Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Hyde Park & Regents Park bombings
location=Hyde Park & Regents Park, London, United Kingdom
target=British Army military parades
date=20 July 1982
type= nail bombs
fatalities=11
injuries=50+
perps=Provisional Irish Republican Army The Hyde Park and Regents Park Bombings occurred on 20 July, 1982.

It was one of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) most high profile attacks of The Troubles, in which a double bombing struck British Army ceremonial military targets in the centre of London on a summer afternoon, killing eleven soldiers and wounding over 50 people. This was one of the first major bombings in London since the Balcombe Street Siege eight years before, and much of what happened was caught on camera and replayed round the world, with scenes of dead men and horses heaped in London's Hyde Park.

The bombings

The first attack was a large nail bomb hidden in a blue Austin car parked on the Mall in Hyde Park, along the route used by the Household Cavalry, the Queen's official bodyguard regiment during the Changing of the Guard between Buckingham Palace and Knightsbridge. Three soldiers of the Blues and Royals were killed instantly, and another died on 23 July from his injuries. The other soldiers in the procession were all badly wounded and shrapnel and nails sprayed into the crowd of tourists assembled to watch the parade, causing further injuries. Seven of the regiment's horses were also killed or had to be put down because of their injuries.

The second explosion occurred almost simultaneously, when a bomb hidden underneath the bandstand in Regent's Park exploded during a performance of the music from "Oliver!" by the Royal Green Jackets band to a crowd of 120 people. Here too, the crowd was peppered by shrapnel from the iron bandstand, causing dozens of injuries amongst the audience, as well as killing or wounding the entire band. The blast was so powerful that one of the bodies was thrown onto an iron fence thirty yards away, and seven bandsmen were killed outright.

Bomb experts believed that the first bomb was a remote-detonated improvised explosive device, which was exploded at just the right point to catch the parade. The second was thought to have been placed under the bandstand weeks in advance, with a timer set to the date and time of the advertised concert.

The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack deliberately mirroring Margaret Thatcher's words just a few months previously when Britain entered the Falklands War. They procaimed that: "The Irish people have sovereign and national rights which no task or occupational force can put down".

In 1987, Danny McNamee was sentenced to 25 years for the Hyde Park bomb despite MacNamee pleading that he was innocent. In 1998, shortly after his release under the Good Friday Agreement, a judge overturned his conviction, deeming it "unsafe" because of withheld fingerprint evidence that implicated other bomb-makers.

The British Progressive rock band "Pink Floyd" made reference to the bombings in their song "The Gunner's Dream" from the album "The Final Cut". One of the lines goes "You can relax, on both sides of the tracks, and maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control".

ee also

*Directory of the Northern Ireland Troubles
*Chronology of Provisional IRA Actions
*List of terrorist incidents (Worldwide)
*List of terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom
*List of London bombings

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_2515000/2515343.stm BBC On this Day Report]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/236898.stm BBC Report on McNamee appeal]