by Ken Wharton
THE TWO ROYAL PARKS BOMBING IN JULY 1982
London boasts eight Royal Parks, which cover 5,000 acres of parkland. Since the days of empire two of them have been associated with the military: Hyde Park and Regent’s Park.
Hyde Park
On a sunny July day in 1982, the blood of human beings was mixed with the blood of dead and dying horses as two palls of smoke hung over London. On the morning of 20 July, a bomb – allegedly made by John Downey – was placed in a blue Austin car parked alongside the route of soldiers and horses of the Blues & Royals. The occupants walked away, carefully unrolling a command wire, covering it with brush and any other park debris that they could find. One of the team stood close to a tree with an excellent field of observation, holding the trigger to the deadly device.
A little before 11.00 hours, a procession containing sixteen men and horses of the Household Cavalry (Blues & Royals) rode past the Austin, their breastplates gleaming in the summer sunshine. As they passed within 8ft of the car, the device exploded in a huge flash; the blast devastated the formation, showering men and horses with nails as well as red-hot razor-sharp shrapnel; horses and men were hurled into the air. Two soldiers and several horses were killed instantly; two other soldiers were fatally wounded, one dying later that day, another three days later. There was a sound which eyewitness described ‘... as like thunder’. Seconds later, there was a crash as glass shattered in nearby windows, and then came the cries of pain and anguish. Spectators who had been watching the daily parade were now prostrate on the ground; horses that had been trotting past were now bloodied heaps in the road; a lone soldier attempted to crawl across the road on all fours, while other soldiers remained ominously still.
The Austin car was now in flames, with two other parked cars that had been hurled into the air by the explosion merely tangled metal, one on top of the other. Two Guardsmen were dead, two more were dying, others were injured badly; twenty-three of the civilian onlookers were also hurt. Some of the horses lay dead, but others were in a terrible state, grievously wounded by the blast. Within minutes, ambulances began to arrive in convoys, as police struggled to seal off the area. More vehicles began to arrive in a strange rerun of the 1940 Dunkirk small boats miracle, as taxi drivers, lorry and van drivers all appeared on the scene to help the injured. Striking nurses at a nearby hospital threw down their banners and ran to help the wounded. One hairdresser ran from his nearby salon with stacks of white towels to help comfort those unable to move. Some of the walking wounded soldiers attempted to give comfort to their mangled and dying horses; armed police officers were forced to shoot the ones that could not survive. The emotional attachment of man and horse was plain to see, as soldiers wept openly as they lay down next to their dying mounts, attempting to comfort them.
The dead soldiers were: Trooper Simon Andrew Tipper (19) and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Vernon Young (19); Lieutenant Denis Richard Anthony Daly (23) died later. A fourth soldier was hit in the head by a large piece of shrapnel and fatally injured; Corporal Major (Nominally Colour Sergeant) Roy John Bright (36) died of his wounds on the 23rd. Seven horses were either killed outright or destroyed by police.
The scene was later described by the Daily Express: ‘The street ran with the blood of men and horses. In one petrifying second, death and carnage struck at the heart of Royal London. It was a scene of grievous mutilation.’ The reporter described how an injured woman of about 45 was tended to by people who had hitherto been enjoying the spectacle. ‘Her right leg was swaying. Part of the top of her head seemed to be torn off.’ Shop assistant Mr Bernard Bygraves said, ‘I saw horses all over the place kicking and struggling to get up. There was blood everywhere. You could hardly recognise horses and men. One middle-aged woman pedestrian looked as if half her head was missing and she was screaming: “Help me.”’ Tourist David, 19 from California, said, ‘As I rushed up, I saw blood all over the pavement and the cavalry officers had blood up to their elbows. Some of the military men were trying to console those in tears and others were rushing about shooting the horses.’ On US television, ABC News reported, ‘Murder in the parks; two parks. Amongst the loveliest in London; but not today. Today London has been rocked by slaughter. Eight people killed, and 50 people injured in separate terrorist attacks.’
