1994 Dublin-Belfast train bombing

On 12 September 1994 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) planted a 1.5 kg bomb on the Belfast–Dublin train. It partially exploded as the train neared Dublin Connolly railway station, injuring two people.[1]

1994 Dublin-Belfast train bombing
Part of the Troubles
LocationDublin, Republic of Ireland
Date12 September 1994, 11:34am
Attack type
time bomb
Deaths0
Injured2
PerpetratorsUlster Volunteer Force

The Widow Scallans attack

Just a few months earlier in May 1994 the UVF tried to bomb a bar in Dublin's Pearse Street called the Widows Scallans where a Sinn Féin (SF) function was taking place to raise money for families of Provisional IRA prisoners. The UVF bombers were confronted by a member of the IRA's Dublin Brigade who the bombers shot and killed. Martin "Doco" Doherty" was 35 when he died and probably saved a lot of lives because of his actions. A second man was also injured by UVF gunfire. The UVF bomb failed to go off and nobody inside was hurt.[2]

Bombing

The device went off at 11.34 am as the 09:00 am train from Belfast was coming into Connolly Station, Dublin, just around the same time as a UVF spokesman was giving a telephone warning to Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail). Only the detonator of the bomb managed to explode causing only minor injuries to two women's legs and spaying other passengers with unexploded Powergel.[3] The Bomb was planted under a seat on the train. A Garda forensic expert said later that the bomb contained 2 kg of commercial explosive and could have caused serious casualties if it had detonated properly.[4]

The train had made five stops at stations north of the Irish border between Belfast and Newry so the bombers would not have had to enter the Republic of Ireland to plant the bomb.

At the time the then Irish Justice Minister, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, said intelligence reports warned of a 'dramatic' increase in the Loyalist "terrorist" threat in the wake of the IRA ceasefire. (Although this turned out be the last attack by Loyalists in Dublin) "It may well be an attempt to get a retaliation. But . . the republican movement have made a decision to go with the democratic process, and it would appear very strongly that nothing is going to deviate them from that." she said.

A UVF statement which came from Belfast said that the bombing was 'a warning to the Dublin government that Northern Ireland is still British and will not be coerced into a united Ireland'.[5]

Aftermath

Chris Hudson who was the Irish peace process's go-between, between the UVF & the Irish Government recalled, straight after the bombing, ringing the PUP (The UVF's political wing ) and shouting down the phone at them ... "a bomb on a fucking train, thanks very much!" but said he had to keep fighting for peace & an end to UVF violence. [6]

The UVF later said the bomb was put there "as a warning to the southern government that the Ulster people will not be engulfed into United Ireland by coercion, persuasion, force or political stealth". [7]

This was the last major attack carried out by the UVF during its paramilitary campaign that lasted from 1966 - 1994 and during which they began an on and off bombing campaign in Dublin in 1969,[8] the worst of which was the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 1974, in which 34 people were killed and about 300 injured.[9][10] On the 13 October 1994 the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) issued a statement which announced a ceasefire on behalf of all loyalist paramilitaries, noting that the "permanence of our cease-fire will be completely dependent upon the continued cessation of all nationalist/republican violence".[11]

See also

References
  1. AP Archive Ireland - Bomb On Train Arriving In Dublin: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/Ireland-Bomb-On-Train-Arriving-In-Dublin/63aea33772a8c90413e256f9acc931a3
  2. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=21&month=05&year=1994
  3. Jim Cusack & Henry McDonad - UVF:The Endgame (Fully Revised & Updated) pg.313
  4. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm#Sep
  5. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/two-injured-by-loyalist-shoebox-bomb-on-train-serious-casualties-avoided-as-denonator-explodes-in-1448441.html
  6. Jim Cusack & Henry McDonad - UVF:The Endgame (Fully Revised & Updated) pg.314
  7. Jim Cusack & Henry McDonad - UVF:The Endgame (Fully Revised & Updated) pg.313,314
  8. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch69.htm#5869
  9. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=17&month=05&year=1974
  10. http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/getting-their-retaliation-in-first-1969-and-the-re-emergence-of-paramilitary-loyalism/
  11. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/clmc131094.htm

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