Balcombe Street siege

Coordinates: 51°31′23″N 0°09′44″W / 51.5231°N 0.1621°W / 51.5231; -0.1621
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Modern view of Balcombe Street, Marylebone. No. 22b, the building involved in the siege, is to the left.

The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the release of their two hostages. The events were televised and watched by millions.[1]

Background

Scott's restaurant in 2005, the second attack on which preceded the siege.

In 1974 and 1975, London was subjected to an intense 14-month campaign of gun and bomb attacks by the Provisional IRA. In one incident the Guinness Book of Records co-founder and conservative political activist Ross McWhirter was assassinated; he had offered a £50,000 reward to anyone willing to inform the security forces of IRA activity.[2]

The four members of what became known as the "

Stephen Tibble in London after fleeing from police officers. The flat he was seen fleeing from was discovered to be a bomb factory used by the unit.[3]

The Balcombe Street siege started after a chase through London, as the Metropolitan Police pursued Doherty, O'Connell, Butler and Duggan through the streets after they had fired gunshots through the window of

detective sergeant, the Met flooded the streets of London with plainclothes officers on the lookout for the ASU, in what was known as Operation Combo. The four IRA men were spotted as they slowed to a halt outside Scott's and fired from their stolen car.[4][5]

council flats in Balcombe Street, adjacent to Marylebone station, triggering the six-day standoff.[6][unreliable source?] Purnell was awarded the George Medal,[7] several other police officers were also decorated.[8]

The siege

The four men went to 22b Balcombe Street in

front room. The men declared that they were members of the IRA and demanded a plane to fly both them and their hostages to Ireland. Scotland Yard refused, creating a six-day standoff between the men and the police. Peter Imbert, later Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, was the chief police negotiator.[9] Max Vernon, who was later chief negotiator of the Iranian Embassy siege, was another of the police negotiators.[10]

The men surrendered after several days of intense negotiations between Metropolitan Police Bomb Squad officers, Detective Superintendent Peter Imbert and Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Nevill, and the unit's leader Joe O’Connell, who went by the name of "Tom". The other members of the gang were named "Mick" and "Paddy", thereby avoiding revealing to the negotiators precisely how many of them were in the living room of the flat. The resolution of the siege was a result of the combined psychological pressure exerted on the gang by Imbert and the deprivation tactics used on the four men. The officers also used carefully crafted misinformation, through the BBC Radio news—the police knew the gang had a radio—to further destabilise the gang into surrender.[6] A news broadcast stated that the Special Air Service were going to be sent in to storm the building and release the hostages. This seemed to deter the gang and they eventually gave themselves up to the police.[9]

Trial

The four were found guilty at their

convictions were unsafe.[11][12]

Release

After serving 23 years in English prisons, the four men were transferred to

Good Friday Agreement.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Historical Videos – Devon & Cornwall Constabulary
  2. ^ a b c 1975: Balcombe Street siege ends BBC News "On this day": 12 December 1975
  3. ^ a b Channel 4 The Year they Blew up London
  4. ^ Baker, Rob (10 December 2013). "'Our Nelson Mandelas' – The IRA's Balcombe Street Gang". Flashbak. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  5. ^ Katz, Ian (30 March 2007). "'Sir Ian Blair says they got out of the car and started firing at us ... They didn't fire at him!'". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b "The Road To Balcombe Street", Dr. Steven Moysey, Haworth (2007)
  7. ^ Chancellor, Alexander (6 April 2007). "We all rewrite history to make our roles in it more interesting". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2011. (Note: article title refers to another individual, not Purnell)
  8. ^ "'Sir Ian Blair says they got out of the car and started firing at us ... They didn't fire at him!'". The Guardian. 30 March 2007. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  9. ^ a b c d Balcombe Street gang's reign of terror BBC News. Accessed 26 August 2007
  10. ^ "Max Vernon obituary". The Times. London. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  11. ^ a b Joe O'Connell's speech from the dock Archived 27 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Innocents jailed over bombings BBC News

51°31′23″N 0°09′44″W / 51.5231°N 0.1621°W / 51.5231; -0.1621

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balcombe_Street_siege&oldid=1189010408"