07/07/05 London and the Past

July 8th, 2005 · No Comments

I was avoiding blogging about London. I believe the details are for the mainstream media or those directly involved – and I’m neither. I came across the following though, it may help to explain to non-Londoners why Londoners just carry on with everyday life even after something like yesterdays events. We’re used to bomb attacks. I lived in London for three years, though I’m no longer living there:

Here are some of the worst attacks on mainland Britain in the past 30 years. Most were related to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

February 1974: Bus carrying soldiers and families in northern England is bombed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twelve people killed, 14 hurt.

October-November 1974: Wave of IRA bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200.

July 1982: Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London’s royal parks kill 11 people and wound 50.

December 1983: IRA bomb at London’s Harrods department store kills six.

October 1984: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb which kills five people at hotel in English resort of Brighton during the Conservative Party’s annual conference.

December 1988: A Pan Am Boeing 747 crashes on the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard after a bomb on board explodes. Eleven people in Lockerbie are also killed.

September 1989: Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.

February 1991: The IRA fires mortar bomb at Prime Minister John Major’s London office. No one is injured.

April 1992: Huge car bomb outside Baltic Exchange in London’s financial district kills three people and wounds 91.

March 1993: Bombs in two litter bins in Warrington, northern England, kill two boys aged three and 12.

April 1993: IRA truck bomb devastates Bishopsgate area of London’s financial district, killing one and wounding 44.

February 1996: Two people die when IRA guerrillas detonate large bomb in London’s Docklands area.

March 2001: A powerful car bomb explodes outside the BBC’s London headquarters, wounding one man. Police say the Real IRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the IRA’s ceasefire, was behind the blast.

From www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050708/ATTACK3008/TPInternational/Europe