Harrods

Harrods, in London, was the site of a bombing carried out by the Irish Republican Army shortly before Christmas 1983. The attack killed five people and injured ninety, making the department store a setting for a deadly operation that exposed the continuing force of armed action amid an emerging political turn.

Setting

The book identifies Harrods as the London location of the bombing, placing the attack beyond Northern Ireland. It gives no further description of the store or the circumstances of the attack inside it.

The 1983 Bombing

Just before Christmas, the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb at Harrods. Five people were killed and ninety injured. Gerry Adams later said the bomb “had not gone right,” a brief remark that registers the operation against its deadly consequences.

Political Significance

The bombing took place as Adams began to contemplate, and then act on, a scheme to bring the conflict to an end. Yet political activity did not displace armed operations: the attack at Harrods stands in the account as evidence that deadly violence continued alongside that political development.