Canary Wharf Bombing

The 1996 bombing at Canary Wharf in East London marked the end of an 18-month Irish Republican Army (IRA) cease-fire and jeopardized the peace process for Northern Ireland.

Since the late 1960s, conflict has been ongoing between Northern Ireland's Protestants, who want the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland's Roman Catholics, who want it to become part of the Republic of Ireland. On August 31, 1994, after months of secret talks with the British and Irish governments, the IRA, the largest paramilitary group on the Catholic side (also called the nationalist, or republican, side), announced a cease-fire. In October, the major Protestant (also called loyalist or unionist) paramilitary groups followed suit. After 30 years of guerrilla warfare and several previous failed attempts at negotiations, these mutual cease-fires represented the best opportunity to achieve a lasting peace.

The major parties to ...