The Guildford pub bombings occurred on Saturday 5 October 1974 when the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
(IRA) detonated two
gelignite
Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and Potassi ...
bombs at two
pubs
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
in
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The pubs were targeted that evening because they were popular with
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
personnel stationed at
Pirbright barracks. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. Sixty-five people were wounded.
The bombings
In 1974, a number of pubs in Guildford town centre were known to be "army pubs", frequented by military personnel stationed in the area. These included the Horse & Groom on North Street, The Seven Stars in Swan Lane, and the Three Pigeons on the High Street.
The
Provisional IRA Army Council had authorised attacks in England at a meeting in 1973, and army pubs were viewed as
soft military targets.
The bomb in the Horse & Groom, thought to have been planted by a "courting couple" who have never been identified, detonated at 8.30pm, killing a civilian (Paul Craig), two members of the
Scots Guards
The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642 in the Ki ...
(William Forsythe and John Hunter) and two members of the
Women's Royal Army Corps
The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992 except medical, dental and veterinary officers and chap ...
(Privates Ann Hamilton and Caroline Slater). The Seven Stars was evacuated after the first blast, and a second bomb exploded at 9pm while the
pub landlord and his wife were searching the pub. The landlord sustained a fractured skull and his wife a broken leg, and five members of staff and one customer who had just stepped outside received less serious injuries.
These attacks were the first in a year-long campaign by an IRA
active service unit
An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Clandestine cell system, cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were i ...
who became known as the
Balcombe Street Gang – whom police arrested in December 1975 after the
Balcombe Street siege
The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the ...
leading to their trial and conviction for other murders and offences. A similar bomb to those used in Guildford, with the addition of shrapnel, was thrown into the
Kings Arms pub in Woolwich on 7 November 1974. A soldier and a civilian died in that explosion.
The Guildford bombings occurred only five days before the
October 1974 United Kingdom general election
The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year; the first year in which two general elections had been held ...
. As all parties felt obliged to respond to the events, they contributed to the speedy and unchallenged passing of the
Prevention of Terrorism Acts in November 1974.
The Guildford Four
The bombings were at the height of
the Troubles
The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...
in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. The
Metropolitan Police were pressured to apprehend the IRA bombers responsible for the attacks in England. In December 1974, the police arrested three men and a woman, later known as the
Guildford Four
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974 ...
.
[ One of the four, Gerry Conlon, had been in London at the time of the bombings, and had visited his mother's sister, Annie Maguire. A few days after the Guildford Four were arrested, the Metropolitan Police arrested Annie Maguire and her family, including Conlon's father, Patrick "Giuseppe" Conlon – the "]Maguire Seven
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. ...
".[
The Guildford Four were wrongfully convicted of the bombings in October 1975 and sentenced to life in prison. The Maguire Seven were wrongfully convicted of providing bomb-making material and other support in March 1976 and sentenced to terms varying between four and fourteen years.][
The Guildford Four were held in prison for fifteen years, while Giuseppe Conlon died near the end of his third year of imprisonment. All the convictions were overturned years later in the appeal courts after it was proved the Guildford Four's convictions had been based on confessions obtained by torture (as were some Maguire Seven confessions), whilst evidence specifically clearing the Four was not reported by the police.][McKee G, Franey R, ''Time Bomb'', 1988, pp. 426–36, Bloomsbury Publishing, ]
During the trial of the Balcombe Street Gang in February 1977, the four IRA members instructed their lawyers to "draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences" for three bombings in Woolwich and Guildford. The Balcombe Street Gang were never charged with these offences. The 1993 film ''In the Name of the Father
''In the Name of the Father'' is a 1993 biographical crime drama film co-written and directed by Jim Sheridan. It is based on the true story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the 1974 Guildford pub bombings that killed fo ...
'' is based on these events.
Aftermath
The London-based IRA active service unit's next attack was the Woolwich pub bombing on 7 November 1974, two people were killed in this attack, one soldier and a civilian who worked in the pub, over 30 people injured. Two of the Guildford Four were also convicted of this attack.
The Horse & Groom, the most heavily damaged pub, was repaired and reopened a few months later (and was given Grade II Listed Building status in 1988 for its 17th century rear) but was closed and boarded up in 1992, and the building has subsequently been used as a soft furnishing store. A memorial plaque bearing the names of those killed in the pub bombing is attached to the entrance arch of Quakers' Acre, a public garden square on the opposite side of the street.
See also
* Chronology of Provisional IRA actions
* List of public house topics
References
Sources
BBC report on the attacks
bbc.co.uk, 5 October 1974; accessed 23 October 2015.
''The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London'' – Second Edition by Steven P. Moysey – Author
{{The Troubles
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