BBC - Bombing Brighton The Plot to Kill Thatcher (2024)


BBC - Bombing Brighton The Plot to Kill Thatcher (2024)

The Brighton bomb, which exploded on 12th October 1984, was one of the IRA's most significant attacks on mainland Britain during the Troubles. Directly targeting Margaret Thatcher, the bomb, which was planted three weeks before the Conservative Party conference, lay hidden underneath a bathtub in room 629. When the bomb exploded, it blew a gaping hole in Brighton's Grand Hotel, and although the prime minister herself was physically unharmed, the consequences were devastating. Five people were killed in the blast, and 34 others were seriously injured.

Patrick Magee received eight life sentences for his role in planting the Brighton bomb. He was released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday agreement, having served 14 years of his 35-year sentence.

This film includes an interview Magee gave in 2022 about his role in the bombing alongside testimony of some of those whose lives were profoundly affected, with some speaking publicly for the first time. Contributors include Edward and Jo Berry, whose father was killed in the attack; John Gummer, former Conservative Party chairman, who was with Mrs Thatcher the moment the bomb went off; a Special Branch surveillance officer responsible for trying to prevent IRA attacks in England during the 1980s; and an eyewitness who worked at a local nightclub.

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Snippet from Wikipedia: Brighton hotel bombing

On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry; more than thirty people were injured. Thatcher was uninjured. The bombing was a key moment in the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists and republicans over the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, which took place between the late 1960s and 1998.

The IRA decided to assassinate Thatcher during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Her stance against the return of Special Category Status to republican prisoners—the status that meant they were treated as political prisoners, rather than as criminals—meant the strike was not quickly settled, and ten prisoners died. After two years of planning, including reconnoitering the 1982 and 1983 Conservative Party Conferences, a long-delay time bomb was planted in the hotel by the IRA member Patrick Magee over three weeks before the 1984 conference. The IRA knew the hotel would be occupied by Thatcher and many of her cabinet.

The bomb exploded at 2:54 am when most guests were in bed. The force of the explosion was upwards and broke through the roof, dislodging one of the hotel's chimney stacks, which weighed five long tons (5.1 t).


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