Walsh joined the IRA in the wake of the
August 1969 riots in Belfast in which Bombay Street a Catholic/Nationalist area was burned to the ground by a Loyalist sectarian mob, 1,820 families (mostly Catholics) had to be evacuated and the
British Army sent in to keep the peace. Walsh joined the
Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA, which in 1973 was allegedly Commanded by
Gerry Adams at the time and Adams picked the 11-person
Active service unit (ASU) to carry out the
1973 London bombings. Walsh, along with
Gerry Kelly,
Hugh Feeney, sisters
Dolours Price and
Marian Price, and six others from the Belfast Brigade made up the rest of the ASU tasked with the London bombings. Initially six targets in London had been planned to bomb but this was scaled down to four targets, one of which had been picked to bomb was the
Old Bailey courthouse; this was the target Roy Walsh was selected to bomb. On 8 March 1973 at about 06:00, Roy Walsh and Gerry Kelly primed their
car bomb which weighed about 100 lb and drove to the Old Bailey, three other bombs were planted by other IRA volunteers around London and all timed to go off at roughly the same time. Before the bomb went off Walsh along with nine other members of his team were caught trying to leave the country at Heathrow Airport and detained there and then. The bomb at the Old Bailey exploded at 14:49 and injured between 180–200 people, one person died of a heart attack attributed to the bomb. At his trial on 14 November 1973, Roy Walsh received life imprisonment for the bombings and 20 years for conspiracy along with seven other IRA volunteers. Walsh along with several other IRA prisoners and dozens of inmates was involved in the
Albany Prison Riot in May 1983. Several prisoners, prison officers and one warder received minor injuries during the riot. ==Release==