Political violence during the Troubles: 1990-1994

This timeline lists known examples of paramilitary and politically motivated violence in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, between 1990 and 1994. These chronologies are regularly updated as new information becomes available. We welcome information about errors or incidents not listed here. In these timelines the term “civilian” refers to an individual with no known or established political or paramilitary affiliations.

1990
January 2nd: An Ulster Democratic Party member, Harry Dickey, is killed by a Provisional IRA car bomb in Belfast.
January 3rd: A British soldier is injured by an IRA car bomb in Magherafelt.
January 9th: An IRA gunman shoots dead an UDR soldier in Castlederg, County Tyrone.
January 22nd: A Provisional IRA unit open fire on the house of an RUC inspector in Kilburn Park, County Armagh. The inspector is killed.
January 28th: A Catholic civilian and Sinn Fein supporter is accidentally killed by an IRA bomb in Derry.
February 11th: A Provisional IRA brigade shoots down a British Gazelle helicopter near the border with the Republic of Ireland. Three crew members are injured.
February 20th: The Provisional IRA bomb a British recruiting station in Leicester, England, injuring two people.
March 8th: A three-man IRA unit shoots dead an UDR soldier while he is off duty in Tullynure, County Tyrone.
March 25th: An RUC station is hit by a large IRA bomb. There is property damage but no deaths or serious injuries.
March 28th: An IRA unit shoots dead an off duty RUC officer at his home in Armagh.
April 9th: A Provisional IRA unit detonates a powerful landmine underneath an UDR truck in Downpatrick, County Down. Four UDR soldiers are killed, others are injured.
April 16th: An IRA team shoot down a member of another Republican group, after receiving false information that he was an informer.
April 27th: An Irish worker employed by the British military was killed by an IRA bomb planted in his car in Kilkeel, County Down.
May 5th: A British soldier is killed when an IRA unit and a British Army patrol exchange gunfire in County Armagh.
May 6th: The Provisional IRA foil a British Army ambush in County Armagh, killing one soldier.
May 16th: An IRA bomb explodes outside a British Army recruiting centre in Wembley, killing a sergeant, Charles Chapman.
May 27th: IRA agents in the Netherlands shoot dead two men they believe to be off duty British soldiers. The dead men later turn out to be Australian tourists.
June 1st: IRA gunmen open fire on British soldiers at a train station in Lichfield, northern England. One soldier is killed and two others seriously injured.
June 2nd: IRA agents shoot dead a British Army major in Dortmund, West Germany.
June 6th: An IRA booby trap kills an RUC officer and his wife in their car in Belfast.
June 9th: The Provisional IRA bomb a British Territorial Army building in London, injuring 19 people.
July 20th: The Provisional IRA explode a land mine under a RUC patrol vehicle in Armagh, killing three officers and a civilian.
July 20th: The Provisional IRA detonates a large bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange. There were no deaths or injuries due to a telephone warning, however the building suffered extensive damage.
July 30th: British MP Ian Gow is assassinated by an IRA car bomb as he left his home in Pevensey, Sussex.
September 6th: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs planted aboard the RFA Fort Victoria, a British naval supply vessel. Due to a telephone warning there were no deaths or injuries.
September 30th: British soldiers open fire in Belfast and shoot dead two Catholic civilians.
October 20th: The Provisional IRA ambush and kill a former UDR member in Strabane, County Tyrone.
October 24th: The Provisional IRA employ ‘proxy bombs’, forcing three Catholic men they suspect of collaboration to drive car bombs into British military targets. These attacks kill seven people, six of them British soldiers.
October 26th: A Catholic civilian is shot dead by UVF gunmen near Cookstown, County Tyrone.
November 2nd: An off duty UDR member is killed when an IRA booby trap attached to his car explodes in Cookstown, County Tyrone.”
November 8th: A Catholic civilian is killed by Loyalist gunmen in his garage in Stewartstown, County Tyrone.
November 12th: Members of the British SAS shoot dead an INLA volunteer during a gunfight near Strabane, County Tyrone.

