1972 • 22 February -
1972 Aldershot bombing The
Official Irish Republican Army carried out a
car bomb attack at the headquarters of the British Army's
16th Parachute Brigade and was claimed as a revenge attack for
Bloody Sunday. Seven civilian staff (mostly female cleaners) were killed and 19 were wounded.
1973 • 8 March -
1973 Old Bailey bombing - The
Provisional IRA conducted their first operations in England exploding two
car bombs in the center of London. One bomb exploded outside the
Old Bailey Courthouse, injuring 180 people and one man later died from a heart attack, the bomb exploded near
Whitehall injuring about 30 other people, bringing the total injured for the day to over 200. Eight members of the IRA team were convicted for their roles in the bombings & received long prison terms, including
Gerry Kelly and sisters
Marian and
Dolours Price. • 3 April - A bomb exploded at a London sorting office in Paddington. A caller claimed the bombing was carried out by a group called "The Avengers" and said that they were not the IRA, but did belong to the
Irish Republican movement. • 18 August - The
Provisional IRA began their first sustained bombing campaign in England, using mainly letter bombs sent by mail &
firebombs planted in major cities around England. Between the 18 August - 28 September more than 40 bombs exploded in London, Birmingham and Manchester, other bombs were found and defused, 29 people were injured from the bombing campaign. • 18 August - The IRA detonated two firebombs (incendiary devices) at Harrods Department store in London causing slight damage. • 20 August - The IRA planted three incendiary devices in shops in
New Street, Birmingham. No injuries. • 21 August - Book bombs were received at a number of locations including the Old Bailey, the
RAF Association in
Chiswick, the
Union Jack Club in Waterloo and the Northern Ireland Information Office in
Central London. Ten incendiary devices were also discovered at a number of West End stores as well as one at
Baker Street tube station (which was targeted again just over a week later), but none ignited. • 22 August - A book bomb exploded at the Conservative Central Office in Westminster. • 25 August - Two men were injured when an IRA bomb exploded in the
Bank of England in London. Another bomb was defused in a shop in
Oxford Street. • 27 August - An IRA letter bomb blew off the left hand of a female secretary in the British Embassy in Washington. • 29 August - The IRA planted two bombs in Solihull and an incendiary device in Harrods in London. • 30 August - Two Provisional IRA bombs exploded in
Solihull town centre causing large damage but no injuries. • September - The IRA detonate dozens of firebombs and letter bombs in cities around England during the month of September 1973 injuring over 20 people. • 2 September - Two incendiary devices planted by the IRA in Birmingham were defused, one in Sherlock Street and the other Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston. • 8 September - A bomb exploded at the ticket office in
London Victoria station, five people were injured in the blast. • 9 September - Several shops in Manchester were damaged by IRA firebombs. • 10 September -
King's Cross station and Euston station bombings The IRA detonated bombs at Kings Cross railway station and Euston railway station, 13 people were injured in total from both bombs. • 12 September - Two Police officers were injured when an IRA bomb exploded at the offices of the Royal Naval Association in London. A woman collapsed and died during an evacuation following a hoax bomb alert at Euston Station in London. • 13 September - An IRA bomb exploded at a Servicemen's headquarters in London. • 15 September - A Provisional IRA device exploded in Oxford Street, London. • 20 September - An IRA bomb exploded at the headquarters of the Duke of York barracks in
Chelsea, London injuring five people, three civilians and two soldiers. • 23 September - A
British Army Captain died trying to defuse an IRA bomb planted in Birmingham city on Highfield Road. Captain Ronald Wilkinson (30) a member of the Hereford-based Royal Army Ordnance Corps Inspection and Disposal Unit was seriously injured when the bomb blew up in his face while trying to defuse it on the 17 September 1973, he died six days later in hospital on the 23 September. He was the first person to be killed directly from a Provisional IRA bomb planted in England. • 2 October - An IRA firebomb caused damage to
Heathrow Airport, another bomb exploded at
Colchester,
Essex. • 4 October: Four people were injured when an IRA bomb exploded at a British Army careers office in London. • 18 December -
