seamus dubhghaill

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Tag Archives: Guildford Pub Bombings


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The Woolwich Pub Bombing

The Woolwich pub bombing is an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on the Kings Arms, a public house in Woolwich in southeast London, on November 7, 1974. Two people are killed in the explosion.

Standing at 1 Frances Street to the south of Woolwich Dockyard and the Royal Marine Barracks, and northwest of the Royal Artillery Barracks, the Kings Arms was built in the 19th century. In the 1881 census it is listed as the Kings Arms Hotel.

The pub is attacked by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on November 7, 1974, and two people are killed: Gunner Richard Dunne (aged 42), of the Royal Artillery (whose barracks are just 100 yards away), and Alan Horsley (aged 20), a sales clerk. A further 35 people, including the landlady, Margaret Nash, are injured. Echoing similar attacks in Guildford the previous month, a bomb, made of 6 lbs. of gelignite plus shrapnel, is thrown through a window into the pub.

Initially a left-wing extremist group called Red Flag 74 says it had placed the bomb, but responsibility is subsequently claimed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and specifically by part of the Active Service Unit apprehended in December 1975 at the Balcombe Street siege. Two of the Guildford Four are wrongfully charged in December 1974 with involvement in the Woolwich pub bombing, and their convictions in October 1975 are eventually quashed in 1989 after a long campaign for justice.

The bombing is most likely the work of the Balcombe Street ASU, which claims sole responsibility during the 1977 trial of four members apprehended at the siege and include Joe O’Connell, who states from the dock: 

“We have instructed our lawyers to draw the attention of the court to the fact that four totally innocent people – Carole Richardson, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill and Paddy Armstrong – are serving massive sentences for three bombings, two in Guildford and one in Woolwich, which three of us and another man now imprisoned, have admitted that we did.”

The other three members apprehended at the siege are Hugh Doherty, Eddie Butler and Harry Duggan. Liam Quinn (a US-born member) and Brendan Dowd are also active within the unit. Sentenced to life imprisonment, the “Balcombe Street four” serve 23 years in English prisons until transferred to Portlaoise Prison, County Laois, in early 1998. They are then released in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Neither the Woolwich bombing nor the wrongful imprisonments result in further charges or convictions. Three British police officers—Thomas Style, John Donaldson and Vernon Attwell—are charged in 1993 with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but each is found not guilty.

In continuation of a “troubles” overseas offensive, the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich are bombed by the IRA in December 1983.

On April 17, 2018, P2P Residential Limited obtains full planning permission to demolish the pub and redevelop it as 19 residential units, nine parking spaces and a replacement pub across the ground floor and basement.

Similar plans had been proposed in 2013. Permission was granted in 2015 for 12 residential units and a pub, but the then owner did not implement the consent. The pub is demolished for redevelopment in 2020. Following a 2022 planning application, a Tesco Express supermarket is opened on the ground floor of the building.


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The 1974 Houses of Parliament Bombing

The Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb the British Houses of Parliament on June 17, 1974, causing extensive damage and injuring eleven people.

The Provisional IRA begins a bombing campaign in England in March 1973 when they bomb the Old Bailey courthouse, injuring over two hundred people. The following year is the worst year of the Troubles outside of Northern Ireland. At the beginning of 1974, the IRA explodes a bomb on a coach carrying soldiers and some family members on the M62, killing twelve people, including four civilians. A month before the Houses of Parliament bombing, thirty-four people are killed in the Republic of Ireland in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974 carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force, an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland, the worst single incident of the conflict.

A man with an Irish accent telephones the Press Association with a warning given just six minutes before the device explodes. London police say a recognised IRA codeword is given. The bomb explodes in a corner of Westminster Hall at about 8:30 a.m. on June 17, 1974. The IRA in a telephoned warning says it planted the bomb that weighed approximately 20 lbs. (9.1 kg). The explosion is suspected to have damaged a gas main and a fire spreads quickly through the centuries-old hall in one of Britain’s most security-tight buildings. An annex housing a canteen and a number of offices is destroyed, but the great hall itself receives only light damage. The attack signals the start of a renewed IRA bombing campaign in England that is to last until late 1975 and is to claim the lives of dozens of people. The most notorious attacks of the bombing campaign are the Guildford pub bombings on October 5, 1974, that kill five and injure sixty, and the Birmingham pub bombings on November 21, 1974, which kill twenty-one people and injured one hundred eighty.

