This bombing was the first major attack on a military base in Northern Ireland since the end of the IRA's ceasefire eight months earlier.

The Provisional IRA ended its 1994 ceasefire on 9 February 1996, when a massive truck bomb went off in the London Docklands area, resulting in two deaths and causing huge damage, especially around the South Quay railway station.

[1] The IRA strategy was to pressure the British government by bombing England, but without rejecting the peace process[2] and without returning to full-scale operations.

[5][6] They drove two 800-pound (360 kg)[7] car bombs several hundred yards into the Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, which housed the British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland.

[13] At first, the RUC's main suspect was a man in his 40s "with a black beard, dark hair and blackrimmed glasses", although investigators thought it was a disguise.

[15] Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was reluctant to confirm whether or not the IRA was involved, and vowed for talks with the British government and the unionist parties.