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Brighton hotel bombing
Part of the Troubles
The Grand Hotel on the morning after the bombing
Location	Grand Hotel, Brighton, East Sussex, England
Date	12 October 1984 (1984-10-12) 2:54 am (BST)
Target	Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet
Attack type	Bombing
Weapons	Time bomb
Deaths	5
Injured	31
Perpetrator	Provisional IRA

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Background

The Troubles in the late 1970s and 1980s

• Assassination of Airey Neave
• Assassination of Mountbatten and the Warrenpoint ambush
• The Hunger Strikes and not giving the IRA political prisoner status ("Crime is crime is crime. It is not political, it is crime")

Thatcher's Northern Ireland policy, 1979-1984

Denis and Margaret Thatcher in 1984

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Following the hunger strikes: "Thatcher herself emerged from this episode as a republican hate-figure of Cromwellian proportions ('that unctuous, self-righteous fucker', 'the biggest bastard we have ever known', in Danny Morrison's evocative phrasing)."

Patrick Magee, the IRA and the England unit

Patrick Magee, seen in 2014

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IRA 'policy' on Thatcher - bombing was a reaction to the hunger strikes etc

Build-up

Planning and preparation

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In nunc lacus, efficitur non dapibus nec, iaculis in metus. Suspendisse egestas semper nibh aliquet sodales. Aenean in lobortis tellus, a faucibus tortor. Proin imperdiet non augue sed ultricies. Fusce fermentum, dui sed tincidunt sollicitudin, mauris orci laoreet nulla, eget pretium velit elit eu tellus. Maecenas augue urna, tempus vitae magna id, ultricies placerat tellus. Fusce tristique ex diam, id imperdiet quam egestas interdum. Aliquam placerat eleifend magna, eget ullamcorper tellus pharetra at. Donec consequat risus vitae purus tincidunt varius. Nam pellentesque id dui a convallis. Morbi sit amet lectus tortor. In sit amet tincidunt nibh, ac rutrum tellus. Duis tincidunt ac est ut tristique. In justo nisl, mattis id fringilla at, scelerisque ut erat.

Fusce interdum turpis in odio posuere, venenatis viverra tortor posuere. Sed lacus lorem, finibus a mattis in, congue ut justo. Phasellus luctus mi vitae ligula tempus varius. Donec dignissim nibh in est lacinia, vel accumsan diam venenatis. Praesent porttitor massa vitae quam feugiat finibus. Phasellus nec sagittis nisi. Nulla tempus dignissim leo et hendrerit. Aenean ipsum nibh, pulvinar non sem at, posuere aliquam leo. Duis congue auctor urna et lacinia.

Salcey Forest surveillance.

Planting the bomb

Grand Hotel

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Location of the Grand Hotel, on the waterfront of Brighton

On 15 September 1984—some four weeks before the Conservative Party Conference—Magee registered at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, under the name "Roy Walsh". The pseudonym was the name of the IRA bomber who was convicted for his part in the IRA's 1973 Old Bailey bombing. When he completed the hotel's registration card, Magee gave a false address (27 Braxfield Road, London, SE4), stated he was English, omitted his passport details, and paid £180 for three nights' stay. He was given room 629, which was on the sixth floor facing the sea. Magee had chosen a high-level room as he thought that would be where Thatcher would have had her room, a high level for additional security, in case the striking miners occupied the hotel.

Magee had lunch at the hotel's restaurant on the day he arrived, where he ate with another man. The man visited Magee over the three days but did not stay overnight. Two female IRA couriers delivered bomb materials to the room; neither they, nor the other man, has ever been identified. According to the journalist Rory Carroll, who wrote a history of the bombing, considers that "It is unlikely that more than four people were involved". According to Magee, the bomb comprised 105 pounds (48 kg) of gelignite; security forces later considered it was 30 pounds (14 kg) of semtex. The device was fitted with a long-delay timer, such as the type used in videocassette recorders. The timing unit was battery powered and a Memo Park timer was also incorporated into the device; Carroll considers the timer was probably part of an anti-handling device, designed to counter any interference by a bomb disposal team if the device was found before detonation.

To mask the smell of the explosives—a distinctive aroma similar to marzipan—the device was wrapped in several layers of plastic. Once the bomb was completed, Magee removed the side panel of the bath and placed the device within the space. Magee and his colleagues finished around 10:00 pm on 17 September, and ordered a bottle of vodka and three bottles of coke to be delivered to the room. He spent the third night in the room and checked out at around 9:00 am the following day.

Conference and explosion, 9–12 October 1984

The course and result of the explosion

Effects of the bomb, showing the position of the British cabinet at the time (Image from the Graphics Lab)

Close-up of the damage caused by the bomb; the surviving chimney visible was equal in size to the one that fell through the hotel

The Conservative Party Conference began on 9 October 1984; it was scheduled to last four days, with Thatcher's speech on the final day. Thatcher was staying in the hotel's Napoleon Suite, three rooms with a sea view on the first floor. Her staff set up an office in rooms across the corridor. Before she arrived at the hotel, a police dog and his handler searched the suite and other rooms on the first floor, but none of the rooms on the other floors. The search itself was cursory, with the officer spending only thirty minutes in her rooms. The officer later recalled that the suite had staff and aides walking in and out while he worked. Uniformed and plainclothes police were posted in and outside the hotel.