1973 Westminster bombing: A bomb exploded in Thorney Street, which leads off Horseferry Road. The bomb was planted in a car which was known to have been stolen in London, and was parked outside Horseferry House, a building occupied by the Home Office, and opposite Thames House, which is mainly occupied by the Department of Trade and Industry. Both these buildings, and others nearby, were extensively damaged. At least 40 people were injured. • 19 December - A person was injured when a postal device exploded at the GPO sorting office in London. • 23 December: In a number of incidents bombs exploded at
Kensington police station, Hammersmith offices of builders, George Wimpey and the White Lion public house on
Tottenham Court Road. • 24 December - The Provisional IRA left two packages which exploded almost simultaneously in the late evening on Christmas Eve. One was in the doorway of the North Star public house, at the junction of College Crescent and Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage, which exploded injuring six people, and the other exploded on the upstairs verandah of the nearby Swiss Cottage Tavern where an unspecified number of people were injured. • 26 December - One person was injured when a bomb exploded at the Stage Door public house in London. A telephone kiosk was also badly damaged by a blast at Sloane Square tube station. • 5 January - Two bombs exploded within three minutes of each other. The first at
Madame Tussauds, the second during the
Boat Show at
Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Police confirmed a telephone warning had been given shortly before both explosions allowing evacuations at both sites and there were no fatalities or injuries reported. It was later confirmed the devices had been planted by the IRA. • 6 January - IRA active service units left bombs outside two senior British Army generals' homes. A 30 lb bomb was defused outside the home of General
Sir Cecil Hugh Blacker and another exploded outside the empty home of Major General
Sir Philip John Newling Ward, causing damage but no injury. • 30 January - Three people were injured in three different IRA letter bombs. The first was sent to the Surrey residence of Judge Buzzard, the second to the
Hertfordshire residence of Rt. Hon.
Reginald Maudling. And the final device was sent to the offices of the
Daily Express in
Fleet Street, London. • 2 February - The British MP
Reginald Maudling had a letter bomb sent to his house by the IRA. It's believed the bomb was constructed by Shane Paul O'Doherty, an IRA expert bomb maker who sent dozens of letter bombs to England between 1973 and 1975. • 4 February -
M62 coach bombing An IRA bomb exploded aboard a bus carrying British soldiers and several of their family members in Yorkshire, killing nine soldiers and three civilians. At the time it was the highest number of deaths caused by an IRA bomb in England. A young woman named Judith Ward was wrongly convicted of this and other bombings in England and spent 18 years in jail until she was proven innocent in 1992 and released. • 12 February - The IRA exploded a 50 lb bomb at the
National Defence College at
Latimer,
Buckinghamshire. Ten people were injured in the blast. • 26 March - An IRA unit used 25 lbs of explosives to bomb the British Army
Claro Barracks in
North Yorkshire causing large structural damage to the barracks. • 9 April - Three IRA Volunteers shot dead John Stevenson, a
British Army Commanding Officer of the
All Arms Training Area in Otterburn British Army base, he was shot dead in his home near the base in
Northumberland, England. • 13 April - Kenneth Lennon was found shot dead in
Chipstead, Surrey. Nobody claimed responsibility for the killing but Lennon was an IRA informer who had been rumoured to have been working for M16, it's possible an IRA unit tracked him down & shot him. • 11 June - The IRA exploded a bomb at
Queen Elizabeth Barracks in
Strensall,
North Yorkshire causing extensive damage but no injuries or deaths. • 17 June -
Houses of Parliament 1974 bombing The Provisional IRA bombed the British Houses of Parliament causing extensive damage, a large fire and ended up injuring 11 civilians. • 14 July - The IRA carry out bombings in Birmingham and Manchester. • 15 July - The IRA carried out five attacks with incendiary devices around Birmingham and the
Black Country. An attack on the
Routunda building caused £250,000 worth of damages in broken glass whilst business's in
Smethwick,
Nechells &
Curzon Street were also targeted. • 23 July - IRA
1974 British Airways bombing attempt. No deaths or injuries. • 23 July - Two IRA firebombs destroyed two stores in Birmingham City. The first exploded at Maples furnishing store on
Corporation Street. The second exploded at Levins furniture store at
Sparkhill. Several other firebombs were found in a store in the
