Scotland on Sunday
November 29, 1998, Sunday
Finally Christmas in Lockerbie
TRIBUTE TO PAN AM VICTIMS
BYLINE: By Peter Richardson
LOCKERBIE is to switch on its Christmas lights next week for the first
time in 10 years.
The town centre will be strung with lights bought with the help of a grant
from a trust which was set up in the wake of the bombing of Pan Am flight
103 and the deaths of 270 people in December 1988. A public collection
by the Let's Light up Lockerbie campaign also contributed towards the GBP
19,000 cost.
"The lights will create quite a contrast to that time when the lights went
out," said community council chairman Joe Meechan. "We felt if we were
going to do it we had better get it up and running before the anniversary.
We hope to improve on the display each year and hope everybody will be
happy with what we have achieved."
Since the Jumbo jet fell out of the sky four days before Christmas, killing
11 people in their homes as well as everyone on board, the festive season
has been marked only by a small Christmas tree.
A special ecumenical service is to be held in Dryfesdale Church on the
actual day of the anniversary. It will be broadcast live on radio but plans
to televise it were abandoned when residents made it clear they wanted
to keep it a low-key occasion. There will also be memorial services in
Westminster Abbey in London, at Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC, and
at Syracuse University in New York State.
Lockerbie's new Christmas lights will be switched on by Lockerbie's gala
queen, 15-year-old Kay Shanklin.
Copyright 1998 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.