1996 Docklands bombing

London Docklands bombing
Part of the Troubles
South Quay Plaza ruined by the explosion
1996 Docklands bombing (London Borough of Tower Hamlets)
Location	South Quay station, Isle of Dogs, London
Coordinates	51°30′02″N 00°01′05″W / 51.50056°N 0.01806°W / 51.50056; -0.01806
Date	9 February 1996; 28 years ago (1996-02-09) 19:01 (GMT)
Target	South Quay (Enterprise Zone of London Docklands Development Corporation)
Attack type	Truck bomb
Deaths	2
Injured	100+
Perpetrator	Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade Volunteers

The London Docklands bombing (also known as the South Quay bombing or erroneously referred to as the Canary Wharf bombing) occurred on 9 February 1996, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb in South Quay (which is outside Canary Wharf). The blast killed two people and devastated a wide area, causing an estimated £150 million worth of damage. The IRA had sent warnings 90 minutes beforehand, but the area was not fully evacuated. As well as the two people who were killed, more than 100 were injured, some permanently.

The attack marked an end to the IRA's seventeen-month ceasefire, and came just over an hour after its declaration to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.^[1][2] The IRA agreed to the ceasefire in August 1994 on the understanding that Sinn Féin would be allowed to take part in peace negotiations, but resumed its campaign with the Docklands bombing when the British government demanded a full IRA disarmament as a precondition for talks. After the bombing, the British government dropped its demand. A few months later, the IRA detonated another, more powerful truck bomb in Manchester.

IRA member James McArdle was convicted of the bombing in 1998. He had been a member of an IRA sniper team in South Armagh. He was released two years later, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.