2001 Ealing bombing
| 3 August 2001 Ealing bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Dissident Irish Republican campaign | |
 The damage caused by the bombing | |
| Location | Ealing, London, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°30′50″N 0°18′08″W / 51.5140°N 0.3021°WCoordinates: 51°30′50″N 0°18′08″W / 51.5140°N 0.3021°W |
| Date |
3 August 2001 12:02 am – (UTC+1) |
| Target | Ealing Broadway |
Attack type | Car bomb |
| Deaths | 0 |
Non-fatal injuries | 7 |
| Perpetrators | Real IRA |
On 3 August 2001, the Real IRA, a dissident Irish republican organisation and splinter of the Provisional IRA, detonated a car bomb containing 45 kg of explosives in Ealing Broadway, West London, England. The bomb was in a grey Saab 9000 which exploded at around midnight,[1] injuring seven people. Debris caused by the bomb spread more than 200 m (220 yd).[2] Apart from the damage caused directly by the explosion, further extensive damage to property in the adjacent Ealing Broadway shopping centre was caused by flooding arising from the water main under the car bomb being ruptured. Around £200,000 of damage was caused.[1]
Experts regarded the bomb to be designed to look spectacular on CCTV for the purposes of 'armed propaganda' rather than to cause large numbers of injuries.[3]
The bombing was the last Irish republican bombing on British soil outside Northern Ireland, of whom dissidents have waged an armed campaign since the Belfast peace agreement was signed in 1998, ending the Troubles.
Aftermath and conviction
The attack came months after the Real IRA bombed the BBC Television Centre. After Ealing, the bombers targeted a new attack on Birmingham on 3 November, but which ultimately failed. In November 2001, three men – Noel Maguire, Robert Hulme and his brother Aiden Hulme – were arrested in connection with the three bomb attacks.
They were all later convicted at the Old Bailey on 8 April 2003. Robert and Aiden Hulme were each jailed for 20 years. Noel Maguire, who the judge said played "a major part in the bombing conspiracy", was sentenced to 22 years.
Two other men, James McCormack, of County Louth, and John Hannan, of Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh, had already admitted the charge at an earlier hearing. McCormack, who played the most serious part of the five, the judge said, was jailed for twenty-two years. John Hannan, who was seventeen at the time of the incidents, was given sixteen years detention.
See also
Notes
- 1 2 "BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 2001: Car bomb in west London injures seven". BBC News. London: BBC. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ↑ "Car bombers rock west London". BBC News. 3 August 2001.
- ↑ "Ealing bomb 'was propaganda ploy' | UK news | The Observer". The Guardian. London: GMG. 12 August 2001. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
External links
- "2001: Car bomb in west London injures seven". BBC News.
- "Real IRA bombers jailed". BBC News. 9 April 2003.
- "Two admit Real IRA bomb plot". The Scotsman. 23 January 2003.