They tried to bomb a bus load of Protestant children on a church trip before fleeing across the border. On the same day as the Enniskillen bomb with a device nearly four times the one used for that atrocity.
Thank heavens it failed, but the intention was there.
Just want to throw my hand up and say in all honesty I’d never heard of this story before hence my original comment.
It’s quite hard to find information on this one and I have to say the Wikipedia article [1] tells a much more plausible version of the story than an unsourced version written by someone who’s brother was killed by the IRA.
“the IRA called a radio station and said it had abandoned a 150-pound (68 kg) bomb in Tullyhommon, 20 miles (32 km) away, after it failed to detonate. That morning, a Remembrance Sunday parade (which included many members of the Boys' and Girls' Brigades) had unwittingly gathered near the Tullyhommon bomb. Soldiers and RUC officers had also been there, and the IRA said it attempted to trigger the bomb when soldiers were standing beside it. It was defused by security forces and was found to have a command wire leading to a firing point across the border.”
Nobody in this story was setting out to actively target civilians let alone children.
There is also this section in the article which may or may not be relevant but this particular theme came up on multiple occasions and I believe was proven to have happened at least once but I have to double check the sourcing on this.
“Under the thirty-year rule, a letter sent after the bombing was released by the Irish Government. The author was anonymous but claimed to be working for MI5, and the letter was sent to then Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan. Without providing any evidence, it claimed that MI5 had advance knowledge of the Remembrance Day bombing but allowed it to go ahead, so that the public could turn against the Provisional IRA and new security measures could be justified.”
At the same time, I’d say this entire story is actually a great example of why trying to wage a Guerilla campaign amongst a civilian population is an actively terrible idea. These things are going to end up happening regardless of if you meant for it to happen or not unfortunately.
So that’s all to say, none of this is in anyway justified but again, nobody was trying to actively target a bus full of children here because again, it’s hard to think of ANYTHING that could be more counter productive to their aims as you can see from the rest of the article.
It’s quite hard to find information on this one and I have to say the Wikipedia article [1] tells a much more plausible version of the story than an unsourced version written by someone who’s brother was killed by the IRA.
“the IRA called a radio station and said it had abandoned a 150-pound (68 kg) bomb in Tullyhommon, 20 miles (32 km) away, after it failed to detonate. That morning, a Remembrance Sunday parade (which included many members of the Boys' and Girls' Brigades) had unwittingly gathered near the Tullyhommon bomb. Soldiers and RUC officers had also been there, and the IRA said it attempted to trigger the bomb when soldiers were standing beside it. It was defused by security forces and was found to have a command wire leading to a firing point across the border.”
Nobody in this story was setting out to actively target civilians let alone children.
There is also this section in the article which may or may not be relevant but this particular theme came up on multiple occasions and I believe was proven to have happened at least once but I have to double check the sourcing on this.
“Under the thirty-year rule, a letter sent after the bombing was released by the Irish Government. The author was anonymous but claimed to be working for MI5, and the letter was sent to then Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan. Without providing any evidence, it claimed that MI5 had advance knowledge of the Remembrance Day bombing but allowed it to go ahead, so that the public could turn against the Provisional IRA and new security measures could be justified.”
At the same time, I’d say this entire story is actually a great example of why trying to wage a Guerilla campaign amongst a civilian population is an actively terrible idea. These things are going to end up happening regardless of if you meant for it to happen or not unfortunately.
So that’s all to say, none of this is in anyway justified but again, nobody was trying to actively target a bus full of children here because again, it’s hard to think of ANYTHING that could be more counter productive to their aims as you can see from the rest of the article.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing