'Everyone who went back into the Clutha that night was a hero'

In the days that followed, Murphy scoured the newspaper reports on those who had died, hoping not to find anyone who matched her description. Though it later emerged all the customers who lost their lives were men, he never stopped wondering what had happened to her, and beating himself up over his “stupidity”.

Now - thanks to a surprise encounter while recording an episode of a BBC Radio 4 series - Murphy’s mind has been finally put to rest.

The Reunion brings together a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history to exchange their memories and differing perspectives. Murphy was sharing his experiences of the Clutha crash when one of the other guests — Nancy Primrose — suddenly realised she was the woman he had helped.

Survivors of the Clutha disaster on The Reunion with Kirsty Wark (Image: free)

Primrose had just bought drinks during a night out with her sister, Ann Faulds, when she was “blown out of her shoes” by the crash. She was lifted outside by the rescuers, but the second she regained consciousness she ran back towards the pub screaming for Ann. Primrose needed 12 stitches to the back of her head. Her sister was hit by an electric wire; she had a burn mark to her arm and gashes to her hand, but she recovered.

Later the same night, Murphy, then Shadow Secretary for International Development, was interviewed by a TV crew. At one point the interviewer said: “Jim, there’s blood on your shirt.” Murphy replied: “Yes. It’s not mine.”

During the Reunion programme, which airs on Sunday morning, Nancy has an epiphany. “I think that was my blood,” she says, adding that, though she was drifting in and out of consciousness, she remembers a white shirt, and being lifted. She says the way she picked herself up and ran straight back towards the Clutha tallies with Murphy’s recollection of events.

His voice shaking, Murphy says: “From what Nancy is telling us today it sounds like it was [her].”

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Primrose goes on to reassure him: “You could only do what you could do. You went back to help get other people out.” And: “I think everybody that night that went in were all heroes, including yourself.”

Murphy tells Primrose: “I am so delighted and relieved I came today because the last time I met you was at the Clutha for a few fleeting seconds, and I left you on the cold concrete, but here you are alive and well and full of spirit.”

During the programme he also reveals that, in the absence of water, he used a pint of beer to clean another man’s head wound. When he returned to his car, Murphy, a teetotaller, was breathalysed by the police.

The Reunion, presented by Kirsty Wark, also features four other people whose lives were affected by the disaster: Alan Crossan, who owns the Clutha, Mary Kavanagh, a customer whose partner Robert Jenkins died at the scene, Pat O’Meara, who led the ambulance emergency response team, and Stephen Wright, a firefighter who led the urban search and rescue team.

Wark talks to the guests about the events of the night itself and the enduring impact it has had on their lives.

Primrose, who manages a charity shop in Glasgow’s East End, tells Wark that, after the accident, nurses came in every day to patch up her head wound. She attended a lot of counselling sessions, but what helped her in the end was taking part in charity Kiltwalks.

The show reunited Clutha survivors (Image: Damian Shields)

She became close friends with Kavanagh after realising she was the woman who prevented her from re-entering the bar. The two of them now attend all the Clutha anniversary events together.

Robert Jenkins’ body was the last to be pulled from the rubble. Formerly a senior development officer with a homeless charity, Kavanagh says that for a year after the tragedy she barely moved from her couch.

“I went to grief counselling. It really didn’t help. I also went to a person-centred counsellor; it didn’t help. The only time I felt I was engaging with anything was when I had my grandchildren,” she said. In April 2014, she was diagnosed with PTSD and received Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy which helped her deal with her flashbacks, false memories and nightmares.

Crossan explains that two weeks after the crash, some teenagers broke into the Clutha. “The newspapers the next day went mad on it, saying they were scum. They weren’t scum. What they needed was a direction in life.”

He says this provided the inspiration for the Clutha Trust, which recycles musical instruments for schools, charities and individuals. Once the bar had been refurbished, Crossan approached Kavanagh to ask her if she’d like to attend the reopening night. At first she said no, but having visited the premises privately beforehand she realised it was no longer the Clutha she knew and she would be OK. “Now it has become such a big part of my life. It’s a close community and they look after you. It has been part of my recovery, too,” she says.

Having found it impossible to go back to her old job, Kavanagh now works with the Clutha Trust.

The Clutha police helicopter crash killed 10 people died (Image: free)

“I worked in homelessness for nearly 20 years,” she says. “This is totally different. I am dealing with happiness. If a young person needs a guitar or a practice amp, we will get everything they need and their wee faces are lovely; they just light up.”

For some people returning has proved impossible. “A couple of years ago, Nancy and I came out of the pub and there was a guy standing outside sobbing his heart out,” Kavanagh says. “He had been in the Clutha the night of the accident and had never been back. He thought he would try that night but he couldn’t actually walk in. He just stood outside. I think there are still people suffering trauma.”

For Kavanagh, though, it acts as a balm. “Sometimes I go in, and, if it’s busy I will go through to the Victoria bar [at the back] and sit and just feel close to Robert.”

Crossan has plans to redevelop the site into a bar and community arts complex. “We will put parts of the old Clutha into the new Clutha,” he says. “I did say at the start that the pub wasn’t about bricks and mortar. It’s all about the people. It’s the people who make the Clutha. We do festivals and we are going to be doing all sorts of different music. Hopefully young kids will be involved and we will do art and drama and all that money will go back into the community. That is what the legacy of the Clutha will be.”

The Clutha Helicopter Crash - The Reunion will air on BBC Radio 4 at 10am on Sunday