bombing campaigns in Great Britain

bombing campaigns in Great Britain have been resorted to by militant Irish nationalists on a number of occasions since the 1880s. Based on the perception that Britain's presence in Ireland is primarily one of self‐interest, they have been intended to make the government believe that the cost of staying in Ireland is too high. This strategy has, however, never been successful. In particular the human casualties which have been the inevitable result have in general only strengthened British resolve and led to a clampdown on the separatists.

The first time the tactic was used was during the dynamite campaign of 1883 to 1885, initiated by Clan Na Gael. (An earlier explosion, at Clerkenwell, London, on 13 Dec. 1867, which had killed fifteen persons, was part of a bungled attempt to release a Fenian prisoner, rather than terrorism by bomb.) During the Anglo‐Irish War IRA units in England and Scotland attacked economic targets with firebombs. A bombing campaign in Britain, under the direction of Sean Russell, became the main strategy of the IRA in 1939, but this soon petered out. In the renewed Northern Ireland conflict since 1969 bombs in Great Britain were once again part of IRA strategy, causing enormous damage that increased the pressure to find a political solution, but came no nearer than earlier campaigns to forcing a unilateral British withdrawal.

Joost Augusteijn