Regent’s Park
Approximately a mile away, as the crow flies, sits Regent’s Park. There, the Band of the Royal Green Jackets had just started to play a selection of music from Oliver in front of a crowd of around 100 people, mostly women and children, sitting on deckchairs on the beautifully manicured grass in glorious sunshine; if they turned their heads 180 degrees, the smoke from Hyde park would have been visible. Suddenly, the wood and metal bandstand erupted in a ball of flame, killing seven of the soldiers as they played their instruments and wounding the others; body parts were hurled more than 100ft away. The crowd was sprayed with shrapnel and body parts as the Provisional IRA struck again in the second no-warning bomb blast of the day.
There were scenes of utter chaos as wounded soldiers helped one another from the shattered bandstand, seeing their comrades torn apart from the blast; women and children were screaming in horror and pain as the sickly sweet smell of the explosives pervaded their senses. Those closest to the blast were either deafened or suffered further distress as the ringing in their ears drowned out most of the sounds. Yet again, a pall of smoke curled high into the London air; the wails of many ambulances added to the cacophony of noise; once more, people including medical staff from several nearby hospitals dashed to comfort the dying and the injured. A second PIRA bomb had stunned London in the space of just two hours.
The Royal Green Jackets killed at Regent’s Park were: Sergeant Major Graham Barker (36); Bandsman Laurence Kevin Smith (19); Bandsman Keith John Powell (24); Bandsman John Heritage (29); Bandsman George James Measure (19); Corporal Robert Alexander Livingstone (30); and Corporal John Robert McKnight (30).
It is very easy to write, with hindsight, that allowing parking along the route of the twice-daily parade of the cavalry from Knightsbridge Barracks to Horse Guards Parade was extremely risky as well as actually quite irresponsible. In the United Kingdom, certainly over the late Victorian period to the early years of the Troubles, its citizens have come to expect a degree of freedom and democratic choice, free of restrictions. That changed after a few moments in London that the Daily Express described as ‘The Day Britain Bled Again’. Equally, it was irresponsible to allow the Provisionals to destroy the bandstand in Regent’s Park, killing eight soldiers through security negligence. The concert had been advertised for some time, giving the England team time and opportunity to assemble the bomb, recce the park and plant the device and timer before melting back into their London safe houses. A man – John Downey – was arrested in 2013 in connection with the planting of the Hyde Park bomb but later released. This same man is alleged to have planted a car bomb at Cherrymount roundabout in Enniskillen on 25 August 1972, which killed UDR soldiers Ernie Johnston and Jimmy Eames, as well as injuring sixteen Royal Artillery soldiers who were en route to Omagh. In connection with this and the Hyde Park bomb, Downey was controversially cleared after he produced a ‘letter of comfort’ given to him by the Blair Government. However, the judgement revealed that the PSNI had uncovered evidence connecting him to the aforementioned attack in Northern Ireland in 1972. When a piece of missing evidence in the form of adhesive tape that had been attached to the bomb’s battery was discovered, it was shown to contain one of Downey’s fingerprints. He was arrested in 2013, but in the light of his immunity letter, the case was thrown out.
The Royal Parks bombings, coming shortly after an attack on an Army coach at Chelsea Barracks that killed two civilians, were not unexpected; this should have ensured massive security operations at the two sites, including the banning of parking along the southern carriageway of Hyde Park as well as a thorough search of the Regent’s Park bandstand beforehand. It did, however, illustrate the Provisionals’ military capabil
ity as well as its plentiful supply of explosives materiel. It is true that they lost a little support in the USA, with the New York Times writing that the bombings were ‘... dastardly cowardice ... a disgusting insult to the heritage of which millions of Irish Americans are rightfully proud’. The newspaper had a large Irish readership and the unequivocal headlines ensured that at least some supporters of NORAID would hesitate before reaching for their wallets. It would, however, take the events of 11 September 2001 to convince many of the US population that supporting terrorism was possibly not the correct course of action for their nation to take; much of their ‘romanticism’ vanished as the two World Trade Center towers crashed to the ground on that day of infamy.