Hall Green area of Birmingham which were defused & made safe. • 26 July - As part of the IRA's Midlands campaign, a firebomb exploded at a shop-fitters at
Aston in Birmingham. The Harris and Sheldon building on corner of Priory Road in Aston sustained minor damage. • August - In August 1974 the
Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang was sent to London as "sleeper cells" awaiting instructions to start operations in London & surrounding areas like
Surrey &
Kent. • 5 October -
Guildford pub bombings The
Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang exploded two
time bombs in
Guildford pubs in
Surrey that were popular with local soldiers. Five people were killed at the Horse & Groom pub (4 soldiers & 1 civilian) and 65 others injured. This was the start of a sustained campaign by the IRA unit in London and southern England. • 11 October - IRA Bombs explode at
Victory Services Club and
Army and Navy Club. One injured. • 22 October -
Brook's bombing The IRA threw a bomb into Brook's club injuring three people. • 24 October - The IRA bombed a cottage in the grounds of
Harrow public school which used to house the head of the school's Combined Cadet Force, which was the bomber's target. Nobody was hurt in the attack. This was the first time the unit gave a telephoned warning before a bombing occurred. See:
Harrow School bombing • 5 November - An IRA bomb exploded at the
Conservative Party offices in
Edmund Street, Birmingham, injuring one person a security guard. Also on the same night a bomb exploded in the center of
Wolverhampton, but there were no injuries. • 14 November - James Patrick McDade, Lieutenant in the Birmingham Battalion, of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was killed in a premature explosion whilst planting a bomb at the Coventry telephone exchange in 1974. Along with the death of McDade another IRA Volunteer named Raymond McLaughlin was arrested near the scene of the bombing & was subsequently convicted for the Coventry bomb. There were three further IRA bomb explosions in England that day. The RAF Club in
Northampton was badly gutted by a firebomb, the Conservative Club in
Solihull was damaged by a bomb, and a timber yard in
Ladywood in Birmingham was also subjected to a bombing. • 21 November -
Birmingham pub bombings An IRA unit active in Birmingham planted two bombs in pubs in Birmingham city. The IRA warnings were too late and 21 people were killed in the explosions, a further 182 people were injured. A third bomb was planted in the city but defused. • 25 - 27 November -
1974 London pillar box bombings On 25 and 27 November 1974 the Provisional IRA placed several bombs in pillar boxes and one in a hedge behind a pillar box around London, including bombs at Tite Street, Piccadilly Circus, Victoria Street & Caledonian Road, 40 people were injured in total from the several bombs. • 30 November - The IRA threw two bombs into Talbots Arms pub in Little Chester Street, injuring eight people. See:
Talbot Arms pub bombing • 11 December - The IRA threw a bomb into the Long Bar of the
Naval and Military Club in
Piccadilly. Later on there was an IRA gun attack on the London
Cavalry Club. Nobody was hurt in either attack. • 14 December - The IRA carried out a gun attack on the
Churchill Hotel in London. Three people were injured in the attack. • 17 December - The IRA planted three time bombs at telephone exchanges in London. One person George Arthur (34) who worked as a post office telephonist was killed in the blast. • 18 December -
1974 Bristol bombing - Two IRA bombs exploded in
Bristol shops injuring 20 people. • 19 December -
Oxford Street bombing The Balcombe Street Gang used a
car bomb for the first time, outside
Selfridges department store on
Oxford Street. The bomb caused £1.5 million worth of damage. There was 100 lbs of high explosives in the car, the biggest bomb the IRA had used in England at that time. • 20 December - A bomb left by the IRA at a railway station in
Aldershot was defused. • 21 December - The IRA firebombed
Harrods department store. A second bomb at the King's Arms public house in
Warminster,
Wiltshire was defused. • 22 December - The IRA unit threw a bomb into the flat of former British Prime Minister
Edward Heath. Heath was not home at the time of the attack and there were no injuries. • 23 December - IRA Volunteer Ronnie McCartney a member of the IRA's
Southampton active service unit (formerly a member of a IRA London active service unit) while being chased by the police fired shots at three policemen in
Portswood, Southampton causing injury to one, Malcolm Craig. McCartney was eventually captured & spent 21 years in jail. Some 30+ years later the two men came face to face for a reconciliation meeting in a BBC documentary called "Facing The Truth" which former
South African Archbishop
Desmond Tutu mediated.
