2001 Ealing bombing

On 3 August 2001 the Real IRA detonated a car bomb containing 45 kg of explosives in Ealing Broadway, West London, England, injuring seven people. Debris caused by the bomb spread more than 200 m.

The bomb was in a grey Saab 9000 which exploded at around midnight.

Apart from the damage caused directly by the explosion, further extensive damage to property in the adjacent Ealing Broadway shopping centre was caused by flooding arising from the water main under the car bomb being ruptured. Around £200,000 of damage was caused.

Experts regarded the bomb to be designed to look spectacular on CCTV for the purposes of 'armed propaganda' rather than to cause large numbers of injuries.

In November 2001, three men – Noel Maguire, Robert Hulme and his brother Aiden Hulme – were arrested in connection with three bomb attacks in the UK, the first being outside BBC Television Centre on 4 March 2001 (see 2001 BBC bombing); the second in Ealing Broadway on 3 August 2001; and the third in Birmingham on 3 November 2001.

They were all later convicted at the Old Bailey on 8 April 2003. Robert and Aiden Hulme were each jailed for 20 years. Noel Maguire, who the judge said played "a major part in the bombing conspiracy", was sentenced to 22 years.

Two other men, James McCormack, of County Louth, and John Hannan, of Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh, had already admitted the charge at an earlier hearing. McCormack, who played the most serious part of the five, the judge said, was jailed for twenty-two years. John Hannan, who was seventeen at the time of the incidents, was given sixteen years detention.