The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London

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The bombings were described as a "reign of terror" perpetrated by the IRA in the two years prior to 1975.

After serving 23 years in English prisons, the four men were transferred to Portlaoise Prison, County Laois, Republic of Ireland, in early 1998. [9] They were presented by Gerry Adams to the 1998 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis as 'our Nelson Mandelas', [3] and were released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement. [2] See also [ edit ]

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There is also evidence that the IRA active service unit potentially targeted the BBC Crystal Palace transmitter, Wormwood Scrubs and Brixton prisons, and the prison service headquarters then in Eccleston Square, as well as power stations and water and sewage treatment plants.

The gang's six-day stand-off, when they held a middle-aged postal worker and his wife hostage in a house in Marylebone, ended in surrender when they heard on the radio that the SAS was to be sent in. The four-man IRA active service unit, made up of Hugh Doherty, Joe O'Connell, Eddie Butler and Henry Duggan, carried out a 14-month bombing campaign across London that involved 40 explosions and left 35 people dead, including the Guinness Book of Records co-founder and rightwing political activist Ross McWhirter.At first there was no success but on December 6 the gunmen emerged from their safe house. They drove down Mount Street in Mayfair in their stolen Ford Cortina peppering Scott’s again with machine gun shots.

The special branch report says that a plan of the area that includes New Scotland Yard was found, along with evidence of evening observations of the Met police headquarters. The Downing Street file does not include the actual list of names of those targeted. That is to remain secret for 70 years under exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.The Balcombe Street siege started nine days after the gang shot Ross McWhirter outside his home in Enfield, north London. Sir Hugh Fraser, the original target of the IRA ASU died of lung cancer in 1984. His wife, Antonia, had left him to marry Harold Pinter for years earlier in 1980. His house-guest, Caroline Kennedy, has recently become the first female American Ambassador to Japan. Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 23 February 1999 But if they thought charm was going to help get them what they wanted – a plane to take them to Ireland – they were mistaken. During the negotiations O’Connell let slip that the men were confined to the front living room in the Matthews’ flat.