Bloody Friday

 

 

Bloody Friday is the name given to the bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) Belfast Brigade in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 21, 1972. The bombings were part of a concerted bombing campaign carried out by the Provisional IRA against economic and military targets in Northern Ireland. The group carried out a total of 1,300 bombings in 1972.

[edit] Overview

A total of 22 bombs were planted and, in the resulting explosions, nine people were killed and a further 130 seriously injured. Warnings were given by the IRA via the local media to the security forces before the bombs exploded with 30 minutes' warning given for the first bombing and around 70 minutes' warning for the last bomb. The IRA leader, Sean MacStiofain, claimed that the warnings were ignored by the British Army to cause civilian casualties that would discredit the IRA^{[citation needed]}, however this is not widely deemed to be credible. Along with some accurate warnings which were given by the PIRA, two more hoax warnings were called in, which impeded the evacuation of the area. As a result, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army only effectively cleared a relatively small number of areas before the bombs went off. In addition, because of the large number of bombs in the confined area of Belfast city centre, people evacuated from the site of one bomb were accidentally moved into the vicinity of other bombs.

Thirty years after the killings the IRA issued a statement of apology.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Friday_%281972%29)

 

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