Houses of Parliament 1974 bombing

Houses of Parliament 1974 bombing
Part of the Troubles

Smoke from the aftermath of the bombing
Location Houses of Parliament, London, England
Date 17 June 1974
08:30 (GMT)
Target Houses of Parliament
Attack type
 Time Bomb
Deaths 0
Non-fatal injuries
 11
Perpetrators Provisional IRA

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

Background

The Provisional IRA began a bombing campaign of mainland Britain in March 1973 when they bombed the Old Bailey court house injuring over 200 people.[4] 1974 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 & some family members on the M62, killing 12 people including 4 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 the 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 secuirity tight buildings. The attack signaled the start of a renewed IRA bombing campaing on the British mainland that was to last until late 1975 and was to claim the lives of dozens of people, the most notorious attacks of the 1974/75 bombing campaing were the Guildford pub bombings in October 1974 that killed 5 and injured 60, and the Birmingham pub bombings of November 1974 which killed 21 people and injured 180.[7][8]

Aftermath

The year 1974 ended with the IRA killing 28 people ( 23 civilians & 5 British soldiers) in bombing operations in mainland Britain, 21 people were killed in the Birmingham pub bombings & a further 7 were killed in the Guildford & Woolwich Pub bombings.[9] 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.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1974".
  2. ↑ "BBC ON THIS DAY - 17 - 1974: IRA bombs parliament".
  3. ↑ Finn, Christina. "On this day in 1974 the IRA bombed the Houses of Parliament in London".
  4. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  5. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  6. ↑ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=17&month=05&year=1974
  7. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  8. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  9. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
  10. ↑ Melaugh, Dr Martin. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1975".
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