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Between 26 November 1972 and 20 January 1973, there were four paramilitary bombings in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. Three civilians were killed and 185 people were injured. No group ever claimed responsibility for the attacks and nobody was ever charged in connection with the bombings. The first bombing in Burgh Quay may have been carried out by former associates of the Littlejohn brothers who were Secret Intelligence Service provocateurs,〔Second Barron Report 2004, pp. 30–33〕 in a successful attempt to provoke an Irish government clampdown against the Provisional IRA, while the other three bombings were possibly perpetrated by loyalist paramilitaries, specifically the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), with British military or intelligence assistance. The UVF claimed in 1993 to have carried out the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings which incurred the greatest loss of life in a single day throughout the 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. On 1 December 1972, when two separate car bombs exploded in Eden Quay and Sackville Place, Dáil Éireann was debating a bill to amend the ''Offences Against the State Act'' which would enact stricter measures against the Provisional IRA and other paramilitary groups. As a result of the two bombings, which killed two men and wounded 131, the Dáil voted for the amendment, which introduced special emergency powers to combat the IRA. It is believed that the 26 November and 1 December bombings were executed to influence the outcome of the voting. Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry Barron commissioned an official inquiry into the bombings. The findings were published in a report in November 2004. ==Background== (詳細はthe Troubles, which had erupted at the end of the 1960s.〔(Houses of errythe Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights Interim Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin Bombings of 1972 and 1972, November 2004 (The Second Barron Report 2004), p. 10 ) Retrieved 24 January 2012〕 Following the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry on 30 January 1972 when the British Army's Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 unarmed Catholic civilians during an anti-internment demonstration, a torrent of anti-British sentiment was unleashed in Ireland and beyond. An angry crowd in Dublin attacked the British embassy and burnt it to the ground.〔 The Official IRA responded with the 1972 Aldershot Bombing in England, at the headquarters of the Parachute Regiment. This attack killed seven civilians.〔Second Barron Report 2004, pp. 10–11〕 In retaliation for the shootings in Derry, the Provisional IRA escalated its armed campaign with a series of bombings across Northern Ireland which led to a high number of civilian casualties.〔 Four days after the Donegall Street bombing in central Belfast on 20 March which killed seven people, British Prime Minister Edward Heath announced the suspension of the 50-year-old Stormont parliament and the imposition of Direct Rule from London. This caused Ulster loyalists and unionists throughout Northern Ireland to feel profoundly angry, shocked, and betrayed; moreover, they considered it to have been another "sign of continuing Government weakness in the face of IRA violence".〔Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.pp.98–99〕 On 29 May, the Official IRA declared a ceasefire, this was followed on 27 June by the Provisional IRA also declaring a ceasefire which loyalists regarded with suspicion, fearing it would lead to the British Government doing a secret deal resulting in a united Ireland.〔Taylor, p.106〕 Representatives of the IRA and British Government held unprecedented secret talks in England, but these proved unsuccessful and the Provisional IRA's ceasefire ended in early July after a confrontation with the British Army in Belfast.〔〔 When the IRA exploded 22 bombs across Belfast in what became known as Bloody Friday, many Ulster Protestants, after seeing the televised carnage of victims' remains being scraped off the street and poured into plastic bags, rushed to join paramilitary organisations such as the legal Ulster Defence Association (UDA) or the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).〔Taylor, pp. 106–108〕 The bombings also led the British Army to launch Operation Motorman, which saw the arrival of an addition 4,000 troops to assist in the recapture of the mostly IRA-controlled "no-go areas" in Belfast and Derry. The dismantling of these "no-go" areas, which had been set up by residents in certain nationalist/republican districts to prevent access by the security forces, effectively prohibited the IRA from enjoying the same operational freedom it had known prior to the implementation of Operation Motorman.〔The Second Barron Report 2004, p.11〕 The UVF was led by Gusty Spence, who was imprisoned since 1966 for a sectarian murder. In July 1972, his associates on the outside staged a fake kidnapping while Spence was on bail and he was at liberty for four months. During this period he organised the UVF into brigades, battalions, companies and platoons. These were all subordinate to the Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership). He also managed to obtain an arsenal of sophisticated guns and ammunition after a raid on King's Park camp, an Ulster Defence Regiment/Territorial Army depot in Lurgan by an armed UVF gang. The UVF also stole twenty tons of ammonium nitrate from the Belfast Docks.〔Taylor, pp. 111–112〕 During the spring and summer of 1972, the UDA set up barricades and no-go areas in Belfast and paraded through the city centre in a massive show of strength.〔Taylor, p. 104.〕 William Craig, leader of the Unionist Vanguard movement, addressed a meeting of right-wing MPs in Westminster who belonged to the Monday Club on 19 October during which he claimed he could mobilise 80,000 men who "are prepared to come out and shoot and kill".〔 On 28 October a bomb was found in Dublin's busy Connolly Station and fire-bombs detonated inside four Dublin hotels.〔The Second Barron Report 2004, p.12〕 On 4 November Spence was recaptured in Belfast by the British Army.〔 The Irish Government began its clampdown against the IRA in that same year. On 19 November the Provisional IRA's Chief of Staff, Sean MacStiofain was arrested in Dublin and immediately went on a hunger and thirst strike.〔The Second Barron Report 2004, p. 16〕 The same month, a controversial amendment to the ''Offences Against the State Act'', giving the Garda Siochana special powers to deal with the IRA and other subversives was brought before Dáil Éireann.〔The Second Barron Report, p. 17〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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