Bomb blitz kills nine people, terrorises city

FRIDAY, July 21, 1972, was one of the most notorious dates in the violent history of the Troubles.

Nine people died and many were injured in what became known as Bloody Friday, when the IRA detonated 27 bombs in just three and a half hours in Belfast.

Four Ulsterbus employees and two soldiers died when a car bomb exploded at Oxford Bus Station, Belfast’s biggest depot.

Another car bomb at a shopping centre in Cavehill Road in north Belfast killed two women and a 14-year-old schoolboy.

The bombing was seen a major setback to the IRA, which was accused of indiscriminate murder.

The terror group claimed that it had telephoned three warnings, but security forces said they were overwhelmed by hoax calls on the day.

“At one stage we were handling 21 bomb scares, 20 of which turned out to be the real thing,” an RUC officer said.

“Manpower was stretched to the limit. On the ground, our men had difficulty in controlling crowds of stampeding people as bomb after bomb exploded,” they said.

A statement from the IRA’s Belfast battalion claimed it had not set out to kill civilians.