THE WARRINGTON BOMBINGS
On 26 February 1993, the Provisional IRA struck in the Cheshire town of Warrington; the following day, the British people thought ‘Why Warrington?’ as they read their newspapers at breakfast, on their buses and trains to work, or on their first tea break of the day. It was a question that would turn into ‘Dear God, why Warrington?’ a mere twenty-two days later. The first attack took place in the early hours of the 26th, when a PIRA bombing team containing Páidric Mac Fhloinn, Denis Kinsella and Michael Timmins planted several bombs at a gas storage unit in Winwick Road. The explosion devastated the site, causing evacuation of many nearby homes as well as cutting off the town’s gas supply. Two of the men were captured following a high-speed chase on the M62 in which automatic weapons were fired at the police. Timmins managed to escape, but the other two received very long gaol sentences. Several years later, Kinsella, who was known as a petty thief, appealed against his sentence, claiming that he thought that the operation was a robbery. He requested that Mac Fhloinn make a statement to the Court of Appeal, but the IRA’s Army Council ordered that he should not make a statement on behalf of Kinsella. Both men were released early under the Good Friday Agreement.
On the morning of 20 March, the day before Mothers’ Day, at approximately 11.58, the Samaritans organisation received a warning from a caller, claiming to be from the IRA, using a recognised code word. The call stated that a bomb had been placed outside Boots chemist in ‘Liverpool’. There was no address given; moreover, Liverpool is 16 miles away from Warrington. A quick search by Merseyside Police found nothing, with the decision being immediately taken to alert the police in nearby towns, including Warrington. At 12.25 hours, a scant twenty-seven minutes after the warning, a device that had been placed inside a rubbish bin outside the British Gas showrooms in Bridge Street exploded, showering the crowds of shoppers with razor-sharp pieces of metal. Jonathan Ball (3) was buying a Mothers’ Day present in the company of a family friend. He was mortally wounded by the blast as a score of others were cut down. An off-duty nurse did her very best to save the toddler, but he died in her arms; the child, just two months short of his fourth birthday, stood very little chance of survival.
The shocked crowds, both injured and uninjured, raced for their lives, with but one thought in mind: to get out of the area. However, the bombers who had placed explosive devices in two bins, were cognisant of this likely reaction; the second device was also on Bridge Street, outside an Argos store – the same direction in which the terrified shoppers were heading. Less than sixty seconds after the first blast, the second one detonated; a score or more people were bowled over by the blast, which fatally injured Timothy Parry (12), who had been shopping at the Everton Football Club shop. He died in the Walton Centre for Neurology just five days later. The blasts had caused two deaths and fifty-six injuries; seventeen ambulances were required to ferry the injured to hospitals in the area.
One US newspaper, the Record-Journal, referred to the IRA warning, stating that it ‘... was a callous coded message’. Sky TV News said, ‘People were staggering and dazed after the first explosion. People shouted: “Get away; get away,” and as they all ran up the street, they ran into the second blast.’ The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, ‘The IRA stung by outrage over a bomb attack in England that killed a child and injured more than 50 people yesterday tried to repair the damage to its cause.’ Jonathan Ball’s father told the press: ‘He is what made me live. He was great. My life is just shattered now, absolutely shattered.’ Following the death of Timothy Parry, the New York Times was unequivocal in its condemnation of the Provisionals:
A child lies by a litter bin after an IRA bomb blast in Warrington town centre, 1993.
... there were signs of a growing public backlash against the Irish Republican Army, which seems to attack more and more ordinary civilians. For some time now bombs or bomb scares have become a feature of life in England, and people appear to accept them with resigned fatalism. But widespread anger and revulsion have been touched off by the two bombs that went off in metal trash baskets in a crowded shopping area Saturday afternoon in Warrington, a town on the Mersey River 16 miles east of Liverpool.
Kenneth Baker, the then Home Secretary, said, ‘I am horrified by this brutal attack in a crowded shopping centre. Even by the standards of the IRA, this was a deliberate attempt to murder people simply in an attempt to shock.’
