Bloody Friday (1972) - Overview

Overview

In late June and early July 1972, a British Government delegation led by William Whitelaw held secret talks with the Provisional IRA leadership. As part of the talks, the IRA agreed to a temporary ceasefire beginning on 26 June. The IRA leaders sought a peace settlement that included a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland by 1975 and the release of republican prisoners. However, the British refused and the talks broke down. The ceasefire came to an end on 9 July.

"Bloody Friday" was the IRA's response to the breakdown of the talks. According to the IRA's Chief of Staff, Seán Mac Stíofáin, the main goal of the bombing operation was to wreak financial harm. It was a "message to the British government that the IRA could and would make a commercial desert of the city unless its demands were met". Some also saw it as a reprisal for Bloody Sunday in Derry six months earlier. The attack was carried out by the IRA's Belfast Brigade and the main organizer was Brendan Hughes, the brigade's Officer Commanding. A total of 22 bombs were planted and, in the resulting explosions, nine people were killed and a further 130 civilians injured, many horrifically mutilated. At the height of the bombing, the middle of Belfast "resembled a city under artillery fire; clouds of suffocating smoke enveloped buildings as one explosion followed another, almost drowning out the hysterical screams of panicked shoppers". Of those injured, 77 were women and children.

The Belfast Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings and said that it had given warnings to the security forces (through the local media) before the bombs exploded. It said that the press, the Samaritans and the Public Protection Agency "were informed of bomb positions at least 30 minutes to one hour before each explosion". Mac Stíofáin said that "It required only one man with a loud hailer to clear each target area in no time" and alleged that the warnings for the two bombs that claimed lives were deliberately ignored by the British for "strategic policy reasons". The security forces also received hoax warnings, which "added to the chaos in the streets". The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army only effectively cleared a small number of areas before the bombs went off. Furthermore, because of the large number of bombs in the confined area of Belfast city centre, people evacuated from the site of one bomb were mistakenly moved into the vicinity of other bombs.

Thirty years after the attack the IRA formally apologised for harming civilians.