Belfast Telegraph worker killed after 1976 bomb remembered

Henderson said: “I recall the editor Roy Lilley calling the senior staff aside and telling them there would be an issue, come what may.

“Even though we knew the printing presses were out of action, we didn’t know until late in the day just how the paper would be produced.

“I’ve absolutely no idea why the building became an IRA target.

“The Telegraph was a pro-union paper with a small ‘u’ but everybody, and I mean everybody, bought it.”

A four-page edition was produced the day after the bomb with the use of a different printing press and sold for a penny.

The paper became known as the Penny Marvel.

The current editor of the Belfast Telegraph, Martin Breen, said “the attack caused terrible destruction and, most tragically, the loss of Joe Paton, but it did not silence the Belfast Telegraph or its journalists”.

“Our thoughts today are very much with Mr Paton’s family as they mark 50 years since his death,” he added.

“This anniversary is a reminder of the terrible personal cost of the Troubles and the lasting pain carried by families across Northern Ireland.”