Imperial Hotel bombing 1972

The Imperial Hotel bombing was a no-warning car bombing carried out by the Ulster Loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on the Imperial Hotel situated along the Cliftonville Road close to the Antrim Road in Belfast.

The attack was aimed at killing Irish Catholics but instead only one Catholic was killed in the bombing, the other two victims were both Protestants. At least 50 people were injured in the attack both Protestant & Catholic, 14 of them seriously injured, many of the old people in the nursing home next door suffered from shock. The attack happened at a time of heightened Loyalist paramilitary activity especially by the UVF. The various Loyalist paramilitary groups had killed 46 civilians and one UDA member between them from the 27 May - 26 August 1972.

At the time of the car bombing a teenage disco was going on inside the Imperial Hotel and the hotel was full of young Catholic teenagers enjoying a night out. A bouncer spotted the car bomb which was parked right outside & he quickly raised the alarm, but he was too late. The bomb exploded while the Imperial Hotel & the nursing home next door's premises was being cleared. The UVF's 200 lb car bomb (the largest they had used up to that point) exploded without a warning. Three people were killed, two of them instantly, Andrew McKibben (28) was in his car looking for a space to park when he pulled in beside the bomb car when it exploded, he had no chance & died instantly, Martha Smilie a 91 year old Protestant women who was living next door beside the hotel died from shock, the other victim Anne Murray (53) died of her wounds two days later. 91 year old Martha Smilie was the oldest victim killed in the conflict in Northern Ireland between 1969 - 1998 known as The Troubles. The hotel was wrecked by the bomb & the nursing home next door was also very badly damaged.