IRA ADMITS TO SETTING OFF 2 BOMBS IN N. IRELAND.

Byline: The New York Times

The Irish Republican Army acknowledged Tuesday night that it had detonated the two bombs that wounded 21 soldiers and 10 civilians Monday at the British army's headquarters in the British province of Northern Ireland.

The attack, at Lisburn, 10 miles south of Belfast, was the first the IRA has admitted to in Northern Ireland since Sept. 1, 1994, when it called a cease-fire. The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic guerrilla organization, dedicated to forcing Britain out of the predominantly Protestant province, already had broken its general cease-fire in February with attacks in England.

The admission, in a telephone call to the Irish national broadcasting network in Dublin, raised fears here and in Belfast of retaliation by Protestant paramilitary groups, which have observed their own cease-fire since Oct. 13, 1994. It may also mean that the peace talks that started in Belfast four months ago are now all but dead.

``Anything can happen,'' said David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, which has ties to the Protestant paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force. ``We have to batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst.''