Dusk had just fallen last Thursday over Newry, a predominantly Catholic town of 19,000 in County Down. More than 20 police officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (R.U.C.) were gathered in their station canteen on Cory Square. At precisely 6:32 p.m., mortar shells soared over nearby houses and crashed through the roof of the wood-frame dining hall, part of the cramped Newry station house. Nine 50-lb. shells were fired from a distance of about 250 yds.; one struck the canteen. The explosions were so powerful that many bodies were mutilated. The final toll: nine killed and 37 wounded, including 25 civilians....
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