On 14 November 1973, a high-profile trial at Winchester Crown Court concluded with the conviction of nine Provisional IRA active service unit members following the coordinated London car bombings eight months earlier. The campaign, which targeted prominent sites including the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and Whitehall, injured over 200 people and resulted in the death of a civilian from a heart attack.
Among those convicted was 19-year-old Gerry Kelly, along with key co-conspirators Hugh Feeney, Robert “Roy” Walsh, and sisters Marian and Dolours Price. Kelly was found guilty of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause explosions, for which he received two life sentences plus an additional twenty years. While eight defendants received heavy sentences for their roles in the conspiracy, one co-defendant was acquitted after turning informant.
Immediately following their sentencing, Kelly, Feeney, and the Price sisters launched a high-profile hunger strike demanding political prisoner status and repatriation to prisons in Northern Ireland. The protest lasted over 200 days and involved controversial force-feeding by prison authorities before the group was eventually transferred to Irish jurisdictions in 1975, marking a pivotal moment in the political history of the Troubles.
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