Edward O'Brien (Irish republican)

Edward O'Brien (born 18 September 1974, County Wexford, Ireland – died 18 February 1996) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member killed after a bomb he was carrying exploded prematurely on a London bus.

Background

O'Brien grew up in Gorey, County Wexford, with his parents and two siblings. As a child he attended the local national and secondary schools.[1] A keen sportsman he was a member of St Enda's GAA Club where he played football and hurling and also played for Gorey Rangers soccer club.[1] He also was regarded as a talented boxer, and worked in a bakery.[1]

Active service

Having joined the PIRA in 1992, he was described in an Irish Republican memorial book as a thoughtful and strong-willed young man who very serious about his commitment but frustrated about not playing a more active role in Irish republicanism.[1] Soon after he went to England to engage in paramilitary activity in an active service unit.[1] Documents later recovered from O'Brien's residence indicated he was working for the IRA in Britain early as August 1994, collecting information on targets, and assembling bomb-making equipment during a seventeen-month ceasefire.[2]

Death

O'Brien died on 18 February 1996, when an improvised explosive device he was carrying detonated prematurely on a number 171 bus in Aldwych, in central London.[3][4] The 2 kg semtex bomb detonated as he stood near the door of the bus.[2] A pathologist found O'Brien was killed "virtually instantaneously" having lost his legs, while two passengers and the driver (left permanently deaf) were injured in the explosion. Evidence suggested that the bomb exploded whilst O'Brien stood at the bottom of the stairs of the double-decker bus.[2][5]

During a police search of his London address 15 kg of semtex, 20 timers, 4 detonators and ammunition for a 9 mm Walther revolver were discovered, along with an incendiary device. The Walther pistol was discovered on him after his death.[2][6] The inquest into his death heard that O'Brien was likely responsible for a planting a similar bomb in a London telephone box on 15 February, but it was later deactivated by the police.[2]

The explosion occurred nine days after the London Docklands Bombing in which two people died. O’Brien was the first IRA volunteer to lose his life in the aftermath of the Docklands bombing, that signaled the end of the "cessation of military operations" ordered by the IRA leadership in 1994.[7][8]

O'Brien is buried in St Michael's Cemetery in Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tírghrá, National Commemoration Centre, 2002, paperback); p. 361; ISBN 0-9542946-0-2
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bennetto, J. Dead IRA man 'had hit-list' of bomb targets. The Independent, 17 April 1996.
  3. ↑ "Bomb blast destroys London bus". BBC News. 18 February 1996. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  4. ↑ English, Richard (2003). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Pan Books. p. 291. ISBN 0-330-49388-4.
  5. ↑ BBC News
  6. ↑ Lost Lives, ISBN 1-84018-504-X
  7. ↑ Peadar Whelan. "Ed O'Brien remembered". An Phoblacht. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  8. ↑ IRA Man: Talking with the Rebels by Douglass McFerran (ISBN 978-0275955915), page 8
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