25ys ago today Manchester's forgotten IRA bomb.

[m7mcfc]

Largely forgotten due to the 1996 bomb. On the morning of the 3rd Dec, 1992 the IRA set a device off in Parsonage Gardens behind Kendal's. It caused major damage to office's and buildings in the area. I remember Albert Bridge House and the HMRC with all the windows blown out.
The police directed the public towards the North side of Deansgate where the old Shambles Square and Cathedral are. Another device then exploded on Cateton Street right in the direction the police where evacuating people away from the first explosion. No deaths but many people were injured unlike the 1996 bomb where hardly anyone got a scratch but the damage to buildings and the City was greater.
I remember this morning well, I had been in the Safeway in Shambles Square getting a few bits on my way to work. I was doing electrical work on Manchester town Hall.
There was genuine fear, with rumours devices had been planted all over the City. I remember thinking I'm in the Town Hall, surely this will be there No1 target I've got to get out of here.
Must have been other blues caught up in this that day.

 

[mrbelfry]

Was talking to my wife about this the other week and no one we knew remembered it either. Especially considering, like you said, that this attack caused injuries. I would have been 15 at the time so old enough to have known about it

 

[Grassland Blue]

I was between jobs at Manchester Victoria railway station in the mess room.
People in the quiet room thought that they had heard a muffled explosion around 6am.
Nobody thought much about that.
Four of us were sat around a table in the mess room having a chat and a game of cards.
Suddenly, a loud bang occurred, tied to a pressure wave.
This pressure wave was very strong and caused the mess room windows to bulge inwards, so close to shattering. It certainly shook me.
Later on that day I had to walk across Manchester to work a train to Leeds. The City centre was a ghost town and all the time I was walking across to Piccadilly, I was considering whether there were any more devices about to explode on my route!
At the top of Piccadilly approach, Greggs was locked up and a brush leant against the display cases.
As I say the City was deserted and the scene at Greggs summed it up.
I don't think that I have ever been so glad to work a train as I was that day!
(These days you would probably get counselling, we must have been made of sterner stuff!)

 

[laughing gravy]

i was meant to be going to manchester that day with my 2 year old daughter,but had a row with the little uns mother when i went to pick her up,and thankfully ended up not going,funny how some things turn out..

 

[PinkFinal]

I remember it think it was a Thursday or Friday.

 

[JRockBlues]

I used to work in offices overlooking Parsonage Gardens but the company had moved onto Cross Street a while before this event took place. Remember a policeman coming into our offices and telling people they had to leave. Helluva way to get a day off work.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Had no idea about this!

 

[1961_vintage]

I could never understand why they would do something like this in a City with such a strong sense of connection with Ireland.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I was roped into taking my neighbours dog for a walk every morning before work that week as she was away - hate dogs but fancied the neighbour... Anyway I was taking it for a walk in Moston near to the Dean Brook pub and heard this loud rumble and echo and thought it sounded like maybe a freight container falling off a train as being loaded up the road at the Newton Heath depot.
Get back into the house and the radio was already on KEY 103 and they said the Inland Revenue building on Bridge St had been hit by a bomb.

 

[mekonmcfc]

Was speaking about this recently and it just doesn't register with me, There was a lot of IRA activity around that time. The 96 bomb sticks in my mind more as it was the day England played Scotland, And it was the biggest mainland bomb ever. More often than not they gave a coded warning to give the police time to move civilians. Certainly Warrington didn't happen like that. I think that was one of the many catalysts for change