The 40th anniversary of an IRA atrocity which killed nine RUC officers is being marked today.
Dozens of others were injured in the 1985 mortar attack on Newry station.
An anniversary service will take place in the city on Sunday.
Former UUP chair Danny Kennedy, an ex-MLA for Newry and Armagh, said it marked “a very significant milestone”.
Recalling the scenes of devastation, Mr Kennedy described how people were “jeering at emergency services” as they helped the wounded.
The attack occurred just after 6.30pm on February 28, 1985, when nine shells were launched from a lorry parked in Monaghan Street. One shell landed on the RUC canteen where many officers had gathered for their break.
Over 25 police civilian employees were injured and over 40 people outside the base were injured, including a four-year-old girl.
The IRA later admitted the attack, and reportedly said the “incident left us open to justified criticism”.
Dubbed ‘Bloody Thursday’, the attack led to further protection being installed for police and military bases.
The nine RUC officers killed were Alexander Donaldson (41), Geoffrey K. Campbell (24), John Thomas Dowd (31), Denis Anthony Price (22), Rosemary Elizabeth McGookin (27), Sean Brian McHenry (19), David Peter Topping (22), Paul Hillery McFerran (33), and Ivy Winifred Kelly (29).
The South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) victims group, alongside local RUC GC groups such as the Banbridge and Armagh Branches and Newry and Mourne Voluntary Welfare, have organised a service of remembrance to mark the anniversary on Sunday at First Newry (Sandys Street) Presbyterian Church at 2.30pm.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph ahead of the service, Mr Kennedy, who was MLA for Newry and Armagh from 1998 to 2017, said the attack was “barbaric”.
“The 40th anniversary is a very significant milestone, the direct hit on the canteen in Corry Square resulting in the highest loss of life in the RUC during the entire Troubles will always be remembered,” he said.
Former Newry MLA Danny Kennedy
“The impact was enormous. Not only was that the worst day, but it became so every day for those impacted — the families have their burden every day, not just on the anniversary.”
Mr Kennedy also noted many of the killed officers’ ages, and how many of them were in the early stages of their career.
“Most of them weren’t local to Newry, because of the security situation,” he said.
“They had been sent there to serve and presumably because most were young and single, because that was the rationale of service at the time, particularly in border areas — and these lives were snatched away.
“There are many elements I remember about the situation that are difficult to comprehend.
“A crowd which gathered to jeer and cheer, whilst the emergency services and the police were trying to deal with the enormity of the explosion.
“It’s memories like that that still ring on, years later, and those acts were incredibly distasteful — those who thought that was a proper and normal thing to do.
“It was disgraceful, but that was the situation we were in.”
The former UUP chairman said the memory and the significance of the mortar attack will “remain”.
“More recently more has been written about it in terms of personal accounts, which I think is good, because it reminds this society where we came from and how important it is to remain on the path of peace,” he added.
“I think because of the amount of lives lost, the memory of it all will always remain.”