3 August 2001 Ealing bombing
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On 3 August 2001 the Real IRA detonated a car bomb containing 45kg of explosives in Ealing Broadway, West London, injuring seven people. Debris caused by the bomb spread more than 200m (219 yards). Given the size of the bomb, it was surprising that nobody was killed.
The explosion happened just seconds after midnight (Which accounts for the fact that some reports of the incident say that it happened on 2 August) as hundreds of young people were leaving pubs and clubs.
In November 2001, three men, Noel Maguire, Robert Hulme and his brother Aiden Hulme, were arrested in connection with three bomb attacks in the UK.
- The first being outside the BBC on the 4 March 2001 (See 4 March 2001 BBC bombing)
- The second in Ealing broadway on 3 August 2001 and
- The third in Birmingham on 3 November 2001.
They were all later convicted at the Old Bailey on the 8 April 2003. Robert and Aiden Hulme were each jailed for twenty years. Noel Maguire, who the judge said played "a major part in the bombing conspiracy", was sentenced to twenty two years.
Two other men, James McCormack, of County Louth, and John Hannan, of Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh, had already admitted the charge at an earlier hearing. James McCormack, who played the most serious part of the five, the judge said, was jailed for twenty two years. John Hannan, who was seventeen at the time of the incidents, was given sixteen years detention.
