IRA history

BettyP

Hi all was wondering if anyone has any info on the IRA presence in London in the late 80's early 90's? I know the presence was heavy so wondering how they operated there and organised their campaign

Peregrinus

I'm not sure how you "know the presence was heavy" in London in the late 80s/early 90s. By that time the IRA was operating as a very lean structure indeed, with a mimimal number of volunteers on active service at any time. They had a significant impact in London - e.g. the Bishopsgate bombing in 1993, tthe Docklands bombing in 1996 - but I doubt that they had a large presence.

There's at least two books on the IRA that cover the period - Ed Molony's Secret History of the IRA and Richard English's Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. I've not read either book, I'm afraid, and I don't know how each of them strikes a balance between coverage of operational matters versus coverage of the broader political issues. Moloney is a journalist; English an academic historian, so no doubt that will also influence how they approach the material.

There was also a 1995 book - Fighting for Ireland? The Military Strategy of the Irish Republican Movement by MLR Smith. But it covers the entire history of the IRA from 1913, and I don't know how much attention it pays to the relatively short period, and specific location, that you are interested in, which comes right about the time the book was published. I also don't know whether it's still in print, but no doubt you could get it through a library.

BettyP

Hii thanks for the reply..think I need to rephrase. Their numbers may not have been high but the presence had a huge effect especially in 1992 ..from my research there was a significant number of bombings. However im really interested in how their members incorporated the cause into their own lives...did they relocate to London and work leading a seemingly normal life in secret from family...did various people travel over and back carrying out the attacks...

Del.Monte

BettyP wrote: »

Hii thanks for the reply..think I need to rephrase. Their numbers may not have been high but the presence had a huge effect especially in 1992 ..from my research there was a significant number of bombings. However im really interested in how their members incorporated the cause into their own lives...did they relocate to London and work leading a seemingly normal life in secret from family...did various people travel over and back carrying out the attacks...

Given that they don't want a truth commission you expect them to reveal all on Boards.ie

jonniebgood1

they operated in small closed cells and the personell in the cell were incorporated into "normal" life so as not to raise suspicions. this type of cell structure developed to reduce the chances of moles infiltrating and destroying their plans.

riffmongous

BettyP wrote: »

Hii thanks for the reply..think I need to rephrase. Their numbers may not have been high but the presence had a huge effect especially in 1992 ..from my research there was a significant number of bombings. However im really interested in how their members incorporated the cause into their own lives...did they relocate to London and work leading a seemingly normal life in secret from family...did various people travel over and back carrying out the attacks...

There is a chapter in Bandit Country about the involvement of the South Armagh Brigade in the bombings on the UK mainland. A lot of it is just logistics, as many of the bombs were made in Armagh and then smuggled into England, either on a lorry or by freight, but there is a story about one Volunteer who was sent over from South Armagh after the arrest of two other men, you can read parts of the story here link

He essentially led a double life, with a family back in Armagh where he lived between trips to England for work.

BalcombeSt4

The 1988 Inglis barrack bombing which killed one & injured 10 soldiers was the first IRA bomb to go off in England in four years since the Brighton Hotel bomb 1984 & was the begining of a new bombing campaing in England.
They destroyed Clive Barracks a few months later in 1989 in Ternhill, nobody was hurt tho.
11 Royal Marines were killed in the Deals Barracks attack in late 1989.
In November two soldiers were injured when a carbomb exploded outside their barracks in Colchester.
Then in 1990 they bombed a few more of these barracks & British Army recruitment centers, sometimes injuring people sometimes not.
In June they shot 3 off-duty soldiers at Lichfield station, killing one.
They bombed the Carlton Club a few weeks later injuring 20 & Lord Kaberry died of his injuries.
In July they bombed the London Stock Exchange.
There was the Downing Street attack in February 1991.
About a week later there was the Victoria station bombing which injured 49 people & killed one.
In 1992 they bombed London Bridge station injuring 30 people
A few weeks later they bombed the Baltic Exchange.
The 1st Manchester bombing happened in 1992.
The INLA also shot dead a Army recruitment officer in Derby & firebombed shops in Leeds around this time.
In 1993 Warrington was bombed and 2 small chlderen were killed.
There was also the Bishopsgate bombing in 1993
In 1994 mortars were fired at the runway of Heathrow.
And in 1996 there was the Docklands & Manchester bombings.

