1973 Old Bailey bombing
1973 Old Bailey Bombing | |
---|---|
Part of Robert Walsh, and other IRA volunteers | |
Convicted | all but McNearney (acquitted for providing information) |
Verdict | life in prison (later reduced to 20 years) |
The 1973 Old Bailey bombing (dubbed as Bloody Thursday by newspapers in Britain
This was the Provisional IRA's first major attack in England since the Troubles began in the late 1960s. One British civilian died of a heart attack attributed to the bombing. Estimates of the injured range from 180 to 220 from the two bombings. Two additional bombs were found and defused. Nine people from Belfast were convicted six months later for the bombing, one person managed to escape and one was acquitted for providing information to the police.[3]
Background
England had been relatively untouched from the violence up until the beginning of 1973, but the IRA Army Council had drawn up plans for a bombing campaign to take place in England some time early in 1973. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, loyalist paramilitaries had bombed Dublin and other parts of the Republic of Ireland a number of times before the IRA began its bombing campaign in England. Following the Dublin bombings in late 1972 and in January 1973 carried out by Loyalists which killed three people and injured over 150, the media attention these bombings received helped the IRA decide to take its campaign to Britain in return. Billy McKee explained to journalist Peter Taylor that another reason the IRA brought their campaign to England was that the IRA had decided to bomb England early if there was an emergency in the IRA and it began to weaken in Ireland. The arrest of top IRA personnel in both the Republic and Northern Ireland like Máire Drumm, Seán Mac Stíofáin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Martin McGuinness in late 1972[5][6] helped to convince the IRA to bomb England to take the heat off of the IRA in Ireland.[7]
The IRA selected the
Bombing
Several days before the bombing, the leaders of the IRA ASU, which included sisters Marian and Dolours Price, went to London and picked out four targets: the
The Royal Ulster Constabulary warned the British that the ASU was travelling to England, but were unable to provide specifics as to the target.[11]
The drivers and the volunteers who were to prime the bombs woke up at 6:00 a.m. and drove the car bombs to their various targets. Gerry Kelly and Roy Walsh drove their car bomb to the Old Bailey. It was planned that by the time the bombs went off at around 15:00, the ASU would be back in Ireland. The bomb at New Scotland Yard was found at 8:30 by a policeman who noticed a discrepancy in the licence plate.[9][3] The bomb team started lifting out 5-pound (2.3 kg) bags of explosives and separated them, so that if the bomb did go off, the force of the explosion would be greatly reduced. The bomb squad eventually found the detonating cord leads, which ran under the front passenger seat of the car; Peter Gurney, a senior member of New Scotland Yard, cut the detonator cord leads, defusing the bomb.
However, at the Old Bailey the bomb exploded, injuring many and causing extensive damage. Scotland Yard stated it had warned the City of London Police at 14:01 to search near the Old Bailey for a green Ford Cortina; the car was not located until 14:35 and exploded at 14:49 while police were evacuating the area.[3] A shard of glass from the explosion is preserved as a reminder, embedded in the wall at the top of the main stairs. Several more people were injured by the car bomb near the Ministry of Agriculture, which brought the total number injured to over 200. A British man, 60-year-old Frederick Milton, died of a heart attack.[12]
Dolours Price wrote in her memoir: "There were warnings phoned in but people had stood about, curious to see... If people ignored the warnings and stood around gawking, they were stupid. The numbers of injured came about through curiosity and stupidity."[10] The ASU was caught trying to leave the country at Heathrow Airport prior to the explosions, as the police had been forewarned about the bombings and were checking all passengers to Belfast and Dublin. All ten gave false names that did not match their documents and they were detained. The IRA Volunteer who gave a warning about the bombs an hour before they exploded was the only one not captured.[9][3]
Court and sentence
The IRA volunteers had to be tried at Winchester Crown court sitting in
At the court, the judge sentenced the eight to life imprisonment for the bombings and 20 years for conspiracy, while 19 year old William McLarnon whose family was forced out of their home in August 1969 was sentenced to 15 years,[9] when his sentence was read out he shouted "Up The Provisional IRA".[1] As the eight were led to the cells below the court, several gave raised fist salutes to relatives and friends in the public gallery, who shouted "Keep your chins up" and "All the best". The Price sisters immediately went on hunger strike, soon followed by Feeney and Kelly, for the right not to do prison work and to be repatriated to a jail in Ireland. The bombers on hunger strike were eventually moved to jails in Ireland as part of the 1975 IRA truce agreed with the British. Kelly took part in the 1983 Maze Prison escape and became part of an IRA ASU in the Netherlands; he was recaptured three years later by the Dutch authorities and extradited.[13]
In 1984 Patrick Brady (36), a civilian milkman and brother of London bomber Martin Brady was murdered by the
Further IRA bombs in England
The Old Bailey bomb was the beginning of a sustained bombing campaign in England. The next major bombing by the IRA in England was the
One of the Old Bailey bombers Marian Price explained the IRA's reasoning for bombing England. "It doesn't seem to matter if it's Irish people dying." So if the armed struggle was to succeed then it was necessary to "bring it to the heart of the British Establishment" Hence symbolic targets such as the Old Bailey: "the targets were carefully chosen".[1]
Sources
- CAIN project
- Ed Moloney, Voices From The Grave: Two Men's War In Ireland
- Peter Taylor, Behind The Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein
References
- ^ ISBN 0195166051.
- ISBN 978-0716528951.
- ^ a b c d "Ten held after Provo bombs blast London". The Guardian. 9 March 1973. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ Melaugh, Martin (3 February 2006). "Frequently Asked Questions – The Northern Ireland Conflict". Conflict Archive on the Internet. Ulster University. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
- ^ Melaugh, Martin. "A chronology of conflict - November 1972". www.cain.ulster.ac.uk. Ulster University, CAIN Archive.
- ^ Melaugh, Martin. "A chronology of conflict - December 1972". www.cain.ulster.ac.uk. Ulster University, CAIN Archive.
- ISBN 1575000776.
- ISBN 9780141900698. Retrieved 1 August 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d Eder, Richard (16 November 1973). "8 Get Life Terms in London Blasts". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ a b Sawyer, Patrick; Graham, Bob (23 September 2012). "IRA bomber says Adams ordered terror attacks on London targets". Irish Independent. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ISBN 9781849549639. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ "Old Bailey bomber arrested over murder of two soldiers". The Daily Telegraph. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ a b "BBC ON THIS DAY: IRA gang convicted of London bombings". BBC News. 14 November 1973. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ Melaugh, Martin. "A chronology of conflict - November 1973". www.cain.ulster.ac.uk. Ulster University, CAIN Archive. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
- ^ Hunter, Austin (19 November 1984). "Funeral in West Belfast of 36 year old Paddy Brady shot dead last Friday (16.11.84) by the Ulster Freedom Fighters. At his Funeral Mass at St John's Church, Falls Road, Doctor Cahal Daly attacks all sectarianism in his sermon. Report by Austin Hunter and actuality of Doctor Daly". BBC Rewind. British Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
- ^ "Provisional IRA actions Part One (1969–1975)". www.memorialatpeninsula.org.[circular reporting?]
- ^ Melaugh, Martin. "A chronology of conflict - 1974". www.cain.ulster.ac.uk. Ulster University, CAIN Archive.