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An IRA active service unit, assumed by many to be the Balcome Street Gang , manufactured two 6lb Gelignite bombs in London . One was placed in the ''Horse and Groom'' and the other in the ''Seven Stars'' pub nearby. Both pubs were popular with army personnel, and thus chosen as targets by the IRA. The bomb in the ''Horse and Groom'' caused the most casualties when it detonated without warning at 8.30 pm. The ''Seven Stars'' was evacuated after the first blast, and so nobody was seriously hurt in the explosion there at 9.00. In addition to a 22 year old plasterer, Paul Craig, four off-duty teenage soldiers were killed in the blast, of the Scots Guards Regiment and the Womens Royal Army Corps . Previous bombings in this campaign included the M62 Coach Bombing on 4 February , 1974 . A similar bomb to those used in Guildford, with the addition of shrapnel, was thrown into the '' Kings Arms '' pub in Woolwich on 7 November , 1974 . Gunner Richard Dunne and Alan Horsley, a sales clerk, died in that explosion. On 21 November , 1974 two bombs exploded in Birmingham at the ''Tavern in the Town'' and the ''Mulberry Bush'' pubs killing 21 people and injuring over 150; these acts led to the conviction of the '' Birmingham Six ''. Several other bombings caused casualties and fear across Britain particulaly in London, during the year long campaign. The bombings were at the height of " The Troubles " in Northern Ireland . The Metropolitan Police were under enormous pressure to apprehend the IRA bombers who had brought the war to Britain. In December 1974 the police arrested three men and a woman, later known as the Guildford Four of:
They were falsely convicted of the bombings in October 1975, and held in prison for many years. Their convictions were later overturned in the appeal courts after it was proved the convictions had been based on confessions obtained under duress, whilst evidence clearing them was not reported by the police. During the trial of the Balcombe Street Gang in February 1977 the four IRA men instructed their lawyers to "draw attention to the fact that four totally innocent people were serving massive sentences" for three bombings in Woolwich and Guildford. They were never charged with these offences. However, the IRA have never identified the true perpetrators of this attack. The movie '' In The Name Of The Father '' is based on these events. THE DEAD
NOTES Also See Guildford Four BBC ''The Daily Telegraph'' REFERENCES
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