And what better way to start off with the Provos very first operations in England - The 8th of March 1973 bombing of the Old Bailey. The video clip in this is a bit crap but its the only one I could find. It also says it happened on the 10th which is wrong it was the 8th of March. The IRA also killed a British soldier in Lower Falls the same day as the bombings. Okay the background to the bombing - By the start of 1973 a lot of top IRA lads were interned & after 1972 being a year of such high intensity warfare they knew they had to slow it down a bit or theyd soon run out of steam. So the leadership now with a new Chief of Staff after Sean MacStafoin was released from that role came up with a new strategy. They concluded that the people in England didnt really care what happened in the 6 counties aslong as it didnt effect them. And English people didnt really know what was happening in the 6 counties & in the words of Billy Mckee - It was time to force them to find out what was happening. So the date was set for the 8th of March 1973 & it was decided it would be a 11 person ASU who would carry out four separate car bomb attacks. By this time the car bomb was the IRAs weapon of choice & it really is a perfect weapon for urban guerrilla warfare. Of the 11 person ASU there was some people in it who are now very famous Republicans like the The 2 Price Sisters & Gerry Kelly. Gerry Kelly would shoot to fame after being caught in Holland in 1986 after escaping from the Maze 3 & a half years earlier. So the car bombs were primed & in place, 1 outside Scotland Yard, 1 outside Whitehall, 1 outside the Old Bailey & I forget where the other bomb was placed. So the ASU phoned in the usual warning to avoid civilians getting hurt & then left for the airport. The police found two of the bombs & defused them they were the ones at Scotland Yard & the location that I cant remember. But two of the bombs did explode the one at Old Bailey & the one at Whitehall. The Old Bailey bomb by far caused the most damage it injured 185 people & caused great damage to surrounding buildings & vehicles. The majority of the 185 people injured werent actual injured by the bomb itself they were injured by falling glass from the damaged buildings. Around 20 - 25 people were injured in the Whitehall bomb bringing the number of injured to over 200. The ASU was caught at the airport. Before the 11 stood trial 1 person of the unit pleaded guilty to get a lighter sentences & 1 woman in the unit gave her own comrades up & turned informer & gave information on them to English police all just to save her own skin. As soon as the remaining 9 got sentenced in early 1974 the Price Sisters went on Hunger Strike straight away for their demand to be met, the demand was to be moved to a jail in Ireland, Hugh Feeny & Gerry Kelly quickly joined these brave, brave woman. While on hunger strike all 4 were brutally force fed. But the operation was still a huge success. Every paper in Britain had this on their front page. The Suns cover said The Day The Ulster Troubles Came To London & it had a big picture of scene at the Old Bailey a few minutes after the bomb went off. It was the biggest thing to hit the London since the London blitz in the 1940s during WW2. And it proved what Republicans always believed 1 bomb in London is worth a 1000 in Belfast. And during the ceasefire of late 74 - mid 75 the IRA team negotiated the prisoners on hunger strike in English dungeons be moved to Long Kesh & Armagh Jail instead so the hunger strikers POW won their demands in the end after 205 days on hunger strike. https://youtube/watch?v=Y3JcvJH5hq8
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:40:38 +0000
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