The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out 22 bombings in Belfast, killing nine people in what became known as Bloody Friday. The actions sparked a renewed British offensive against the IRA, which commenced the next day.
The "Provos" in some significant ways were able to conduct this sort of activity due to romanticized backing by Irish Americans. It claimed lineage from the Irish Republican Army of the Irish Civil War period, but it had an evolved Socialist agenda that put it in the far left political sphere, which would partially explain how it obtained backing from Libya at the time.
The IRA itself did in fact carry on in existence after the Irish Civil War, even conducting a bombing campaign in 1939 against the United Kingdom. In 1969, after the Troubles had commenced, the IRA split in two over the issue of abstentionism and forming a National Liberation Front with other left wing groups. The group that became the Provos refused to vote on the second item, and opposed the first. Sein Finn likewise split.
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