| Rose & Crown Bar bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part ofthe Troubles | |
 Rose & Crown Memorial of the bombing | |
 Interactive map of Rose & Crown Bar bombing | |
| Location | Ormeau Road,Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Date | 2 May 1974 22:00 (GMT) |
| Target | Irish Catholics, Irish Nationalists |
Attack type | Time bomb |
| Weapons | gelignite bomb |
| Deaths | 6 |
| Injured | 18 |
| Perpetrator | Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) |
TheRose & Crown Bar bombing was a bomb attack carried out against a Catholic-owned pub inBelfast. The attack was carried out by the loyalist paramilitary group theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) just less than two weeks before the start of theUlster Workers' Council strike of May 1974 which brought down theSunningdale power sharing agreement and just 15 days before the UVF carried out theDublin and Monaghan bombings which killed 34 and injured 300 people, the highest casualty rate in a single day duringThe Troubles in eitherIreland or Britain.
Loyalists and Unionist from nearly all political and social backgrounds reacted with anger to the Sunningdale agreement in particular the part that offered the Dublin government a say in how Northern Ireland would be governed. Many young Loyalists joined the Loyalistparamilitary groups like the UVF andUlster Defence Association (UDA).In the weeks leading up to May 1974 the Loyalist paramilitaries had intensified their campaign. On 9 February the UDA shot dead two Catholic civilians in a bar in Belfast[1]Two days later on 11 February two more Catholics were killed by the UDA/UFF.[2] On 19 February the UVF killed two more civilians in a bomb attack on a pub inArmagh.[3] On 29 March the UVF bombed Conways bar in Belfast killing two more Catholic civilians.[4] On 21 April the UVF shot dead a Sinn Féin member inFermanagh.[5]
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At around 22:00, terrorists belonging to the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) threw a cylinder bomb, laden with 200lb of high explosives, through the front door of the Catholic-owned Rose & Crown bar on the Lower Ormeau Road. The bomb exploded immediately once inside. The explosion brought the front of the entrance crashing down, making it impossible for people to escape. Five Catholics were killed outright with one more dying from his wounds a day or two later.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of men missing legs or arms and one man blown in half. A 75-year-old man lost a leg and another man his arm.
A whitesaloon seen near the building was later found abandoned in a Protestant area half a mile away.
Two teenagers were eventually arrested and jailed for the bombings.[6]
Loyalist paramilitaries killed a total of 51 people, the majority of whom were killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings on 17 May and injured about 400 in the month of May 1974 alone, making May 1974 the worst month out of the whole conflict for Loyalist paramilitary attacks.[7][5]
In 2014, for the 40th anniversary of the bombing, a monument near the bomb site was dedicated to the victims of the UVF atrocity.[6]
In the Sean Duffy novels by Northern Irish authorAdrian McKinty the main character Sean Duffy survives the Rose & Crown bombing and is inspired to join the police force instead of the IRA by this experience.
