1975 Conway's Bar attack
The 1975 Conway's Bar attack was a failed attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. On 13 March 1975 UVF members attempted to bomb the Catholic-owned pub on the Shore Road in Belfast. The bomb exploded prematurely, killing a Catholic civilian woman and one of the UVF bombers.[1]
| 1975 Conway's Bar attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles | |
 The Shore Road | |
| Location | Shore Road, Belfast Northern Ireland |
| Date | 13 March 1975 |
Attack type | Time bomb |
| Weapons | Explosives |
| Deaths | 2 |
| Injured | 15 |
| Perpetrator | Ulster Volunteer Force |
Background
Almost exactly a year earlier on 29 March 1974, the UVF bombed the pub, killing two Catholic civilians.[2]
In February 1975, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British government entered into a truce and restarted negotiations. The IRA agreed to halt attacks on the British security forces, and the security forces mostly ended their raids and searches.[3] There was a rise in sectarian killings during the truce. Loyalists, fearing they were about to be forsaken by the British government and forced into a united Ireland,[4] increased their attacks on Catholics and Irish nationalists.[5] They hoped to force the IRA to retaliate and thus end the truce.[5]
Attack
On 13 March 1975 a UVF unit drove to Conway's bar on the Shore Road with a 50 lb gas cylinder bomb. The unit included UVF members Eddie Kinner, Martin Snodden and George Brown. UVF intelligence told the unit that an IRA meeting was taking place inside the bar at 20:30 that night. The bomb had a 40-second fuse on it and the unit was instructed to leave the bomb in the bar hallway, light the fuse and then leave. The unit placed the bomb in the hallway but as they did so somebody opened the door and knocked the bomb over and setting it off prematurely. One of the UVF volunteers George Brown was killed in the blast and a Catholic woman Marie Doyle (38) was also killed. Eddie Kinner was badly injured, about 15 people drinking inside the bar were also injured in the blast. An angry crowd identified and chased Martin Snodden on to the M2 motorway and badly beat him before he was rescued by military police just before the mob was about to hang him from a bridge with rope.
Both Snodden and Kinner received lengthy sentences for their part in the bombing.[6]
References
- "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
- "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths".
- Extracts from The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA by Kevin J. Kelley. Zed Books Ltd, 1988. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
- Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p.142
- Taylor, Peter. Brits: The War Against the IRA. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2001. p.182
- "Chicago Tribune: Chicago news, sports, weather, entertainment".
