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IRA Bombing in Manchester City Centre 1996 and other key events.

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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 8,510
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    I don't know why I don't remember this, I was in my late 20s so I should have. Surprising nobody was killed, this must have been one of the last IRA attacks
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    gdjman68wasdigigdjman68wasdigi Posts: 21,705
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    I was on the M602 in my Just picked up Vauxhall Calibra on my way to Longsight.

    I saw and heard it go off
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    RobinOfLoxleyRobinOfLoxley Posts: 27,040
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    I was on the M602 in my Just picked up Vauxhall Calibra on my way to Longsight.

    I saw and heard it go off

    You were lucky to make it (in a Vauxhall Calibra)

    And, were the alloy wheels still on it the next day?

    Dig, dig, dig :-)
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    Cheetah666 wrote: »
    Why is there a thread about this now, is it an anniversary or something?

    I only heard about this recently so made a thread.
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    vauxhall1964vauxhall1964 Posts: 10,360
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    I remember it well as a) it was on my birthday (15 June) and b) I lived by the Mancunian Way flyover near the city centre so I heard it go off from my bed (I assumed a passing lorry on the motorway had made the noise). It was during the Euro football champions and the police cordon stopping people entering the centre passed right by my flat so there were lots of frustrated football fans later that day looking for a drink and bars with TV.

    But people are right about the effect it had on the city centre... the development that followed improved the place no end. The incredible thing is that a post box next to where the bomb went off survived the blast and still stands where it stood on that day.
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    Jaycee DoveJaycee Dove Posts: 18,762
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    The thread is timely as the man who planned to outdo the IRA bomber has just got life.

    This terrorist was caught just before his plan to destroy the (rebuilt) Arndale at Bank Holiday in 2009. The plan that has just come out in court involved a car bomb outside herding fleeing shoppers into suicide bombers located at the main exits.

    The scary thing is that this discussion tonight on the news could be giving some IS terrorists out there ideas.
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    skp20040skp20040 Posts: 66,874
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    I don't know why I don't remember this, I was in my late 20s so I should have. Surprising nobody was killed, this must have been one of the last IRA attacks

    This was when they ended the ceasefire in place from 1994, they did two big attacks that year one in Docklands and then later the one in Manchester to show their disapproval at how the peace talks had gone

    There were other incidents but those were the two biggest in between the cease fires.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_London#1990.E2.80.931999

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bombings_during_the_Northern_Ireland_Troubles_and_peace_process
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    The thread is timely as the man who planned to outdo the IRA bomber has just got life.

    This terrorist was caught just before his plan to destroy the (rebuilt) Arndale at Bank Holiday in 2009. The plan that has just come out in court involved a car bomb outside herding fleeing shoppers into suicide bombers located at the main exits.

    The scary thing is that this discussion tonight on the news could be giving some IS terrorists out there ideas.

    Key 103 said an update would be on at 6pm, were there further developments?
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    Mrs BBVMrs BBV Posts: 3,003
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    Drift Away wrote: »
    Was anyone there or know anyone who was?

    I'm too young to remember thankfully.

    I presume the scare tactics prevailed eventually...

    I remember my hairdresser telling me she was colouring one of her clients hair when they were evacuated and had to rinse the dye off in a fountain because she couldn't get back to the salon. I had just stopped working in Manchester and transferred to Liverpool but a friend of mine was a loss adjuster who covered many of the claims. The Arndale had a known rat problem in those days and by the time they finally got access and some of the restaurants had been evacuated late morning as lunch was just starting well let's say the place was overrun with vermin and smelt really bad. My boss at the time was parked under the Arndale centre in the loading bays and couldn't get his car back for about ten days.

    I do remember the IRA bomb in Warrington which was just awful. The coded warning from the IRA was never passed in to Warrington as the phones at The Samaritans were diverted to Liverpool at the time. Two young boys died.

    My Grandparents were in Harrods when th IRA bomb went off in there in 80's and in 70's my Dad's office was part of a building that was bombed by IRA in Germany. I still remember my parents driving a different route to school for several weeks so we didn't have to go past and see the damage.

    My hubby remembers the Birmingham Pub bombing as he was a teenager living ten minutes from Birmingham when they happened.

    It's quite weird to remember how close it all seemed back then.
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    Mrs BBVMrs BBV Posts: 3,003
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    Evo102 wrote: »
    Best thing to happen to Manchester city centre and led to it's redevelopment. Or does view still not go down well with the great and good of the city?

