gelignite

Booby trap, incendiary device, gelignite and rubber bullets are, writes Kennedy, “the vocabulary of a seven-year-old child now.”

She worries a great deal about her pupils, who know far too much about human suffering and brutality: “Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard. The vocabulary of a 7-year-old child now.”

Incidents grew in scale from the "opportunistic" detonation of a 1lb stick of gelignite at Pirbright army base in September 1973 to the M62 coach bomb on 4 February 1974 when nine soldiers, a wife and two children died, the court heard.

Inside, they found 20 sticks of gelignite, weighing around 2.5kg.

Gelignite, invented by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, is a cheap explosive that cannot explode without a detonator.