1973 Coleraine bombings

1973 Coleraine bombings
Stephen Scilley outside the remains of the Wine Market
Location	Railway Road and Hanover Place, Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Date	12 June 1973 15.00 (BST) 15.05 (BST)
Attack type	2 car bombs
Deaths	6 civilians
Injured	33
Perpetrator	Provisional IRA South Derry Brigade

On 12 June 1973 the Provisional IRA detonated two carbombs in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The first bomb exploded at 3:00 pm on Railway Road, killing six people and injuring 33; several lost limbs and were left disabled for life. A second bomb exploded five minutes later at Hanover Place. This did not cause any injuries, although it added to the panic and confusion in the area. The IRA had sent a warning for the second bomb but said it had mistakenly given the wrong location for the first.

As the six victims had all been Protestant, the bombings brought about a violent backlash from loyalist paramilitaries, who swiftly retaliated by unleashing a series of sectarian killings of Catholics that culminated in the double killing of Senator Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews on 26 June.

Sinn Féin councillor Sean McGlinchey, brother of Dominic McGlinchey, later INLA Chief of Staff, was convicted of planting the bomb and spent 18 years in prison. He was elected mayor of Limavady Borough Council in 2011.

In his book Years of Darkness: The Troubles Remembered, academic Gordon Gillespie described the attacks as "a forgotten massacre" of the Troubles.^[1]