But there was bombings happening all the time in between these major ones, hundreds went off in the six years between 1988 - 1994.

I know atleast one of the units they used who carried out a series of "litter bin bombings" in 1993 were Marxist militants who were 100% English with no connections to Ireland. They got caught on CCTV bombing a bin outside Harrods in 1993.

BalcombeSt4

BettyP wrote: »

Hii thanks for the reply..think I need to rephrase. Their numbers may not have been high but the presence had a huge effect especially in 1992 ..from my research there was a significant number of bombings. However im really interested in how their members incorporated the cause into their own lives...did they relocate to London and work leading a seemingly normal life in secret from family...did various people travel over and back carrying out the attacks...

The time period might not be right but there's a good chapter in Ed Moloney's Voices Frome The Grave - Two Men's War In Ireland were brendan hughes while talking to Boston College describes how the Old Bailey bombing was carried out.

...it was a Belfast Brigade initiative that brought about the London bombings. It was ourselves (The IRA Belfast Brigade]] who planned, organised and recruited for the London bombings . . .the initial idea was discussed at Belfast Brigade meetings with myself, Gerry Adams, Ivor Bell, Pat McClure, Tom Cahill, basically that group of people. We would have been the main people in the Belfast Brigade at the time . . . No one dissented. At that particular period, everyone knew we had to step up the war and bring the war to England, and I can’t remember anybody dissenting from that . . .

Once the decision was made, the next thing was to pick who would go . . . we ordered people from different units within Belfast to come to a call house in the Lower Falls . . . Myself and Gerry Adams were there and it was put to these Volunteers that there was a job planned; it was a very dangerous job . . . [it] would mean
being away from home for a while; [it] would mean ''being out ofBelfast for a while. They were not told that they were going to England [and] after the talk people were invited to either stay or leave. Twelve or so did. Those who remained were the two Price sisters, Hugh Feeney, Gerry Kelly, Gerry Armstrong and Roy Walsh.It was put forcefully to them that the operation was extremely dangerous, [there was] a possibility of their being killed, arrested and not returning to their homes. Then they were told what the operation was.

They were then sent across the border for intensive training in explosives . . . weapons and so forth, for about three weeks. Then the cars had to be acquired – there was a special squad put together. Pat McClure was in charge of that, taking them across the border. After that, I had no contact with them because the operation was starting from across the border. I was [Brigade] Operations Officer at that time and once the people were picked, once they were moved across
the border, Pat McClure took over . . .We didn’t intend to kill people in London. The intention was to strike at the heart of the British Establishment . . . if the intention had been to kill people in London, it would have been quite easy to do so, quite simple, but our intentions were not to kill people . . .what we should have done was to bury the team in England [afterwards]. When I say ‘bury the team’, we should have arranged hiding places for them there. The mistake we made was to get the bombs in and get the people out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately the British got onto the bombs too quickly and arrested our people
coming back. Our idea was a simple one, get the people in, get theexplosives in and get our Volunteers out . . . It was like that with the bombing campaign in Belfast or Derry or wherever: put the bomb in, run back, always plan your run back. And we went with that simple idea. In hindsight it was obviously the wrong one. [Maybe]
if the British hadn’t got onto the bombs so quickly it would have been the right idea "

tac foley

'They destroyed Clive Barracks a few months later in 1989 in Ternhill, nobody was hurt tho.'

PIRA destroyed one accommodation block at Tern Hill. The rest of the four hundred acre airfield site was untouched.

tac