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The Provisional Irish Republican Army, officially known as the Irish Republican Army and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that state's army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town had a population of about 77,000; it is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around 145,673 inhabitants in 2022. The name Guildford is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey, a tributary of the River Thames that flows through the town centre.
The Guildford pub bombings occurred on Saturday 5 October 1974 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two 6-pound (2.7-kilogram) gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England. The pubs were targeted that evening because they were popular with British Army personnel stationed at Pirbright barracks. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. Sixty-five people were wounded.