Shortly after the news of the Warrington outrage reached the rest of the world, the Provisionals made the following statement: ‘Responsibility for the tragic and deeply regrettable death and injuries caused in Warrington yesterday lies squarely at the door of those in the British authorities who deliberately failed to act on precise and adequate warnings.’ Their response was defensive as well as callous; they had no excuses: their warnings had been vague and inaccurate at best, and maliciously misleading at worst. No one was convinced by the IRA’s claims, with the very probable exception of the diehard Irish American support and the British left. Although my next statement can be neither substantiated nor attributed, a left-wing friend told me: ‘It is a pity about those two kids, but they were legitimate casualties; sacrifices to the cause.’
The commanders of the IRA’s England team were very aware that there would be deaths as well as terrible injuries; the positioning and the timing of the two bombs were planned to create the perfect ‘killing zone’. The Warrington bombs were not designed to create mischief and mayhem; they were not designed to disrupt normal UK life, nor were they a part of the ‘economic war’. The bombs were designed to kill and maim. The Army Council knew that the attack was a mistake; it was designed to cause revulsion among British voters, who in turn would put pressure on the government in favour of withdrawal from Ulster. In this thought process they were only partially correct; it did have this effect, but it also stiffened their resolve to see that the IRA would never beat them. It was a type of mini-Blitz spirit, as there were more and more people prepared to resist an organisation that could kill innocent children without an ounce of compassion or contrition.
However, there was a suggestion that the bombings may have been carried out by a rogue element of PIRA’s England team that simply wished to step up the campaign in open defiance of the Army Council. It further illustrates the struggle that was going on at the time in Republican circles: the hawks who felt that ‘one more push’ would drive the British over the edge and the doves who were trying to make respectable Sinn Féin representatives, such as Gerry Adams, the ‘new face’ of their movement.
THE MURDER OF POLICEMAN GLEN GOODMAN IN 1993
A total of six mainland-based British police officers were killed by the Provisionals between 1975 and 1993. They are listed below:
Police Constable Stephen Tibble (21) was shot dead in central London by PIRA member Liam Quinn as he tried to arrest him on 26 February 1975.
Roger Philip Goad (40) was killed while attempting to defuse a PIRA bomb that had been fitted with an anti-handling device, in a shop doorway in Kensington Church Street in London on 29 August 1975.
Constable Jane Arbuthnot (22), Inspector Stephen Dodd (34) and Sergeant Noel Lane (28) were all killed by a PIRA car bomb that exploded outside Harrods Store in Knightsbridge on 17 December 1983.
Special Constable Gl
en Goodman (37) was killed by PIRA man Paul Magee on a routine stop near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, on 7 June 1992.
This section of the book will deal with the murder of Glen Goodman; it is not intended that this choice should in any way denigrate the memory or courage of the other five slain officers.
Sometime during the evening of Saturday, 6 June 1992, Paul Magee and Michael O’Brien, both PIRA members, set off for the city of York, it is thought to bomb the Queen Elizabeth Barracks at Strensall, North Yorkshire. In the early hours of the Sunday morning, they stopped their red Sierra car in the centre of Tadcaster, a town 18 miles east of Leeds, 10 miles west of York. Goodman and another officer – Sandy Kelly – noticed the Sierra while in their police car and were immediately suspicious. At this point, the Sierra drove westwards out of the town in the direction of Leeds, followed by the police car. Close to the A64 slip road, the IRA men’s car stopped, whereupon the two police officers walked over to question the occupants. Neither of the officers was convinced by what they were told, telling the men that they were going to check out their stories. However, as Kelly neared his vehicle to use the radio, Magee got out of the Sierra on the pretext of needing to urinate; as he did so, he pulled out a handgun, shooting Goodman in the chest and causing him to fall to the ground, badly wounded. He fired a shot at the other officer, forcing him back behind the police car, where he desperately called for help on his radio. He then fired four more shots, the impact of which forced Kelly to fall against the car. Fortunately, although wounded, his radio took the main impact of the bullets.