A further Republican atrocity, in this case from the Real IRA, in Omagh in August 1998 killed 31. The bid emphasised connectivity with the rest of the city.įollowing another Provisional IRA ceasefire and the landmark Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the peace process was firmly back in place. The plan included: a new square bordered by the Arndale Centre, the Corn Exchange and a new Marks & Spencer linked to St Ann’s Square by a new pedestrianised street an extension of the Arndale Centre to the north including a Winter Garden a cultural building and leisure development at Maxwell House (now the Printworks) and a new transport interchange. The winner of the bid to redesign was the consortium EDAW which included Manchester practice Ian Simpson Architects (now SimpsonHaugh). The framework must promote the widest possible range of opportunities for people to live, shop, work and relax safely and where activity can take place at most times of day and night." Our objective is to maximise private investment and stimulate economic activity. The brief for the redesign had been clear: "We want to see a development and investment framework established which creates an architecturally distinctive core, which is of urban character and is responsive to the access needs of the young and old, people with disabilities, and which is physically and socially integrated with the rest of the City. It's a coincidence that 25 years later there is another European Championship taking place, mainly on UK soil, and a further coincidence that on the anniversary Germany is playing once more.įive months after the bomb, a winner of an international competition to redesign the affected area was announced, although there were some raised eyebrows that this was announced on 5 November. It was taken as a symbol of defiance against the terrorists. Incidentally, the day after the bomb, the Euro 96 match between Germany and Russia took place at Old Trafford. But immediately the city community (under the new leadership of Richard Leese) galvanised itself and, with the aid of a very supportive Conservative government (particularly Michael Heseltine, who guaranteed immediately the provision of £84m), made plans to rebuild the streets and buildings and radically improve what had been there before. The initial response was outrage from the UK government and disbelief from the Irish government. The next major attack was Manchester using, again, a Ford Cargo truck. First, London was attacked with the deadliest assault being the Docklands bombing in February 1996 which killed two innocents and injured 39 using a device in a Ford Cargo truck.
This reminder of their terrorist potency would be worth it, irrespective of casualties. In turn, this was said to have come from his need to work with the Unionist parties at Westminster as his majority dwindled.Īnother theory is that the IRA thought its side had conceded too much ground and the hawks among them wanted to hurt the UK by hitting economic centres.
One theory behind previous bombings in 1996 and the one in Manchester is that pressure from British Prime Minister John Major on the IRA to disarm triggered the resumption of the IRA’s murderous campaign. This handshake across a 70-year chasm since Irish independence in the south of the island of Ireland accepted the right of Sinn Fein to contribute to peace negotiations, as long as its military wing, the Provisional IRA, called a ceasefire. In December 1993 the British and Irish governments came together and issued the Downing Street Declaration.
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