The Brighton hotel bombing 12th October 1984

As a boy I watched news reports covering IRA bombing campaigns. I was 17 years old when they tried to use a bomb to murder Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative cabinet who were holding a conference at The Grand Hotel in Brighton. While on the coast I went to have a quick look at it. Five people died and thirteen were injured. I could not see any sign of bomb damaged on the facade.

In the 1980s the person the IRA want to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher more than any other person. They knew the Conservatives were to hold a conference on 12th October 1984. One month before IRA volunteer Patrick Magee booked a room (number 629). He removed the bath panel and couched a bomb in the small space, set the timer and booked. Room 629 was five floors above the room where Margaret Thatcher would stay. The bomb was small by IRA standards - just 9kg of gelignite. It had been wrapped in cellophane to prevent sniffer dogs noticing it. They hoped Margaret Thatcher would be blown up or crushed to death in bed building materials collapsing onto her.

The night before Margaret Thatcher was to make her big speech she was in her suite but not in bed. She was checking her notes for the speech she going to make in a few hours time. At 2:54am the bomb detonated bringing down a five-ton chimney stack. Its weight meant it crashed through every floor until it met resistance in the basement. The Victorian hotel was so well built things could have been worse. The prime minister’s sitting room and bedroom were untouched but the bathroom was wrecked. Lying asleep in bed her husband Denis was untouched. They changed their clothes and police escorted them to Brighton police station. An hour later they left. The local Marks & Spencer store opened so people requiring new clothes could buy replacements. Unbowed the PM started the conference at 9:30am as planned and then visited the Royal Sussex County Hospital to chat to the injured.

The bomb failed to carry out its purpose as not one Cabinet minister was killed (the next day the IRA said they would try again.) Those murdered were:-

1. Sir Anthony Berry (Deputy Chief Whip)

2. Eric Taylor (North-West Area Chairman of the Conservative Party)

3. Lady Shattock (Jeanne, wife of Sir Gordon Shattock, Western Area Chairman of the Conservative Party)

4. Lady Maclean (Muriel, wife of Sir Donald Maclean, President of the Scottish Conservatives)

5. Roberta Wakeham (wife of Chief Whip John Wakeham).

Others were permanently disabled - a man whose bedroom was directly above the blast and Margaret Tebbit (wife of MP Norman Tebbit) whose fall through four floors means she now requires a wheelchair.

The bomber Patrick Magee is now a free man. "Roy Walsh" who stayed in room 629 was tracked down by MI5 and followed for months. After his arrest he denied everything but a fingerprint on a registration card recovered from the hotel ruins convicted him. Thirteen years passed before he admitted guilt. In court he was given eight life sentences but was released from prison after serving fourteen years under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

While in Brighton I strolled along the beach (all pebbles - what a shame) and had looked at the hotel. It was built in 1864 for the upper classes visiting the city and remains one of the most expensive. After the bombing it was closed for refurbishment for eight months. At the re-opening Margaret Thatcher gave a speech and Concorde flew low overhead, a nod to the her resolve. Aged 58 she had gotten lucky and lived for another 29 years. Eventually she did in a hotel - in The Ritz in central London of a stroke.

I was on a tour and needed to return to the coach. I retraced my footsteps on the beach and had one last look at The Grand. I suppose nobody’s tried to kill the government since the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. I did a salute and left.

Mrs Thatcher's bathroom The Napoleon Suite...