Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict

by David McKittrick

Then in April came an IRA attack in London which had an extraordinary effect. Two bombs set off in the City of London, Britain’s financial heartland, actually inflicted more financial damage than all the 10,000 bombs which had ever gone off in Northern Ireland. When the smoke and dust cleared it was found that the two bombs had caused more than £700 million of damage. The total paid out in compensation in Northern Ireland at that point was just over £600 million. The device had been placed near the Baltic Exchange and the tall buildings around it created a canyon-like effect, preventing the blast from escaping and instead funnelling it into surrounding buildings.