The year 1974 ends with the IRA killing twenty-eight people (twenty-three civilians and five British soldiers) in bombing operations in England. Twenty-one people are killed in the Birmingham pub bombings and a further seven are killed in the Guildford and Woolwich Pub bombings. Nearly three hundred people are injured from these bombings alone. The IRA calls off their bombing campaign in February 1975 but restarts it on August 27, 1975, with the Caterham Arms pub bombing which injures over thirty people. A week later, the IRA carries out the London Hilton bombing which kills two and injures over sixty.


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The Balcombe Street Siege Ends

balcombe-street-siege

The six-day Balcombe Street siege in London ends peacefully on December 12, 1975, after four Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen free their two hostages and give themselves up to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

In 1974 and 1975, London is subjected to a 14-month campaign of gun and bomb attacks by the Provisional IRA. Some 40 bombs explode in London, killing 35 people and injuring many more. The four members of what becomes known as the “Balcombe Street gang,” Joe O’Connell, Edward Butler, Harry Duggan and Hugh Doherty, are part of a six-man IRA Active Service Unit (ASU) that also includes Brendan Dowd and Liam Quinn.

The Balcombe Street siege starts after a chase through London, as the MPS pursues Doherty, O’Connell, Butler and Duggan through the streets after they had fired gunshots through the window of Scott’s restaurant in Mount Street, Mayfair. The four IRA men ultimately run into a block of council flats in Balcombe Street, adjacent to Marylebone station, triggering the six-day standoff.

The four men go to 22b Balcombe Street in Marylebone, taking its two residents, middle-aged married couple John and Sheila Matthews, hostage in their front room. The men declare that they are members of the IRA and demand a plane to fly both them and their hostages to Ireland. Scotland Yard refuses, creating a six-day standoff between the men and the police. Peter Imbert, later Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, is the chief police negotiator.

The men surrender after several days of intense negotiations between Metropolitan Police Bomb squad officers, Detective Superintendent Peter Imbert and Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Nevill, and the unit’s leader Joe O’Connell, who goes by the name of “Tom.” The other members of the gang are named “Mick” and “Paddy,” thereby avoiding revealing to the negotiators precisely how many of them are in the living room of the flat. The resolution of the siege is a result of the combined psychological pressure exerted on the gang by Imbert and the deprivation tactics used on the four men. The officers also use carefully crafted misinformation, through the BBC Radio news to further destabilise the gang into surrender. A news broadcast states that the British Special Air Service are going to be sent in to storm the building and release the hostages. This seems to deter the gang and they eventually give themselves up to the police.

The four are found guilty at their Old Bailey trial in 1977 of seven murders, conspiring to cause explosions, and falsely imprisoning John and Sheila Matthews during the siege. O’Connell, Butler and Duggan each receive 12 life sentences, and Doherty receives 11. Each of the men is later given a whole life tariff, the only IRA prisoners to receive this tariff. During the trial they instruct their lawyers to “draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences” for three bombings in Woolwich and Guildford. Despite telling the police that they are responsible, they are never charged with these offences and the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven remain in prison for 15 more years, until it is ruled that their convictions are unsafe.

After serving 23 years in English prisons, the four men are transferred to the high security wing of Portlaoise Prison, County Laois, in early 1998. They are presented by Gerry Adams to the 1998 Sinn Féin Ardfheis as “our Nelson Mandelas,” and are released together with Brendan Dowd and Liam Quinn in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement.


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The Guildford Pub Bombings

The Guildford pub bombings occur on October 5, 1974, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonate two 6-pound gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, southwest of London. The pubs are targeted because they are popular with British Army personnel stationed at the barracks in Pirbright. Four soldiers and one civilian are killed, while 65 others are wounded.

The bomb in the Horse and Groom pub detonates at 8:30 PM. It kills Paul Craig, a 22-year-old plasterer, two members of the Scots Guards and two members of the Women’s Royal Army Corps. The Seven Stars pub is evacuated after the first blast, and thus there are no serious injuries when the second bomb explodes at 9:00 PM.

