[KiTChener]

As a Manc, born & bred, until at the age of 19 (over 50 yrs ago) I came to live & stay in Accrington, I have shed many tears today.... just as I did over twenty years ago, when I witnessed the destruction caused by Corbyn's associates, the bloody IRA, to the buildings of my beloved city... only then, it was 'only' concrete & glass, no lives, fortunately, were lost.

Today, we have witnessed much, much more, the successors of those bloody terrorists from across the Irish Sea, have used, what I believe, to be the intelligence & bomb manufacturing so successfully applied by the IRA from the seventies onwards.

To implement such devices learned from the IRA, to use them against the innocents, young children & their friends & family, is beyond despicable. I doubt the IRA, despite their bombings & killing of children, as with Timothy Parry, would have stooped so low.

But then I forget the Birmingham bombings, Horse Guards Parade, & probably others that don't yet come to mind.

Perhaps what, in my grief for my beloved city, I am trying to say, is, that the last 24 hours is nothing new, despite however tragic..... I have been to the MEN scores of times over the years, cannot remember ever having more than a precursary search, & can only say:

'There but for the grace of God....'

RIP to such young lives lost, & my sincere condolences to their families & loved ones.

Hoping the 59 hospitalised make as full a recovery from their injuries as possible, although, I fear, their mental issues may take much longer.

With much sadness
Gerard