1985 Newry Mortar Attack - Aftermath

Aftermath

The day was dubbed "Bloody Thursday" by the British press. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher described the attack as "barbaric", while Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald said it was "cruel and cynical", and pledged the help of Irish security forces to catch those responsible. Although not involved in the attack, Newry IRA member Eamon Collins was arrested shortly afterwards and interrogated. After five days of questioning, Collins broke under interrogation and turned supergrass, leading to more than a dozen arrests of other IRA members. The attack prompted calls from Unionist politicians to "increase security", and the British government launched a multi-million pound programme of construction to protect bases from similar attacks. This involved installing reinforced roofs and building blast-deflecting walls around the base of buildings.

After the successful attack on Newry, the IRA carried out a further nine mortar attacks in 1985. On 4 September an RUC Enniskillen, County Fermanagh training centre was attacked, and 30 cadets narrowly escaped death due to poor intelligence gathering by the IRA unit responsible. The cadets were expected to be lying in bed asleep, but were instead eating breakfast when the bombs landed. In November 1986 the IRA launched a second attack at the RUC station in Newry, but the bombs fell short of their target and landed on residential houses. A four-year-old Catholic girl was seriously wounded and another 38 people injured, prompting the IRA to admit "this incident left us open to justified criticism".