I looked through old Irish Times articles from the 1990’s and, as expected, found much violence and destruction during the Troubles.

In 1996, the Irish Republican Army bombed Manchester, England in what came to be known as the Manchester bombing. The bomb was 3,300 pounds and was put in a van in Manchester city centre, targeting the city’s buildings to cause damage.

The bomb did cause destruction and cost the city about 700 million pounds, which would be over 1 billion today. But the bigger effect was that the bombing injured 212 people. The IRA phoned warnings about an hour and a half before the bomb detonated, and the area was evacuated, but that did not stop the injuries.

The Manchester bombing was the biggest bombing in Great Britain since World War II. It was condemned by the British and Irish governments as well as U.S. President Bill Clinton. The IRA later stated that they ‘regretted causing injury to civilians.’

The perpetrators of the bombing were never caught. This was just one of the many tragedies of the Troubles, leaving many injured with no justice.