1975 • 19 January - The IRA's Balcombe Street unit fired shots into two hotels, first the
Carlton Tower Hotel was shot at & then the
Portman Hotel. 12 people were injured in total. • 23 January - The Balcombe Street gang exploded a time bomb at the Woodford Waterworks pumping station in North London. Three People were injured in the blast. • 27 January - The Balcombe Street Gang planted seven time-bombs at multiple spots in London. At 6:30 pm a bomb exploded at Gieves, in Old Bond Street. At 9:30 pm bombs exploded at the Moreson chemical plant in Ponders End and a disused gas works in Enfield. Only minimal damage was caused by these two bombs. Two further bombs exploded in Kensington High Street and Victoria Street. A warning was given of a bomb in Putney High Street and a British Army bomb-disposal officer was able to defuse the device. A warning was also given for a bomb in Hampstead and it was defused. Two people were injured from the Kensington High Street bomb. • 26 February -
Murder of Stephen Tibble -
Constable Stephen Tibble was shot dead by IRA volunteer
Liam Quinn while Tibble was chasing him. • 9 July - Three IRA Volunteers were arrested after a brief siege in
Hope Street, Liverpool. Det Sergeant Tom Davies was seriously injured when he was shot in the stomach by one of the IRA volunteers. Another officer received more minor injuries when an IRA volunteer fired at the Sergeant but the bullet ricocheted of the ground and hit Davies in the head. • 27 August -
Caterham Arms pub bombing The IRA bombed a soldiers' pub in Caterham,
Surrey. 33 people were injured including ten soldiers one of whom lost their leg. The Police said it was a carbon copy of the bombs used in
Guildford pubs back in October 1974. This was the beginning of a new sustained bombing campaign by the IRA in England. • 28 August - Seven people were injured when a bomb exploded at a Peter Browns Outfitters in Oxford Street, London. • 29 August - A bomb disposal officer
Roger Goad was killed in
Kensington, London outside a shoe shop trying to defuse a IRA booby-trap bomb • 30 August - A bomb exploded in the doorway of the National Westminster Bank in
High Holborn, no injures. • 15 September -
Pamela Onslow, Countess of Onslow was injured by a postal device at Chilcott Avenue, another person was person was injured by a similar device at Alcan Aluminium Ltd in London. • 29 October -
Trattoria Fiore bombing - 17 civilians are injured in an IRA bombing in a West End restaurant. • 3 November - Three people were injured including solicitor, Richard Charnley, when a bomb placed under his car exploded at Connaught Square, London.
1976 • 29 January - Twelve small bombs exploded overnight in London, starting several fires and injuring one person. Police later found a thirteenth bomb that had failed to go off. • 12 February -
Frank Stagg died after 62 days on hunger strike in
Wakefield Prison. • 13 February - Police defused a bomb found at
Oxford Circus station. • 1 March - IRA Volunteer Paddy Hackett is badly injured when a bomb he is carrying prematurely detonated at
Stanhope Gardens, Kensington, London, blowing off one of his arms and a part off one of his legs. • 4 March - Nine people were injured when a bomb exploded near
Cannon Street station, injuring eight passengers on a nearby train. The IRA released a statement: "We now issue a solemn warning to the British public. You have given the IRA the label of terrorist... Now we will act as terrorists." • 15 March - An IRA bomb exploded on a
Metropolitan line train at
West Ham station, on the
Hammersmith & City section of the line. The bomber, Vincent Donnelly, possibly took the wrong train and attempted to return to his destination. However, the bomb detonated prior to reaching the
City of London. Donnelly shot Peter Chalk, a
Post Office engineer, and shot and killed the train's driver Julius Stephen, who had attempted to catch the perpetrator. Donnelly then shot himself, but survived and was apprehended by police. • 27 March - A
bomb placed by the Provisional IRA exploded in a litter bin at the top of an escalator in a crowded exhibition hall,
Earl's Court. Over 15,000 people were attending the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition at the time. Over 80 people were injured, 4 people lost limbs.
1977 • 29 January - The Provisional IRA exploded seven bombs in
London's
West End, causing large structural damage to a number of buildings. A bomb on
Oxford Street inside
Selfridges Department Store set a huge fire to the premises. About £500,000 was caused in damages,
1978 • 17 December - Provisional IRA bombs exploded in Manchester, Liverpool, Coventry, Bristol and Southampton, a bomb that exploded at Maggs Department Store in Clifton, Bristol injured 18 people.
1979 • 17 February - The
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) bombed two pubs frequented by
Irish Catholics in
Glasgow,
Scotland. Both pubs were wrecked and a number of people were wounded. It said it bombed the pubs because they were used for Irish republican fundraising, both pubs strongly denied this. • 30 March - Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary
Airey Neave was killed as he left the
House of Commons car park by a booby-trapped
car bomb planted by the
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1979. The INLA released a statement in their monthly paper on the attack: , • 1 - 8 June - A number of letter bombs were sent to parts of Birmingham, injuring four postal workers in separate incidents, in the first week of June. • 13 December - Three more letter bombs exploded in Birmingham. ==List of actions/attacks 1980s==