1974 Houses of Parliament bombing

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Houses of Parliament bombing
Part of the Troubles
Location Houses of Parliament, London, United Kingdom
Date17 June 1974
08:30 (GMT)
Target Houses of Parliament
Attack type
 Time Bomb
Deaths0
Injured11
Perpetrators Provisional IRA

On 17 June 1974 the Provisional IRA bombed the British Houses of Parliament causing extensive damage and injuring eleven people. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Background

The Provisional IRA began a bombing campaign in England in March 1973 when they bombed the Old Bailey court house, injuring over 200 people. [4] The following year was the worst year of the Troubles outside of Northern Ireland: at the beginning of 1974 the IRA exploded a bomb on a coach carrying soldiers and some family members on the M62, killing 12 people including four civilians. [5] A month before the Houses of Parliament bombing, 34 people were killed in the Republic of Ireland in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974 carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force, the worst single incident of the conflict. [6]

Bombing

A man with an Irish accent telephoned the Press Association with a warning given just six minutes before the device exploded. London police said a recognised IRA codeword was given. The bomb exploded in a corner of Westminster Hall at about 08:30 am on 17 June 1974. The IRA in a telephoned warning said it planted the bomb that weighed around 20 lb (9.1 kg). The explosion is suspected to have damaged a gas main and a fire spread fast through the centuries-old hall in one of Britain's most security-tight buildings. [2] An annex housing a canteen and a number of offices was destroyed, but the great hall itself received only light damage. [7] The attack signaled the start of a renewed IRA bombing campaign in England that was to last until late 1975 and was to claim the lives of dozens of people. The most notorious attacks of the bombing campaign were the Guildford pub bombings in October 1974 that killed five and injured 60, and the Birmingham pub bombings of November 1974, which killed 21 people and injured 180. [8] [9] [ failed verification ]

Aftermath

The year 1974 ended with the IRA killing 28 people (23 civilians and 5 British soldiers) in bombing operations in England. 21 people were killed in the Birmingham pub bombings and a further 7 were killed in the Guildford and Woolwich Pub bombings. [10] Nearly 300 people were injured from these bombings alone. The IRA called off their bombing campaign in February 1975 but restarted it in August 1975 with a bombing in a Caterham pub which injured over 30 people. A week later the IRA carried out the London Hilton bombing which killed 2 and injured over 60. [11]

See also

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The Official IRA's Belfast Brigade was founded in December 1969 after the Official IRA itself emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. The "Officials" were Marxist-Leninists and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF). The Brigade like the pre-split IRA brigade before the split had three battalions, one in West Belfast, one in North Belfast and the third in East Belfast. The Belfast Brigade was involved in most of the biggest early confrontations of the conflict like the Falls Curfew in 1970, the battles that followed after the introduction of Internment without trial in 1971 and Volunteers joined forces with the Provisional brigade to fight the British Army and UVF during the Battle at Springmartin in 1972. The first Commanding Officer (CO) of the brigade was veteran Billy McMillen who fought during the IRA Border Campaign. Shortly after the death of Official IRA Belfast "Staff Captain" Joe McCann in April 1972, the battalion structure of the brigade was done away with and command centralized under McMillen.

The following is a timeline of actions during The Troubles which took place in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1998. It includes Ulster Volunteer Force bombings such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974, and other Loyalist bombings carried out in the 1970s, 80s & 90s, the last of which was in 1997. These attacks killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more. Also actions carried out by Irish Republicans including bombings, prison escapes, kidnappings, and gun battles between the Gardaí (police) and the Irish Defence Forces against Republican gunmen from the Irish National Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and a socialist-revolutionary group, Saor Éire. These attacks killed a number of civilians, police, soldiers, and Republican paramilitaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Barracks bombing</span> 1981 IRA attack in London, England

The Chelsea Barracks bombing was an attack carried out by a London-based Active Service Unit (ASU) of the Provisional IRA on 10 October 1981, using a remote-controlled nail bomb. The bomb targeted a bus carrying British Army soldiers just outside Chelsea Barracks. The blast killed two civilians and injured 40 people, among them 23 soldiers.

This is a timeline of the events and actions during the Troubles that were carried out in Great Britain, the vast majority of which were carried out by Irish Republican paramilitaries mainly the Provisional IRA were by far the most active but both the Official IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, also carried out a number of attacks, which included bombings and shootings. Ulster Loyalist paramilitary groups also carried out a small number of violent actions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talbot Arms pub bombing</span> 1974 bombing in England

The Talbot Arms pub bombing took place on 30 November 1974, and was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Eight people were injured in the attack, which involved the IRA throwing homemade bombs through the pub's window. Only one of the devices exploded; the other was taken as evidence and used to discover how the unit assembled its devices.

References

  1. ↑ Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1974".
  2. 1 2 "BBC ON THIS DAY - 17 - 1974: IRA bombs parliament". BBC News . 17 June 1974.
  3. ↑ Finn, Christina. "On this day in 1974 the IRA bombed the Houses of Parliament in London". TheJournal.ie .
  4. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  5. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  6. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  7. ↑ Times, Alvin Shuster Special to The New York (18 June 1974). "Bomb in London Damages Oldest Hall of Parliament. (Published 1974)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  8. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  9. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  10. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  11. ↑ Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1975".


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