Day queen got stoned – the full story 40 years after event
28/06/2006
The west Belfast man who dropped a breeze block on a car containing the queen has spoken for the first time about the events surrounding the incident 40 years after the event.
Back in July 4, 1966, 17-year-old John Morgan, an apprentice heating engineer, was working on the sixth floor of a building site in Great Victoria Street in Belfast city centre.
The queen was in Belfast to officially open Queen’s Bridge when Mr Morgan saw his opportunity to protest at the conditions that nationalists were living under in the North.
“I saw the bicycle outriders, followed by her glass-topped Rolls Royce,” Mr Morgan told Daily Ireland. “She was waving a couple of fingers at the people. As her car approached I threw the brick from scaffolding on the sixth floor and watched it go down. It hit the front left of the car with a huge bang. What I remember is the expression on Philip’s face. It was a joy to behold. The royal car took off in a cloud of dust. It was only a few years ago when I saw a television programme that I realised that it had been filmed.”
Morgan was arrested and taken out of the back of the building while being punched and kicked. He was put on the floor of a police wagon while RUC men stood on his arms and legs and pointed their guns at him.
The following day, as the British queen was flying out of Aldergrove, Morgan was charged.
He appeared in court, marked with bruises and with a swollen upper lip and was charged under the treason act.
“I was fairly philosophical about my arrest and was actually expecting to get about a year in jail. I was found guilty after 97 minutes and then I heard the sentence from [Lord Chief Justice] MacDermott. Four years for this. Four years for that. Four years for the other charge. I went down from the dock to the tunnel that runs from the court to the jail. I was seventeen and had just been sentenced to 12 years in jail.”
