With no sign of a resolution in the standoff over Troubles pensions for people injured during the years of conflict, Jennifer McNern, who lost her legs in the 1972 Abercorn Restaurant bomb in Belfast city centre, tells security correspondent Allison Morris why she has taken the issue to the High Court and says she believes the matter should now be handed to Westminster to deal with.
JENNIFER McNern was just 21 when in March 1972 a bomb exploded in the Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast city centre as she sat having an afternoon coffee with her sister Rosaleen.
With just 14-months between them the two were friends as well as sisters and had called into the busy restaurant after an afternoon shopping.
Two women who were in the queue in front of them died in the blast and more than 70 people were injured. Jennifer lost both her legs while Rosaleen lost an arm and both legs.
Jennifer is now taking a High Court case over the failure of the Stormont Executive and the British government to pay an agreed pension to victims who were severely physically and mentally injured during the Troubles.
The scheme, which offers annual pensions of £2,000-£10,000 for victims, was due to open in May but has been put on hold because of a stalemate over guidance issued by the Northern Ireland Office which Sinn Féin says will exclude dozens of former prisoners.
Campaigning for the pension has been a long road.
"We have been actively lobbying and campaigning for ten years," she said.
"At the time we'd done a bit of research and in many other countries it's standard procedure. A few of us got together, those of us who had been injured and we started to talk about our stories.
"When we started to meet politicians individually it was 'tea and sympathy' and you really got the feeling that's all that it was.
"Bur if we hadn't started our campaign nothing would ever have been done at all."
The bomb that changed the lives of Jennifer and her sister was never claimed, but was believed to have been carried out by the IRA.
A 999 call gave warning of a bomb in Castle Lane at 4.28pm, the device packed with five pounds of gelignite exploded two minutes later.
"We always went to the Abercorn for coffee and that day it was packed and we had to queue up to get in, we deliberated whether we would stay or go.
"As we were queuing two other girls jumped the queue and everyone just looked at each other, but no one challenged them. Within two or three minutes the two girls in front of us took their seats.
"We took our seats and within 20 minutes the bomb went off.
"It was just calculated murder really, it was packed and they could see that. That's what angers me."
When Jennifer woke up in the Royal Victoria Hospital several days later, at first she didn't realise the extent of her injuries.
Her sister Rosaleen was in intensive care.
"I knew I was in hospital but I didn't know why I was there, it seems I asked every day where I was but I must have kept forgetting.
"People came to visit, one day mummy came in and as she left I sort of turned in the bed and I noticed my right leg was missing. All hell broke loose.
"She heard me screaming and came back and calmed me down. The next day a doctor came and told me the extent of my injuries.
"You sort of wonder how you got through all that, but I suppose you just do, you have to get through it for family as well.
"I remember mummy walking into the ward one day and she was ashen, I knew about Rosaleen at this stage, I remember thinking this is not just about me.
"So I stayed upbeat until the Good Friday Agreement and then, well I just lost it."
The peace agreement talked about a "memorial fund" for survivors. For years Jennifer received letters from the fund.
"They had no idea what victims had gone through, a memorial fund, like a charity, an aside.
"The first letter I received asked did I need a washing machine or a fridge, the letters that used to come in, that really threw me, I was angry but also depressed as well.
"My expectations had been so much higher and rightly so."
Jennifer has now spent 48 years of her life in a wheelchair, despite the length of time that has passed she still gets phantom pains from her missing limbs.
On the kitchen wall of her home is a picture of her as a young woman, smiling alongside her mother.
On the opposite wall is a graduation picture of her daughter, the physical resemblance striking.
"When my daughter was 21 I remember thinking, what would I do if anything happened to her.
"I can just imagine how my mum must have felt."
In 2019, while the assembly was still collapsed, legislation for the injured victims pension was debated at Westminster and finally passed through parliament in January. It excluded anyone injured by their own actions.
"At Westminster we got speaking to people with real influence and I think they were shocked when they listened to our stories, what we'd been through and how we'd been treated.
"They got it and that this was something they could do.
"The say it was put into legislation, everyone was upbeat, it was finally done."
The scheme was due to open in May for applications but has now been postponed indefinitely after draft guidance sent to the executive caused a political rift.
"I foolishly thought no news was good news, and then it broke that nothing was going to happen and in fact nothing had happened at all," she said.
"A lot of very injured people, who are not a member of any group, heard that on the news. I was actually in tears I though what else are you supposed to do, what happens now?"
Jennifer now thinks the scheme should be taken out of local hands and returned to Westminster to deal with.
As a member of the Wave Injured Group she says many of those injured had talked about their plans for the pension.
"Some people are very practical, they wanted to paint their house, or talked of things they would do with their grandchildren.
"It's those simple things, well they seems simple but not for someone waiting to have that taken from them.
"It's not going to put back my legs but it will put back they way I was treated for all those years.
"It's about recognition and acknowledgement, of what has happened and the position you've been left in", she added.
