Because the Abercorn was Catholic-owned and the dead and mutilated were Catholics, we thought at first that this must be the work of Loyalist paramilitaries. This was easy enough – it was an absolute outrage, savage, indefensible. When it became clear that the IRA had done it, it just seemed incomprehensible. How did maiming random young women balance the moral scales against Bloody Sunday? Since I had already decided, when I thought it must be the act of the other side, that this was monstrous, it was impossible to change my mind now.
