Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/1975 Manchester bombing


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1970–79). (non-admin closure) buidhe 00:24, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

1975 Manchester bombing

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Minor bombing during the Troubles, regrettably there were lots of these. Fails virtually every single part of WP:EVENT. No lasting effects, limited geographical score, no in-depth coverage, little continued coverage. The majority of the article isn't even about this bombing and, probably understandably, the majority of the references don't mention this bombing either. The ones that do mention this bombing are CAIN (who are attempting to produce a chronology of every single incident during the Troubles, so inclusion on their list doesn't make the bombing notable), the totality of their coverage being The IRA also exploded a bomb in Manchester which injured 26 people, Hansard, which contains a table giving an injury total of 14 for the bombing, The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London, which says In a parallel attack in Manchester, in the North of England, a bomb attack on the Lewis department store injured nineteen people, raising the total number of casualties for the evening to twenty-six, and lastly GMP Museum which says Less than a year after the bombing at the courts, Manchester suffered a three week spate of IRA bombings, including an incendiary device in the basement of Lewis’s department store that injured 19 people. Despite the rather limited information available the references don't even agree how many people were injured, giving totals of 14, 19 and 26. FDW777 (talk) 11:52, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of United Kingdom-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 11:58, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Crime-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 11:58, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Events-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 11:59, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

For the sake of maximum transparency I have just removed the Moysey book reference from the article, as it was referencing a sentence implying a named individual had some organisational involvement in this bombing attack. The reference says At the beginning of February, the IRA rotated Brendan Dowd out of London, sending him back to Dublin for reassignment to head up a new ASU, intended to be based in the North of England., and the sentences prior make it obvious that February is referring to 1975, which is after this bombing had taken place. FDW777 (talk) 12:14, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Terrorism-related deletion discussions. Necrothesp (talk) 13:22, 21 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Keep. IRA attacks on the mainland had heavy media coverage and most of them should be regarded as notable. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:22, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Weak keep it's almost WP:MILL but I think we should keep it because it's a historic account of a specific bombing that received good coverage at the time. Dreamanderson (talk) 14:46, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Comment Where is this "heavy" or "good" media coverage? The New York Times says The 19 were Injured, none seriously, authorities said, in Lewis's, a popular department store in Manchester. Two were admitted to hospitals, that's 21 words. The Provisional IRA in England: the bombing campaign, 1973-1997 by Gary McGladdery says on page 100 On 27 January devices exploded at a number of stores across England, including Lewis's Department Store in Manchester where fourteen people were injured, and Ratners jewellers in Kensington High Street in London where four people were injured, that's 23 words and he doesn't even give the incident a full sentence of its own. CAIN have 11 words on the incident, Moysey 21 words and again not a full sentence. So that's two authors years after the event who don't even give the incident a full sentence of its own. A similar book about IRA's campaign in England, 25 Years of Terror: The IRA's war against the British by Martin Dillon, doesn't even mention this bombing at all. WP:EVENTCRITERIA says Routine kinds of news events (including most crimes, accidents, deaths, celebrity or political news, "shock" news, stories lacking lasting value such as "water cooler stories," and viral phenomena) – whether or not tragic or widely reported at the time – are usually not notable unless something further gives them additional enduring significance. Where's the enduring significance? Books about the IRA's campaign in England give it less than a sentence of coverage, if they even mention it at all.
 * Based on the references provided so far (either ones in the article or ones provided by me, none by people asserting this incident deserves an article of its own) what encyclopedia article could be written? "An IRA bomb exploded in Manchester on 27 January 1975, 14/19/26 people were injured". That's not an article, and it can be covered just as well at Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1970–79) and List of terrorist incidents in Great Britain. FDW777 (talk) 17:30, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Still waiting for evidence this "heavy" or "good" media coverage exists? FDW777 (talk) 19:44, 25 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Keep There is continuining coverage decades later, such as this. Andrew🐉(talk) 18:57, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * No, that's trivial coverage in an article about an incident on July 1st 1975, which is a different subject entirely. FDW777 (talk) 19:27, 21 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Merge/Redirect - This has only received a small amount of attention and is best described in context over at 'Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1970–79)'. As stated above, we only have a few sentences worth of material that can be properly cited, which isn't enough to build a page out of. As well, there's that frustrating variation in terms of how many were injured. I know that it's horrifying to think of a terrorist attack as being "routine", but in context our rules about "routine" events seem to apply. CoffeeWithMarkets (talk) 21:52, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
 * That would appear to be the most sensible approach. This discussion was never intended to remove all mention of this incident from Wikipedia. It can be quite easily covered in that article and List of terrorist incidents in Great Britain as I've already stated. To date the total additional information supplied amounts to an additional sentence-worth of material about the warning received before the bombing and the evacuation, to add to the existing one sentence. Those two sentences can be covered perfectly well in other articles, no information will be lost. FDW777 (talk) 17:39, 26 April 2020 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.