Mr Verner insists he has been so mentally scarred by what happened on the Shankill in the hours after the bomb that he is entitled to a payment.

He told the Sunday World: “I’m not looking for anything which isn’t due to me.

“It’s clear to anyone who knows me that I suffer from a severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of what happened 30 years ago.

“But according to the powers that be, I don’t meet the criteria or qualify for a Troubles pension,” he added.

And with tears streaming down his cheeks, Mr Verner relived the full horror of the day IRA bombers brought death and destruction to the Shankill.

The botched bomb attacked was a failed attempt to kill UDA ‘Brigadier’ Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair and other senior members of the UDA. The IRA wrongly believed the UDA chiefs were attending a loyalist meeting above the fish shop.

At the time, Adair was in the Maze Prison visiting his friend Sam ‘Skelly’ McCrory when the bomb exploded around lunchtime. The busy fish shop was packed when two IRA men, posing as fishmongers, walked in and placed a box containing a bomb on the counter.

Seconds later in exploded.

Jim Verner, a former manager at Northern Ireland Electricity, said: “It was the worst day of my life and I’ve never got over it.

“I was with my wife visiting her mother in Berlin Street. That’s the part of the Shankill were I had been born and raised and I knew every inch of it.

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“I was nearly 36 at the time and I was standing at the sink washing a cup and looking out the window when I heard the blast and saw the smoke. I knew instantly what it was and where it was and I raced to the scene. I was 120 yards away from Frizzell’s and I was there in less than 30 seconds.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I later discovered that I ran past an IRA man who was acting as the getaway driver. The front of the shop had been demolished and I ran right up onto the rubble and then I saw a man on the ground.

“I later learned it was Sean Kelly. He was one of the IRA men who delivered the bomb to Frizzell’s fish shop. Sammy Spence and I lifted him up and carried him across the road.”

Mr Verner maintains his depressive moods have increased considerably since his wife Elizabeth passed away six years ago.

“It means I constantly think about those poor people and how I saved the man who killed them. I can’t get that thought out of my head.

“These days — 30 years later — Sean Kelly swans around the place like a republican celebrity.

“It appears to me that Kelly is lauded in republican circles for what he did on the Shankill Road that day. To republicans, Sean Kelly is a hero.

“And I’ve no doubt he is in receipt of all sorts of compensation payments and benefits for the injuries he sustained in the Shankill bomb, but I don’t qualify.

“Kelly and his IRA mate Thomas Begley had delivered the bomb to Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill. They are the men who caused the devastation.

“I have to live with the fact that I saved Sean Kelly. If I could relive that day again, I’d string up Kelly to the nearest lamppost. It’s as simple as that.”

He added: “Every day I’ve had to live with the fact that I’m the man who saved the life of the Shankill bomber.”

The bomb attack on the Shankill provoked a loyalist revenge a week later. Eight innocent people died when loyalists shot up a bar in Greysteel, Co. Derry, where a Halloween party was in full swing.

When he stood trial five months after the Shankill Bomb attack, IRA man Sean Kelly was convicted of nine counts of murder and sent to jail for life on each count.

But in 2000, he was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Now 51, Sean Kelly is a Sinn Féin activist and election worker.