These attacks are the first in a year-long campaign by an IRA Active Service Unit who are eventually captured after the Balcombe Street siege. A similar bomb to those used in Guildford, with the addition of shrapnel, is thrown into the Kings Arms pub in Woolwich on November 7, 1974. Gunner Richard Dunne and Alan Horsley, a salesclerk, die in that explosion. On August 27, 1975, the same IRA unit detonates a bomb in Surrey at the Caterham Arms pub which injures over 30 people. Surrey police say it is “a carbon copy of the Guildford bombs.”

The bombings occur at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Metropolitan Police Service is under enormous pressure to apprehend the IRA bombers responsible for the attacks in England. The bombings contribute to the speedy and unchallenged passing of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in November 1974.

In December 1974 the police arrest Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Patrick Armstrong and Carole Richardson, later known as the Guildford Four. The Guildford Four are falsely convicted of the bombings in October 1975 after the Metropolitan Police use the Prevention of Terrorism Acts to force false confessions. All four are sentenced to life in prison.

The Guildford Four are held in prison for fifteen years, although Gerry Conlon dies near the end of his third year of imprisonment. All the convictions are overturned years later in the appeal courts after it is proved the Guildford Four’s convictions had been based on confessions obtained by torture, while evidence specifically clearing the Four is not reported by the police.


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The M62 Coach Bombing

m62-coach-bombing

The M62 coach bombing occurs on February 4, 1974, on the M62 motorway in Northern England, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members. Twelve people, nine soldiers and three civilians, are killed by the bomb, which consists of 25 pounds of high explosive hidden in a luggage locker on the coach.

The coach has been specially commissioned to carry British Army and Royal Air Force personnel on leave with their families from and to the bases at Catterick and Darlington during a period of railway strike action. The vehicle departs from Manchester and is making good progress along the motorway. Shortly after midnight, when the bus is between junction 26 and 27, near Oakwell Hall, there is a large explosion on board. Most of those aboard are sleeping at the time. The blast, which can be heard several miles away, reduces the coach to a “tangle of twisted metal” and throws body parts up to 250 yards.

The explosion kills eleven people outright and wounds over fifty others, one of whom dies four days later. Amongst the dead are nine soldiers – two from the Royal Artillery, three from the Royal Corps of Signals, and four from the 2nd battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. One of the latter is Corporal Clifford Haughton, whose entire family, consisting of his wife Linda and his sons Lee (5) and Robert (2), also die. Numerous others suffer severe injuries, including a six-year-old boy, who is badly burned.

The driver of the coach, Roland Handley, is injured by flying glass, but is hailed as a hero for bringing the coach safely to a halt. Handley dies at the age of 76 after a short illness in January 2011.

Suspicions immediately fall upon the IRA, which is in the midst of an armed campaign in Britain involving numerous operations, later including the Guildford pub bombing and the Birmingham pub bombings.

Reactions in Britain are furious, with senior politicians from all parties calling for immediate action against the perpetrators and the IRA in general. The British media are equally condemnatory. According to The Guardian, it is “the worst IRA outrage on the British mainland” at that time, whilst the BBC describes it as “one of the IRA’s worst mainland terror attacks.” The Irish newspaper The Sunday Business Post later describes it as the “worst” of the “awful atrocities perpetrated by the IRA” during this period.

IRA Army Council member Dáithí Ó Conaill is challenged over the bombing and the death of civilians during an interview and replies that the coach had been bombed because IRA intelligence indicated that it was carrying military personnel only.

Following the explosion, the British public and politicians from all three major parties call for “swift justice.” The ensuing police investigation led by Detective Chief Superintendent George Oldfield is rushed, careless, and ultimately forged, resulting in the arrest of the mentally ill Judith Ward who claims to have conducted a string of bombings in Britain in 1973 and 1974 and to have married and had a baby with two separate IRA members. Despite her retraction of these claims, the lack of any corroborating evidence against her, and serious gaps in her testimony – which is frequently rambling, incoherent, and “improbable” – she is wrongfully convicted in November 1974.

The case against Ward is almost completely based on inaccurate scientific evidence using the Griess test and deliberate manipulation of her confession by some members of the investigating team. The case is similar to those of the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, and the Maguire Seven, which occur at the same time and involve similar forged confessions and inaccurate scientific analysis. Ward is finally released in 1992, when three Appeal Court judges hold unanimously that her conviction was “a grave miscarriage of justice,” and that it had been “secured by ambush.”