Nine people from Belfast were convicted six months later for the bombing, one person managed to escape and one was acquitted for providing information to the police.

[4] Rioting, protests, gun battles, sniper attacks, bombings and punishment beatings became part of everyday life in many places in Northern Ireland, especially in the poorer working class areas of Belfast and Derry.

[7] The IRA selected the volunteers who would constitute the ASU for the England bombing operation,[8] which was scheduled to take place on 8 March 1973, the same day that a border poll – boycotted by Nationalists and Roman Catholics [9] – was being held in Belfast.

[10] Several days before the bombing, the leaders of the IRA ASU, which included sisters Marian and Dolours Price, went to London and picked out four targets: the Old Bailey, the Ministry of Agriculture, an army recruitment office near Whitehall and New Scotland Yard.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary warned the British that the ASU was travelling to England, but were unable to provide specifics as to the target.

"[10] The ASU was caught trying to leave the country at Heathrow Airport prior to the explosions, as the police had been forewarned about the bombings and were checking all passengers to Belfast and Dublin.

As her verdict was handed down, the other defendants began to hum the "Dead March" from Saul, and one threw a coin at her, shouting "Take your blood money with you" as she left the dock in tears.

[1] As the eight were led to the cells below the court, several gave raised fist salutes to relatives and friends in the public gallery, who shouted "Keep your chins up" and "All the best".

The Price sisters immediately went on hunger strike, soon followed by Feeney and Kelly, for the right not to do prison work and to be repatriated to a jail in Ireland.

The bombers on hunger strike were eventually moved to jails in Ireland as part of the 1975 IRA truce agreed with the British.

The Home Office in London refused to allow Martin Brady to attend his brothers funeral at Miltown cemetery in Belfast.

Two more people would die in England from IRA bombings in 1973, bringing the total to three for the year in that part of United Kingdom.