Guildford pub bombing

The Guildford pub bombing occurred on October 5, 1974. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted a bomb in the Horse and Groom pub in Guildford which killed five people and injured 44 or 65².

An IRA active service unit manufactured two 6lb gelignite bombs in London. One was placed in the Horse and Groom and the other in the Seven Stars pub nearby. Both pubs were popular with army personnel.

Both bombs exploded but only that in the Horse and Groom caused any casulaties. The five people to die included four soldiers and one civilian. The civilian was Paul Craig, a plasterer aged 22. The soldiers, all of whom were off-duty, were privates Ann Hamilton, John Hunter, William Forsyth, and Jean Slater.

Previous bombings in this campaign included the M62 coach bomb on February 4, 1974. A similar bomb to those used in Guildford, with the addition of shrapnel, was thrown into the Kings Arms pub in Woolwich on November 7, 1974. Gunner Richard Dunne and Alan Horsley, a sales clerk, died in that explosion. On November 21, 1974 two bombs exploded in Birmingham at the Tavern in the Town and the Mulberry Bush pubs killing 21 people and injuring over 150; these acts led to the conviction of the Birmingham Six.

These bombings were at the height of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. The Metropolitan Police were under enormous pressure to apprehend the IRA bombers who had brought terrorism to mainland Britain from Northern Ireland.

In December 1974 the police arrested three men and a woman, later known as the Guildford Four. They were convicted of the bombings in October 1975. Their convictions were later overturned in the appeal courts after it was proved the convictions were unsafe, with confessions obtained under duress.

During the trial of the Balcombe Street gang in February 1977 the four IRA men 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. They were never charged with these offences.

==Notes==BBC

Note 2: The Daily Telegraph

References

• The Guardian
• The Daily Telegraph
• [http://republican-news.org/archive/1998/May07/07balc.html An Phoblacht/Republican News, (May 7 1998)