1991
February 3rd: The Provisional IRA launch further ‘proxy bomb’ attacks, this time on a UDR base in County Londonderry. The blast causes significant damage but no deaths or injuries.
February 7th
: The Provisional IRA launches three explosive mortars at 10 Downing Street, the London residence of the British prime minister. Two mortars fail to detonate; a third explodes in the rear garden.
March 3rd: Members of the UVF attack a Catholic bar in Cappagh, County Tyrone, killing three Provisional IRA members and a civilian.
May 31st: The Provisional IRA rolls an explosive-filled truck into a British military base at Glenanne, County Armagh. The blast kills three soldiers and injures 14.
June 3rd: British SAS commandos ambush a three-man Provisional IRA assassination squad in Coagh, County Tyrone. All three are killed.
August 10th: A Loyalist group affiliated with the Red Hand Commandos shoot dead a Catholic shopkeeper in Belfast, for selling issues of a Republican newspaper.
August 15th: A former member of the UDR is shot by the Provisional IRA as he worked on a farm in County Tyrone.
September 28th: Loyalist paramilitaries assassinate a Catholic shopkeeper in Belfast for selling Republican newspapers.
September 29th: A 19-year-old Catholic is shot dead by a RUC officer while walking in Cookstown, County Tyrone.
November 2nd: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in the military wing of Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast. Two soldiers are killed and 11 people, including children, are injured.

1992
January 10th: A small bomb is exploded by police in London; there are no injuries.
January 17th
: A roadside bomb planted by the Provisional IRA destroys a van carrying 14 workers in Teebane, County Tyrone. Eight Protestant civilians are killed, the rest are seriously injured. The men had been repairing a British Army base so were targeted as collaborators.
February 4th: An RUC officer, Allen Moore, walks into a Belfast office of Sinn Fein and guns down three civilian party workers. He later takes his own life.
February 5th: UFF volunteers attack a bookmaker’s store in Belfast, killing five Catholic civilians. This attack was in retaliation for IRA murders in Teebane the previous month.
February 5th: A Provisional IRA volunteer attempts to assassinate a UDR soldier in County Fermanagh but is instead killed himself.
February 16th: British commandos ambush a Provisional IRA unit in Clonoe, County Tyrone, killing four men.
February 28th: An IRA bomb explodes at London Bridge Station, injuring 29 people.
April 10th: The Provisional IRA detonate a one-ton truck bomb in St Mary Axe, central London, killing three people and destroying the Baltic Exchange building.
April 11th: A large IRA bomb explodes underneath Staples Corner, a major road junction in London. It causes extensive damage to roads and nearby buildings.
May 1st: The Provisional IRA use an explosive-laden van to attack a British Army checkpoint in Cloghoge, County Armagh. One soldier was killed and 23 were injured; the checkpoint was utterly destroyed.
May 17th: A Provisional IRA bomb attack near Cappagh, County Tyrone, causes a British soldier to lose both his legs. The attack leads to British raids, fistfights and a riot in nearby Coalisland.
August 28th: A Provisional IRA sniper shoots dead a British private in Crossmaglen. The ‘South Armagh snipers’, as they became known, would target British security forces for the next seven years, killing seven soldiers and two RUC officers.
September 7th: The Provisional IRA bombs the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London, for a second time, however there are no injuries or serious damage.
September 23rd: The Provisional IRA detonates one of the largest bombs of the Troubles, at the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory in Belfast. The 1,000 kilogram bomb injures 20 people and destroys the laboratory utterly, as well as several hundred nearby houses.
October 9th: Red Hand Commandos shoot dead a Protestant at his workplace in Mersey Street, Belfast, believing him to be a Republican informer.
October 12th: A bomb explodes in the toilets of a pub in Covent Garden, London, killing one person and injuring others.
November 15th: A Provisional IRA sniper shoots dead a 25-year-old RUC officer at a checkpoint in County Fermanagh.
November 16th: An IRA bomb is located and defused in Canary Wharf, London.
December 4th: The Provisional IRA detonate two bombs in central Manchester, England. There are no deaths but 65 people are injured and several buildings received significant damage.
December 17th: The IRA detonate two bombs in a department store in Oxford Street, London. A phone warning allows Christmas shoppers to be evacuated before the blast.