    That is very true. The scale of redevelopment that the city underwent after transformed it.
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    sodavlacsodavlac Posts: 10,607
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    I heard the blast from my parent's house about 4 miles away, but no, wasn't there and didn't know anyone who was either.

    The thread made me remember that I was expected in Warrington the day after as I played for an American football team based there. I was reliant on public transport and can vaguely recall phoning up an information line to see if the trains were running as I usually caught one from Piccadilly. I actually have no recollection of whether I went or not and if I did then how. Might've got a lift, might've taken another route as once or twice I did go via 2 buses without the need to venture in to the city centre or I might not have gone. Big hole in my memory there. Was 17 then and I think my mum would've put her foot down about me going via town even if the trains were running.
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    gdjman68wasdigigdjman68wasdigi Posts: 21,705
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    You were lucky to make it (in a Vauxhall Calibra)

    And, were the alloy wheels still on it the next day?

    Dig, dig, dig :-)

    I was going to see a girl I knew. Actually her brother stole £20 out of my wallet now you mention it
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    Billy HicksBilly Hicks Posts: 475
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    I remember my Dad trying to explain to me the "war" in Ireland that was going on at the time. I always wanted to visit (most of my family live there) but I suppose for safety reasons he didn't take me there for years. We finally went about a decade ago and I've been back occasionally since, bizarre to think how different things were as recently as the 90s.
    On a side issue, The Great Storm of 1987 wreaked havoc across the Southern UK.
    I was in Manchester that weekend and there was some smirking and joking about how Southerners had copped it.
    (It wasn't long after the Miner's Strike and lots of bad feeling)

    While I wasn't born for that, something that's fairly forgotten now I do remember well was the North London tornado that destroyed a few houses very near where I lived. I remember being woken up to the sound of one of the heaviest rainstorms I'd ever seen, and falling asleep a few minutes later - only to turn on the news a few hours later and see plane footage of the damaged houses. There was another storm a month later that knocked the aerial off our roof and did major damage around Europe.
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    As kids we really aren't aware of the dangers!
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    LabhaoiseNiMhaoLabhaoiseNiMhao Posts: 2,224
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    Cheetah666 wrote: »
    Why is there a thread about this now, is it an anniversary or something?

    I wondered it. I presumed it was because of Paris it came up.

    Horrible day.

    I was just a kid I have absolutely no recollections of it. Plus when you think of it to be honest it wasn't ON social media again and again.

    Very very sad though and pointless.
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    Pull2OpenPull2Open Posts: 15,138
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    My wife was at the University of Manchester at that time and was home studying. She lived near Maine Road stadium and said the blast was massive.
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    jazzydrury3jazzydrury3 Posts: 27,075
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    This wasn't in Manchester, but I remember it.

    Was involved in a Bomb Scare once though in Weston Super Mare, they had received a warning there was a bomb in there M&S Store.

    The Police for some reason only cordoned off the High Steet, You could see the M&S store from the cordon, lucky it was a Scare, as I don't feel the public were moved away far enough
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    Anymore to share?
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    The Exiled DubThe Exiled Dub Posts: 8,358
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    Mrs BBV wrote: »
    I do remember the IRA bomb in Warrington which was just awful. The coded warning from the IRA was never passed in to Warrington as the phones at The Samaritans were diverted to Liverpool at the time. Two young boys died.

    My Grandparents were in Harrods when th IRA bomb went off in there in 80's and in 70's my Dad's office was part of a building that was bombed by IRA in Germany. I still remember my parents driving a different route to school for several weeks so we didn't have to go past and see the damage.

    My hubby remembers the Birmingham Pub bombing as he was a teenager living ten minutes from Birmingham when they happened.

    It's quite weird to remember how close it all seemed back then.

    One of my ex colleague's mother lost her leg in the Dublin Car Bombings (the worst atrocity of the Troubles, 34 dead, 300 injured) back in the 70s.

    It all seems so pointless. All those thousands of deaths and lives ruined. And for what?
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    Big Boy BarryBig Boy Barry Posts: 35,391
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    Yes, the brave IRA striking a blow against Marks and Spencers.

    Rumblelows was too heavily guarded, I presume.
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    Drift AwayDrift Away Posts: 348
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    IRA achieved their goal did they not? Violence should never win.
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