La Mon Restaurant Bombing - Aftermath

Aftermath

The day after the explosion, the IRA admitted responsibility and apologized for the inadequate warning. The hotel had allegedly been targeted by the IRA as part of its firebomb campaign against commercial targets; however, the resulting carnage brought quick condemnation from the nationalist community with one popular newspaper comparing the attack to McGurk's Bar bombing seven years earlier. Sinn Féin's then president Ruairí Ó Brádaigh also strongly criticised the operation. As all the victims had been Protestant, Unionists rallied together and called for a return of the death penalty. In consequence of the botched attack, the IRA Army Council gave strict instructions to all units not to bomb buses, trains or hotels.

The same day, about 2000 people attended a lunchtime service organized by the Orange Order at Belfast City Hall. Belfast International Airport also shut for an hour, while many workers in Belfast and Larne stopped work for a time. Workers at a number of factories said they were contributing a half-day's pay to a fund for the victims.

A team of 100 RUC detectives was deployed in the investigation. As part of the investigation, 25 people were arrested in Belfast, including Gerry Adams. Adams was released from custody in July of 1978 and became President of Sinn Féin two months later. Two prosecutions followed. One Belfast man was charged with the twelve murders but was acquitted. He was convicted of IRA membership but successfully appealed. In September 1981, another Belfast man, Robert Murphy was given twelve life sentences for the manslaughter of those who died. Murphy was freed on licence in 1995 As part of their bid to catch the bombers, the RUC passed out leaflets which displayed a graphic photograph of a victim's charred remains.

The then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Roy Mason, who was criticized by loyalists for his complacent attitude to the attack, claimed that the explosion was "an act of criminal irresponsibility" performed "by remnants of IRA gangs". He also claimed that the IRA was on the decline.

Loyalist Michael Stone, who launched a televised gun and grenade attack against thousands of nationalist mourners attending the funerals of three IRA volunteers at Milltown Cemetery in 1988, claimed afterwards that the bombing of La Mon was one of his reasons for carrying out his attack. It resulted in the deaths of three men and a number of injuries.

In 2002, the Parliament of the United Kingdom considered starting a new inquiry but the proposal was not acted upon.