1993
January 1st: Red Hand Commando gunmen murder two Catholic civilians on Manor Street, Belfast, in retaliation for the killing of a British soldier.
January 3rd: Two Catholic civilians are killed by UVF gunmen at their shop in Lisnagleer. The UVF mistakenly believed they belonged to the Provisional IRA.
January 28th: A Catholic workman, aged 25, is killed by a UVF booby trap left at a house near Cookstown, County Tyrone. The device was intended for the house’s owner.
January 28th: The Provisional IRA bombs Harrod’s department store in London for a third time, injuring four people.
February 25th: An RUC constable is shot dead by a Provisional IRA sniper in Crossmaglen.
February 26th: The Provisional IRA detonates a bomb at a gas storage facility in Warrington, northern England. It causes significant damage but no deaths or injuries.
February 27th: Several people are injured by an IRA bomb, dropped into a rubbish bin at a McDonald’s in Camden Town.
March 17th: A Provisional IRA sniper shoots dead a British lance corporal in Forkhill.
March 20th: Two Provisional IRA bombs explode in the shopping precinct in Warrington, England. Two boys, three-year-old Jonathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry, are killed and 54 other people are injured.
March 24th: UDA members shoot dead a Sinn Fein member in Belfast, in retaliation for the Warrington bombing.
March 25th: UFF gunmen shoot dead four Catholics, including a Provisional IRA member, in Castlerock, County Londonderry. The UFF also shoot dead another Catholic civilian in Belfast.
April 24th: The Provisional IRA detonate a truck filled with ammonium nitrate in Bishopsgate, central London. One man is killed and 44 are injured. There is considerable damage to property, estimated at £350 million.
April 25th: A former UDF member is near Cookstown, County Tyrone, by an IRA booby trap bomb attached to his car.
May 30th: Red Hand Commandos assassinate a Catholic civilian at his home in Dundonald.
June 26th: A British private is killed by an IRA sniper in Newtonhamilton.
July 17th: An IRA sniper guns down a British soldier in Crossmaglen; he dies from his injuries.
August 16th: The Provisional IRA bomb the town centre in Strabane, County Tyrone.
September 13th: Red Hand Commandos shoot dead a Protestant man in Carrowdore, reportedly for seeing a Catholic girl.
October 1st: Over the next eight days the Provisional IRA detonates eight bombs in several locations around London, including Finchley, Highgate and Staples Corner. The blasts cause significant damage but only minor injuries.
October 23rd: The IRA bombs a fish shop in Shankill Road, Belfast, believing that UDA paramilitaries were meeting there. The bomb detonates prematurely and kills ten people: eight civilians, a UDA member and an IRA volunteer.
October 30th: Six Catholics and one Protestant are killed when UFF gunmen raid a Catholic bar, the Rising Sun, in Greysteel, County Derry. The attack was in retaliation to the Shankill Road fish chop bombing a week earlier.
November 2nd: An RUC reservist is killed by an IRA sniper in Newry.
December 2nd: A British soldier is killed by a Provisional IRA sniper in Keady.
December 30th: A British private is gunned down in Crossmaglen, the fourth sniper fatality in the town during the Troubles.

1994
February 17th: Red Hand Commandos murder a Catholic civilian as he visited relatives in Belfast.
March 9th: IRA volunteers launch mortars at Heathrow airport, London. Two mortars cause damage to a runway as planes continued to land. A similar attack is carried out at Heathrow two days later.
March 20th: An IRA-fired mortar hits a British helicopter in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. Four soldiers are injured.
April 6th: A Loyalist and Red Hand Commando member, Billy Elliot, mistakenly tortures and murders a Protestant woman, Margaret Wright. RHC members later assassinated Elliott for killing her.
June 2nd: A Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter crashes in Scotland, killing all 29 people onboard – including most of Britain’s intelligence experts on Northern Ireland. Despite claims of IRA involvement and a cover-up, the crash was almost certainly an accident.
June 16th: Irish National Liberation Army members gun down three Protestants on Shankill Road, Belfast. Two men, including prominent Loyalist leader Trevor King, are killed.
June 18th: UVF members armed with rifles raid a Catholic pub in Loughinisland, County Down, killing six people – a retaliation for the killings of two Loyalists three days before.
July 11th: The Provisional IRA assassinate Ray Smallwoods, a Loyalist politician and UDA member, outside his home in Lisburn.
July 31st: The Provisional IRA assassinate two UDA commanders, Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder.