Provisional IRA's Glasgow cell

The Glasgow cell was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit based in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1985. The cell's members were Martina Anderson, Gerard McDonnell (who had been at large since escaping from the Maze Prison in September 1983), Patrick Magee, Ella O'Dwyer, Peter Sherry and Donnel Craig.[1] They planned 16 bombings in England, which were to occur in July and August 1985.[1] Four were to occur in London and one each in 12 coastal towns and cities.[2]

The cell was discovered by the police on 22 June 1985 after they followed Sherry, during which time he met Magee at Carlisle railway station.[1] Police followed Sherry and Magee on a train to Glasgow, and to a flat in Queens Park, where they arrested both men along with Anderson, O'Dwyer and its leader McDonnell, who were inside the flat.[1] The police found the bombing plans in the money belt which McDonnell was wearing when arrested.[1] The police found and defused a bomb in the Rubens Hotel, near Buckingham Palace. Magee had planted it when he stayed there on the night of 15-16 June 1985;[1] it was timed to explode on 29 July.[3] On McDonnell, the police also found a letter which led them to Donnel Craig in Willesden Green, London.[1] Craig was the cell's London-based member, who confessed to police.[1] He led police to another flat in Glasgow, where they discovered the cell's explosives, detonators and long-delay timers.[1] In June 1986, all five other members of the cell were convicted of conspiring to cause explosions, for which they each received a life sentence.[3][4]