IRA university bomb: RUC widow says Provo agents were present and gathering intelligence at victim's funeral

She was speaking to the News Letter just ahead of today’s 40th anniversary of the blast, which killed three RUC men and injured dozens more.

The target was a classroom in the sprawling main building of the university several miles north of Belfast city centre, where a group of officers had convened for a course on criminology at about 11.45am on November 4, 1983.

The dead were John Martin, 28; William McDonald, 29 (who went into a coma and died on August 12, 1984, having never woken up); and Stephen Fyfe, who was also 28 and had been Alison’s husband.

It was at least the third time the university was targeted by the IRA. Read more here:

• 'Soon after triple fatal blast a student shouted out tiocfaidh ar la - and the place just erupted'

Alison had last given an interview in around 1984; here she speaks for the first time since, and in greater detail than ever before.

Now aged 61 and living in north Down, the family had formerly lived in Ballygowan, and on the day of the blast Alison recalls being at home with her son Neil, 16 months, when they got a phone call from a female sergeant at RUC HQ to say her husband had been injured – but probably not that badly.

Alison and some other relatives then travelled to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, “thinking we were turning up to see Stephen with a broken arm”.

But when they arrived they were told it was very much much worse.

He was in surgery, staff told them. Then, at exactly 4.55pm (Alison remembers it to the minute), they were told Stephen had died.

Alison believes he was probably dead before even getting to the hospital, due to shrapnel piercing his head (the IRA had reportedly packed the bomb, fitted with a timing device, with nails).

“Honestly, it’s like yesterday,” Also said.

"He was a gentleman, and very dedicated to his job – that’s why he was doing the degree. He was only promoted to sergeant six weeks prior to his death.

"He loved his job, he loved me, and he loved Neil. He was outgoing, loved a good party, and loved playing hockey for the police.

"It just was a total waste of life.”

• ‘PROVOS POSING AS JOURNALISTS’

Policing ran in the family; Alison had been an officer, Stephen had an uncle on the force, and his father Joseph Neville Fyfe was a detective superintendent.

“The IRA were out to get his father as well,” Alison said.

“They were at the funeral – Stephen’s funeral. His father was a very high-profile officer and, apparently, they said it’d be great to get the father as well.

"That’s the type of people you’re dealing with.”

She believes the republicans were present under the guise of being press, and had been taking photos of the family.

The family was soon warned of a possible IRA attack.

“Stephen was buried on the Monday, and they [Joseph and his wife] had to move their home on the Friday,” Alison recalled.

Shortly after that move, Joseph received another warning and had to move again – this time all the way to England to escape the threat.

• ‘IF WE CAN REMAIN UN-BIGOTED, SO TOO CAN OTHERS’

Alison later remarried, to Colum Price.

Mr Price told the News Letter that one of the men who had survived the blast – an officer called David Ead – was shot dead by the IRA in Newcastle in 1987.

He also recalled that another survivor (who is still alive) was left permanently in a wheelchair by the blast.

“He took what happened to him very badly,” said Colum. “All he wanted to do was die.

"The repercussions of an incident like that – it doesn’t stop that day. It doesn’t stop in 10 years down the line or 20 years. It goes on forever."

Today Alison and Colum have friends who are both Protestant and Catholic, and Colum added: “Alison has never become a bigoted person because of it. I have never been a bigoted person. None of our three kids or Neil are bigoted.

"And I’m thinking that if we’re able to remain that way, even after Alison having lost somebody, there’s no reason why the rest of the community can’t do the same.

“If you look today what’s happening in Gaza between the Israelis and Palestinians, it’s exactly the same as happened here, if we let ourselves be bamboozled by all these events.

"I think the onus is on both sides of the community to give ourselves a shake and come out of this.”

The family’s policing tradition has continued to this day; Neil is now a dog handler for the Metropolitan Police.