Downing Street mortar attack

During the Troubles, as part of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) repeatedly used homemade mortars against targets in Northern Ireland. The most notable occasion was the 1985 Newry mortar attack which killed nine members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In the late 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was top of the IRA's list for assassination, following the failed attempt on her life in the Brighton hotel bombing. Plans to leave a car bomb on a street near Downing Street and detonate it by remote control as Thatcher's official car was driving by had been ruled out by the IRA's Army Council owing to the likelihood of civilian casualties, which some Army Council members argued would have been politically counter-productive. ==Preparation==

The Army Council instead sanctioned a mortar attack on Downing Street and, in mid-1990, two IRA members travelled to London to plan the attack. ==The attack==

in 1996 On the morning of 7 February 1991, Major's war cabinet, along with other senior government and military officials, were meeting at Downing Street to discuss the ongoing Gulf War. As well as Major, those present included politicians Douglas Hurd, Tom King, Norman Lamont, Peter Lilley, Patrick Mayhew, David Mellor and John Wakeham; civil servants Robin Butler, Percy Cradock, Gus O'Donnell and Charles Powell; and Chief of the Defence Staff David Craig. As the meeting began, an IRA member was driving the van to the launch site at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall, about from Downing Street. The third shell exploded in the back garden of 10 Downing Street, from the Cabinet Office, where the meeting was being held. On hearing the explosion, the cabinet ducked under the table for cover. Bomb-proof netting on the windows of the Cabinet Office muffled the force of the explosion, which scorched the back wall of the building, smashed windows and made a crater several feet deep in the garden. Once the sound of the explosion and aftershock had died down, Major said, "I think we had better start again, somewhere else." The room was evacuated and the meeting reconvened less than ten minutes later in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room. No members of the cabinet were hurt, but four people received minor injuries, including two police officers injured by flying debris. Immediately after the attack, hundreds of police officers sealed off the government district, from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square. Until 6 pm, civilians were kept out of the area as forensic experts combed the streets and government employees were locked in behind security gates. ==Aftermath==

The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack with a statement issued in Dublin, saying: "Let the British government understand that, while nationalist people in the six counties [Northern Ireland] are forced to live under British rule, then the British Cabinet will be forced to meet in bunkers". A further statement from the IRA appeared in An Phoblacht, with a spokesperson stating, "Like any colonialists, the members of the British establishment do not want the result of their occupation landing at their front or back doorstep ... Are the members of the British cabinet prepared to give their lives to hold on to a colony? They should understand the cost will be great while Britain remains in Ireland." The attack was celebrated in Irish rebel culture when the band The Irish Brigade released a song titled "Downing Street", to the tune of "On the Street Where You Live", which included the lyrics "while you hold Ireland, it's not safe down the street where you live". Major temporarily moved to Admiralty House while repairs of the bomb damage (mostly to the garden and exterior walls) were being completed. The attack led to the addition of guardhouses at the street ends as well as other less visible measures to further improve security of Downing Street. ==References==