The Troubles in Ballykinler

• 28 October 1974 - Michael Swanick and Alan Coughlan, both members of the British Army, were killed in a Provisional Irish Republican Army van bomb attack outside Abercorn Barracks. The 300lb bomb, concealed in a delivery van parked on the opposite side of the road from the Sandes home at the base, exploded without warning causing the building to catch fire and collapse. It was completely gutted within minutes. Two soldiers died in the explosion, and 33 others, mainly soldiers but including two civilians, were injured in the attack. Private Swanick was a member of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment and Corporal Coughlan also a member of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment.