This was amongst the first carbombs that the Provisional IRA used during The Troubles in its militant campaign to force a British military withdrawal and reunite the six counties of Northern Ireland with the rest of the island of Ireland . It was part of the IRA 's escalation of violence to avenge the Bloody Sunday killings in which 13 unarmed Catholic civilian men were killed by the British Army 's Parachute Regiment when the latter opened fire during an anti-internment demonstration held in Derry on 30 January 1972
Bloody Sunday killings
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Donegall Street bombing