Baltic Exchange bombing

The Baltic Exchange bombing was an attack by the Provisional IRA on the City of London, Britain's financial centre, on 10 April 1992,[1] the day after the General Election which re-elected John Major from the Conservative Party as Prime Minister.

Since the Provisional Irish Republican Army's campaign in the early 1970s, many commercial targets were attacked in England which would cause economic damage and severe disruption.

Since 1988, Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin and John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party had been engaged in private dialogue to create a broad Irish nationalist coalition.

[4] British Prime Minister John Major had refused to openly enter into talks with Sinn Féin until the IRA declared a ceasefire.

It is believed the IRA were trying to send a message to the Conservative Party who won the election, which also saw Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams lose his unused seat in the Westminster Parliament.

[18] The stained glass windows of First World War memorial in the Baltic Exchange suffered damage in the bomb blast; they have been restored and are housed in the National Maritime Museum.