Survivor recounts near-death experience in Manchester IRA bombing
A woman who went to work at a bank on her day off has shared how she narrowly escaped death during the 1996 Manchester IRA bombing.
Samantha Shaw, from Cheshire, was working alongside a colleague at the Halifax bank in Manchester, situated approximately 250 yards (229m) from the explosion site, on Saturday 15 June 1996.
The former bank manager, aged 29 at the time, recalled standing by the windows just moments before they were shattered by the blast's force.
"I wouldn't be here today if I'd have stayed there moments longer,"
"About five inches of glass that was stuck into the wall would have been stuck in my body."
Samantha and her colleague were in an office on the bank's first floor on Cross Street, Manchester. They had followed protocol by marking their presence that day.
However, during the evacuation, they were overlooked. Shaw explained that someone had looked through the glass-panelled door but, due to the L-shaped layout of their office, had not seen them.
Having recently relocated from Yorkshire to Greater Manchester weeks before the incident, Shaw described the blast's force as an "out-of-body experience."
"There's this immense suction afterwards. It sucks the life out of the room,"
"You just feel as though, for a moment, that you are not there - that you're floating."
She was physically thrown by the explosion's force.
At 59 years old, Shaw recounted being taken to Manchester Town Hall to meet emergency service officials. When asked about her condition, she said she felt fine and was allowed to leave.
She then walked home to Reddish and went to bed, only realizing the severity of her injuries the next day when she sought medical attention at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Even then, she was discharged with advice to take painkillers.
'Life-changing injuries'
Thirty years later, Samantha Shaw continues to live with the bombing's effects, including neck pain, hearing loss in both ears requiring hearing aids, memory loss, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
She expressed concern that her PTSD was only identified through the South East Fermanagh Foundation charity, which she praised for its "phenomenal" support.
Shaw added that she believed her PTSD should have been detected during earlier counselling sessions.
Following the explosion, Shaw was off work for six months. She reflected on how the event changed her life, saying she was no longer the "effervescent young woman" who was "out to change the world."
"It just completely changed my life,"
The Manchester IRA bomb timeline
At 09:20 BST on 15 June 1996, two men wearing hooded jackets drove a Ford cargo van into Manchester city centre.
They parked on double yellow lines on Corporation Street, adjacent to Marks & Spencer, and then walked away.
The van contained 3,300lb (approximately 1,500kg) of fertiliser-based explosives.
Exactly 23 minutes later, a man with an Irish accent called the switchboard at Granada TV studios in Manchester.
Gary Hall, a security guard, answered and was informed that a bomb would detonate in one hour. The caller provided a recognised codeword.
After identifying the Ford cargo van, a specialist bomb disposal unit from Liverpool was deployed to defuse the device.
Meanwhile, around a dozen police officers joined firefighters and security personnel to evacuate an estimated 80,000 people from the city centre.
At 11:17, the bomb exploded, injuring more than 200 people.
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