WHO'S SORRY NOW?

The Burning of the British Embassy in 1972

I was there on the afternoon of 2 February 1972 when a large crowd protested outside the British embassy in Dublin's Merrion Square and some members of the IRA attempted to set it on fire.

This event followed the shooting of innocent protesters in Derry on the previous Sunday, now known as Blood Sunday. You could say that the shooting of the innocents was premeditated, at least in a political sense, as evidenced by General Ford's decision to send in the Parachute Regiment to "shoot selected ring leaders amongst the DYH (Derry Young Hooligans)".

The atmosphere in Dublin following the shootings was incandescent and, had the safety valve of the burning of the embassy not happened, there could have been widespread violence and possible loss of life.

The embassy had been evacuated that morning and the police had been told not to interfere with the protest. A wise decision and one prioritising life over property. Needless to say the Irish state had to apologise and pay compensation to the British but that was a small price to pay for the event.

Personally, I have never felt the need to apologise for my enthusiastic presence at that event.

The Bombing of the Baltic Exchange in 1993

On 10 April 1992 at 9:20 pm, a huge bomb was detonated in front of the Baltic Exchange in the financial district of London. The bomb attack by the IRA killed 3 people and injured a further 91.

It also caused heavy damage to surrounding buildings and it was one of these that was at the centre of my interest. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was housed directly accross from the Baltic Exchange. The building experienced some damage and one member of staff was injured. Greater injuries and possibly deaths might have resulted but for the fact that virtually the whole bank staff were in Budapest that weekend for the bank's Annual General Meeting.

I was on the board of the bank and was going to have to face my colleagues at the AGM after this "Irish" bomb atrocity at the bank's headquarters. Needless to say, I in no way supported this bombing but I nevertheless had a feeling that I'd need to apologise for it.

Thanks to the advice of Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, I quickly recovered from this insanity and realised that those who carried out the bombing had no claim to be doing it in my name.

In thinking about the burning of the embassy, I recalled the other superficially similar event in London and my very different reaction to the two events.

Next Wednesday is the 50th anniversaray of the burning of the embassy.

The bombing of the Baltic Exchange (and by extension the EBRD headquarters) is generally held to have been a mistake by the IRA who thought they were bombing the London Stock Exchange some distance away.