Guildford pub bombing

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Guildford Pub Bombing
Location	Horse and Groom Public House, Guildford, United Kingdom
Target(s)	Public house frequented by off-duty soldiers and civilians
Date	5 October 1974
Attack Type	Time bomb
Fatalities	5
Injuries	65
Perpetrator(s)	Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Guildford pub bombing occurred on 5 October 1974. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted a bomb in the Horse and Groom pub on North Street in Guildford which killed five people and injured 65.

An IRA active service unit, assumed by many to be the Balcombe Street Gang, 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, and thus chosen as targets by the IRA.

The bomb in the Horse and Groom caused the most casualties when it detonated without warning at 8.30 pm. Paul Craig, a 22 year old plasterer and four off-duty teenage soldiers of the Scots Guards and the Women's Royal Army Corps were killed in the blast. The Seven Stars was evacuated after the first blast, and so nobody was seriously hurt in the explosion there at 9.00.

Previous bombings in this campaign included the M62 Coach Bombing on 4 February 1974. 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. Gunner Richard Dunne and Alan Horsley, a sales clerk, died in that explosion. On 21 November 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. Several other bombings caused casualties and fear across Britain particularly in London, during the year long campaign.

1 The Guildford Four
2 The Dead
3 Notes
4 References

[edit] The Guildford Four

The 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 the war to Britain. In December 1974 the police arrested three men and a woman, later known as the Guildford Four of:

Gerry Conlon
Paul Hill
Patrick Armstrong
Carole Richardson

They were falsely convicted of the bombings in October 1975, and held in prison for fifteen years. Their convictions were later overturned in the appeal courts after it was proved the convictions had been based on confessions obtained under duress, whilst evidence clearing them was not reported by the police. 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. However, the IRA have never identified the true perpetrators of this attack.

The movie In the Name of the Father is based on these events. The building of the Horse & Groom still stands, although it is now a furniture shop.