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Bloody Friday is the name given to the bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast on 21 July 1972. Twenty bombs exploded in the space of eighty minutes, killing nine people (including two British soldiers) and injuring 130.〔(Northern Ireland Office news-sheet ). Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)〕 The majority of these were car bombs, driven to their detonation sites that same day. The bombings were partly a response to the breakdown of talks between the IRA and the British government. Since the beginning of its campaign in 1969, the IRA had carried out a concerted bombing campaign against economic, military and political targets in Northern Ireland. It carried out a total of 1,300 bombings in 1972. Bloody Friday was the spur for Operation Motorman, launched by the British Army ten days later. ==Overview== In late June and early July 1972, a British government delegation led by William Whitelaw held secret talks with the Provisional IRA leadership. As part of the talks, the IRA agreed to a temporary ceasefire beginning on 26 June. The IRA leaders sought a peace settlement that included a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland by 1975 and the release of republican prisoners. However, the British refused and the talks broke down. The ceasefire came to an end on 9 July. 'Bloody Friday' was the IRA's response to the breakdown of the talks. According to the IRA's Chief of Staff, Seán Mac Stíofáin, the main goal of the bombing operation was to wreak financial harm.〔("Bloody Friday: What Happened" ). BBC News, 16 July 2002. Retrieved 7 March 2011.〕 It was a "message to the British government that the IRA could and would make a commercial desert of the city unless its demands were met".〔Maloney, Ed. ''Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland''. US: Faber & Faber, 2010. p.104〕 Some also saw it as a reprisal for Bloody Sunday in Derry six months earlier. The attack was carried out by the IRA's Belfast Brigade and the main organiser was Brendan Hughes, the brigade's Officer Commanding.〔 A total of 26 bombs were planted and, in the resulting explosions, eleven people were killed and a further 130 civilians injured,〔 many horrifically mutilated.〔 At the height of the bombing, the middle of Belfast "resembled a city under artillery fire; clouds of suffocating smoke enveloped buildings as one explosion followed another, almost drowning out the hysterical screams of panicked shoppers".〔Moloney, ''A Secret History of the IRA'', p.116〕 Of those injured, 77 were women and children.〔Moloney, ''A Secret History of the IRA'', p.302〕 The Belfast Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings and said that it had given warnings to the security forces (through the local media) before the bombs exploded. It said that the press, the Samaritans and the Public Protection Agency "were informed of bomb positions at least 30 minutes to one hour before each explosion".〔("Bloody Friday 'never forgotten' by victims" ). UTV News, 19 July 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2012.〕 Mac Stíofáin said that "It required only one man with a loud hailer to clear each target area in no time" and alleged that the warnings for the two bombs that claimed lives were deliberately ignored by the British for "strategic policy reasons".〔 The security forces also received hoax warnings, which "added to the chaos in the streets".〔(Bloody Friday: Summary ). Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)〕 The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army only effectively cleared a small number of areas before the bombs went off. Furthermore, because of the large number of bombs in the confined area of Belfast city centre, people evacuated from the site of one bomb were mistakenly moved into the vicinity of other bombs. In the run-up to the thirtieth anniversary of the bombings, the IRA formally apologised to the families of all the civilians it had killed and injured.〔http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/docs/ira160702.htm〕〔("Q&A: The IRA's apology" ). BBC News, 16 July 2002.〕 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「Bloody Friday (1972)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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