In an article in the Irish Examiner on the 13th of October, the article reports the following:

"Mr Tebbit said it should never be forgotten Sinn Féin/IRA had killed more people than al-Qaida had killed in the twin towers attack in New York. "

I would like to point out that Lord Tebbit is sorely mistaken in his statistics. Perhaps he is confusing his statistics with the number of innocent civilians killed by the British in Ireland over the last 830 odd years?

Because if so, he would be right because the British have killed way more than 2800 people during their occupation ofIreland. The statistics regarding this are approx. 2819 deaths from the Al Qaeda attacks on 9/11. The PIRA is held responsible for 1706 deaths in its THIRTY+ Years war(!!!) against the occupying British Army. Also to put it in perspective (but not to diminish the sickening nature of the 9/11 attacks, mind you) Number of people who died of hunger on 11th September 2001: 24,000 (assuming that the annual deaths from hunger are evenly spread out).

Keep your mouth shut, Mr Tebbit. I am sorry that your wife was injured in an IRA attack, I truly am. Mistakes happen, but that bomb wasn't one of them. It was a legitimate attack on a legitimate target. It was just unfortunate that the timing was a bit off. The occupying and un-budging government of Thatcher needed to be shaken up. Nothing else would have forced them to view the conflict any differently. Innocents get caught in the path of these unfortunate consequences.

To put into perspective: Shoot to kill operations were occuring at this time, as well as the looming legacy of the hungerstrikes and prison protests. Rage against the Thatcherite government was still at a high level; high enough to warrant one of the most spectacular plans (on paper) of the entire Troubles.
  ¶ 2:55 a.m.