As a footnote, you will notice that the RUC directed civilians away from one of the car bombs towards a 'safe' area, where tragically they became victims of a third car bomb.
This is a now well known IRA tactic. The terrorists knew police proceedures by heart, and coldly calculated their placement of explosives on that knowledge, with the intention of causing as many casualties as possible, while at the same time claiming it was RUC incompetence that was to blame.
I should also like to add that there is a hell of a lot more to the conflict that is not known by the general public, and much that even now is not realised by even those who were there on the ground.