6. Bloody Friday
The shooting deaths of 13 unarmed Irish protesters at the hands of the British Army in 1972 caused tensions in Northern Ireland to reach a boiling point. Known as Bloody Sunday, the incident remains famous. Less well known is the IRA’s equally violent response. One Friday in the summer of that year, the group planted 23 bombs across Belfast. In less than 90 minutes, 19 of them exploded. The attacks became known as “bloody Friday.” SEE ALSO: BRAVO! World’s most wanted female terrorist – White widow killed (Look)
The first bomb exploded at 2:40 PM outside the Ulster Bank. A nine-year-old boy who had leaned against the car was thrown 3 meters (10 ft) into the air by the explosion. Five minutes later, two more explosions rocked the city. By 3:00 PM, there had already been seven attacks, and the worst was still to come. At 3:02 PM, a car bomb blew up at a bus station, killing six people, including a teenage boy. The force was so great that the bodies later had to be collected in plastic bags. Less than 15 minutes later, another car bomb hit a religiously mixed shopping area, killing both Protestants and Catholics.
Within 75 minutes of the Ulster Bank attack, around 20 bombs had exploded in every corner of Belfast. By the time the smoke cleared, nine people were dead and 130 were injured. Later counts confirmed 77 of the injured werewomen and children, a tally so shameful the IRA eventually apologized for it.
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