Thiepval barracks bombing The Thiepval Barracks bombing was a double car bomb attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) on 7 October 1996 . The bombs exploded inside Thiepval Barracks , the British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland . One British soldier was killed and 31 people were injured . This bombing was the first major attack on a military base in Northern Ireland since the ending of the IRA ' s ceasefire on 9 February 1996 , when it exploded a large bomb in London ' s Docklands . Background . The Provisional IRA ended its 1994 ceasefire on 9 February 1996 , when a massive car bomb went off in the London Docklands area , resulting in two deaths and causing huge damage , especially around the South Quay railway station . The IRA strategy was to pressure the British government by bombing England , but without rejecting the peace process and without returning to full - scale operations . At first , there were no prospects of resuming the campaign in Northern Ireland , to defuse potential all - out sectarian violence . However , a series of successful police raids in England lead a decision by the IRA to restart its operations in Northern Ireland . Barracks bombing . On 7 October 1996 , two Provisional IRA operatives gained access to the base using forged passes . They drove two car bombs several hundred yards into the military compound at Lisburn , which housed the British Army headquarters in Northern Ireland . The first car bomb detonated near a travel arrangement center , injuring many people . When the wounded were moved to the military hospital , the second car bomb detonated there , catching the victims of the first blast as well as the medical staff helping them . The hospital was reduced to rubble . There was a lapse of 12 minutes between the first and the second blast . There were 31 injured , four of them seriously . A British soldier , Warrant Officer James Bradwell , died four days later of multiple wounds . He was the first soldier to be killed in Northern Ireland since 1994 . The attack coincided with the beginning of the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth and a meeting between loyalist prisoners and members of the Progressive Unionist Party ( PUP ) in the Maze prison . The IRA claimed responsibility on 8 October , in a telephone call to RTÉ news in Dublin . The IRA statement said the target had been barracks personnel and said injuries to civilians were regretted . According to one source , the main security failure that allowed the IRA to penetrate the base was the external security checkpoints and cameras . 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 . A north Belfast man was eventually charged for the bombing on 1 November 1996 . Aftermath . 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 . He warned however that " There has been a protracted political vacuum here . If we don ' t fill that vacuum with real talks then it will be filled with the sort of serious incidents we saw yesterday " . John Bruton , then Taioseach of the Republic of Ireland , called the bombing a " cynical betrayal of the peace process " by the IRA , while PUP leader David Ervine appealed to loyalists not to seek retaliation for the bombing . John Major , the British prime minister , made clear that " the IRA would not bomb its way into the Stormont talks " . The attack was seen as a confirmation that the IRA had given up any hope of achieving a political breakthrough until the next British general elections in 1997 .