Thank you all for your lovely comments. As you may have worked out from my biog. I was in Belfast on 17 June '74. In the belly of the beast, so to speak.
Fascinating reading, especially as I happened to be working at the Houses of Parliament at the time of the IRA bomb explosion in Westminster Hall, and probably missed being involved because I arrived in London on an earlier train that morning and was in Dean's Yard when it went off. It was nothing like the size of the conflagration that Fawkes might have been responsible for, but pretty terrifying even from the other side of Parliament Square.
I too missed a conflagration due to missing a train. In this case, too much under the influence after a press do to find the underground to King's Cross just minutes before the awful fire there in 1987 when 31 died. I hailed a taxi and wondered about the smoke billowing into the station when I arrived. Guilty but alive. Like you, makes one wonder...
A fasinating article - many thanks. As ever, history is written by, and for, those in a position of power and influence. The lives of the ordinary people can often be just as interesting - if not more so, because their lives are so much more relatable to our own!
Thank you all for your lovely comments. As you may have worked out from my biog. I was in Belfast on 17 June '74. In the belly of the beast, so to speak.
Fascinating reading, especially as I happened to be working at the Houses of Parliament at the time of the IRA bomb explosion in Westminster Hall, and probably missed being involved because I arrived in London on an earlier train that morning and was in Dean's Yard when it went off. It was nothing like the size of the conflagration that Fawkes might have been responsible for, but pretty terrifying even from the other side of Parliament Square.
As Fiona has said, thank you for a great article!
I too missed a conflagration due to missing a train. In this case, too much under the influence after a press do to find the underground to King's Cross just minutes before the awful fire there in 1987 when 31 died. I hailed a taxi and wondered about the smoke billowing into the station when I arrived. Guilty but alive. Like you, makes one wonder...
So interesting! Thank you Peter
A fasinating article - many thanks. As ever, history is written by, and for, those in a position of power and influence. The lives of the ordinary people can often be just as interesting - if not more so, because their lives are so much more relatable to our own!