The attack came on the back of a string of IRA operations in England carried out by the Balcombe Street unit . The unit had already carried out attacks on pubs in and around London , including in Guildford on 5 October — killing four off-duty soldiers and a civilian , and injuring 65 others — and on 7 November another off-duty soldier and a civilian were killed in the Woolwich pub bombing in which 35 people were also injured . The day before the Talbot Arms bombing , the British government had passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act . At the time described as “ draconian ” , it banned the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Britain and gave the police unprecedented peacetime powers
Guildford
Guildford pub bombings
Talbot Arms pub bombing