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Thomas Begley (10 November 1970 – 23 October 1993) was a Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Volunteer. Begley was killed when a bomb he was planting on the Shankill Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland exploded prematurely, killing him, a UDA member and eight Protestant civilians.
The IRA's Belfast Brigade launched an operation to assassinate the UDA's top commanders, whom it believed were at a meeting on the Shankill Road. The plan was for two IRA members to enter the shop with a time bomb, force out the customers at gunpoint and flee before it exploded; killing those at the meeting. As they believed the meeting was being held in the room above the shop, the bomb was designed to send the blast upwards. IRA members maintained that they would have warned the customers as the bomb was primed. "Freed Shankill bomber regrets 'accident'". The Guardian, 5 August 2000. Retrieved 17 October 2013. It had an eleven-second fuse, and the IRA explained that this would have allowed just enough time to clear the downstairs shop but not enough for those upstairs to escape.
Begley and two other IRA members from the Ardoyne area Carjacking a blue Ford Escort and drove it to the fish shop. When they arrived, Begley and Sean Kelly, wearing the white coats and caps of delivery men, entered the shop carrying the bomb. Begley was killed when the bomb exploded prematurely, also killing an off-duty UDA member, Michael Morrison, and eight civilians, including two children. Forensic evidence pointed to Begley holding the five pound bomb, which had an 11-second fuse, above the refrigerated serving counter at the fish shop when it exploded. Kelly was convicted of murder for his part in the Shankill Road bombing. A Secret History of the IRA, Ed Moloney, 2002. (PB) ; (HB); , p. 415
In 2001, residents of the loyalist Glenbryn estate displayed a banner, on the eighth anniversary of Begley's bombing, with the words "Walk of Shame", and photographs of those killed by the bomb attached, as riot police escorted schoolgirls and their parents along Ardoyne Road during the Holy Cross dispute. Bombing marked by school protesters, BBC. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
A mural dedicated to dead IRA members, including Begley, was painted in Ardoyne Avenue, near the Begley family home. A Directory of Murals – Album 55, cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 October 2015. In October 2013, a plaque commemorating Begley was unveiled in the republican Ardoyne section of North Belfast. Shankill bomber Thomas Begley commemorated amid loyalist protest, BBC. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
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