1994 Dublin-Belfast train bombing

On 12 September 1994 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) planted a 1.5 kg bomb on the Belfast–Dublin train. It partially exploded as the train neared Dublin Connolly railway station, injuring two people.[1]

1994 Dublin-Belfast train bombing
Part of the Troubles
LocationDublin, Republic of Ireland
Date12 September 1994, 11:34am
Attack type
time bomb
Deaths0
Injured2
PerpetratorsUlster Volunteer Force

Bombing

The device went off at 11.34 am as the 9 am train from Belfast was coming into Connolly Station, Dublin, around the same time as a UVF spokesman was giving a telephone warning to Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail). Only the detonator of the bomb exploded, causing only minor injuries to two women's legs and spaying other passengers with unexploded Powergel.[2] The bomb was planted under a seat on the train. A Garda forensic expert said later that the bomb contained 2 kg of commercial explosive and could have caused serious casualties if it had detonated properly.[3]

At the time the Irish Justice Minister, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, said intelligence reports warned of a 'dramatic' increase in the loyalist threat in the wake of the IRA ceasefire: "the republican movement have made a decision to go with the democratic process, and it would appear very strongly that nothing is going to deviate them from that".[4]

Aftermath

Chris Hudson, who was the Irish peace process's go-between, between the UVF and the Irish Government, recalled, straight after the bombing, ringing the PUP (the UVF's political wing ) and shouting down the phone at them "a bomb on a fucking train, thanks very much!". He said he had to keep fighting for peace and an end to UVF violence.[2]

The UVF later said the bomb was put there "as a warning to the southern government that the Ulster people will not be engulfed into United Ireland by coercion, persuasion, force or political stealth".[2]

On 13 October 1994 the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) issued a statement which announced a ceasefire on behalf of all loyalist paramilitaries, noting that the "permanence of our cease-fire will be completely dependent upon the continued cessation of all nationalist/republican violence".[5]

See also

References
  1. AP Archive Ireland - Bomb On Train Arriving In Dublin
  2. Jim Cusack & Henry McDonad - UVF:The Endgame (Fully Revised & Updated) pp.313-314
  3. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1994".
  4. "Two injured by loyalist shoebox bomb on train: Serious casualties". Independent.co.uk. 12 September 1994. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.
  5. "CAIN: CLMC Ceasefire Statement, 13 October 1994".

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