On the evening of 11 October the Tebbits attended a reception hosted by Alistair McAlpine, the Treasurer of the Conservative Party; they left at around midnight and returned to their room. A ball was being held in Top Rank, a nearby venue, which Thatcher visited for 45 minutes, returning to the hotel at about 11:45 pm. In her suite, she continued to work on her conference speech. She finished at around 2:45 am and decided to work on some government business with Robin Butler, her Principal Private Secretary, before going to bed. She went to the toilet and returned to her desk at 2:52 am.

At 2:54 am on 12 October 1984 the bomb under the bath in room 629 exploded. The occupants of the room were Donald Maclean—the president of the Scottish Conservatives—and his wife Muriel; they were in bed at the time. She was blown sideways by the blast; he was blown upwards. In the neighbouring room, 628, Lady Jeanne Shattock, the wife of Sir Gordon Shattock, the Western Area chairman of the Conservative Party, was bending over the bath; the wall between the bathroom of 629 and 628 disintegrated, and fragments of the ceramic tiles were "driven into her body like bullets", according to Major Peter Maynard, an army explosives expert. She was decapitated and her body was blown across the corridor and into room 638. Her husband fell through the collapsing floors down to the basement but survived.

The force of the explosion going upward broke through the roof and and dislodged one of the hotel's eleven feet (3.4 m), five long tons (5.1 t) chimneys. It fell through the roof, through the rooms ending in 28 and clipping those ending in 29. The bomb and the falling chimney took out much of the front of the building, creating a hole thirty feet (9.1 m) deep and fifteen feet (4.6 m) wide. In room 528 it destroyed the room of Eric Taylor—the North-West Area Chairman of the Conservative Party—killing his wife Jennifer; in room 428 Roberta Wakeham, the wife of John, the Chief Whip was killed; in room 328 it killed Sir Anthony Berry, the Deputy Chief Whip. Norman Tebbit—then the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry—and his wife Margaret were in room 228. Tebbit later recalled:

the ceiling came crashing down on us and then, in a hail of debris, the floor collapsed, catapulting us down under an avalanche of bricks, timber and plaster. The force of the impact was indescribable — blow after blow as the debris smashed on to my left side. Something tore into my abdomen with a terrible blow and I heard my very guts sloshing inside me. There was a colossal impact tearing a great hole in my side, then I stopped falling – with no idea where, nor even which way up I was, as the debris cascaded down.

Thatcher's room was below the Tebbits's; her bathroom had been badly damaged, but she, her husband and Butler were all uninjured. According to Carroll, the bomb "did not even scratch her. But it came very, very close." He theorised that if she had still been in the bathroom, "she would have been cut to ribbons, perhaps fatally".

Immediate aftermath, 12 October 1984

Local police and the fire brigade were soon on the scene. One of the first policemen on the scene, Paul Parton, described the scene on his arrival:

As we got closer and the dust was starting to settle, you could see [a policeman] laying on the ground, being supported by other policemen, people screaming, hanging off balconies, alarm bells ringing, water pouring out of broken pipes, and you could see the people up on the balcony. It was horrific.

On arrival, station officer Fred Bishop of the fire brigade requested ten more fire engines and as many ambulances as could be spared. Although Fire Brigade regulations for attending a bomb were that unless there was a fire in progress, the fire engines were to park two streets away, maintain radio silence and wait for the bomb squad, Bishop and his crew entered the hotel. Throughout the night they tunnelled through areas of the debris to rescue the people trapped in the rubble. Muriel Maclean was found in pain with her right leg mangled; she was extracted, but died of her injuries a month later.

Inside the hotel, the Thatchers, Butler, several cabinet ministers with their partners and the Conservative secretarial staff who were still working, made their way downstairs and left the hotel through the rear entrance; they were taken to Brighton police station, which was thought the most secure place for them. Several other cabinet members were also taken to the police station, where Thatcher announced that the party conference would continue at 9 am. She, her husband and secretary spent the night at Lewes police college.

Norman Tebbit in 2020

After the explosion Tebbit and his wife ended up next to each other, twelve feet (3.7 m) above the hotel's reception, both alive but buried under tonnes of rubble; they held hands and talked to each other for comfort. Margaret was rescued first. She had a broken neck and was paralysed from the neck down; she used a wheelchair because of her injuries. At 6.53 am Tebbit was finally taken out of the hotel in his pyjamas and on a stretcher; his extraction was caught on cameras as they were broadcasting live for breakfast television. The images, according to Carroll, "became a defining drama of the Brighton bomb". Tebbit had severe injuries to his ribs, shoulder and pelvis. The final casualty, John Wakeham, was extracted from under timber and rubble in the foyer, having fallen from the fourth floor. Casualties were lighter than expected; only thirty-three people were treated in hospital. Injuries included broken and fractured bones, lacerations and crush injuries.

Magee was staying with republican sympathisers in Cork; he heard the news of the explosion at 6 am. Writing in 2019 he recalled that "my immediate emotion was relief. Relief that the device had worked". That morning the IRA Army Council issued a statement:

The IRA claims responsibility for the detonation of 100lb of gelignite in Brighton against the British cabinet and Tory warmongers. Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country, torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it.

Today we were unlucky, but remember we have only to be lucky once, you will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no war.

Many of the conference attendees had lost their clothes in the hotel. With the conference due to restart at 9:00 am that morning, McAlpine hired a coach and several taxis to take them to a local branch of Marks & Spencer and 8:00 am, which he had arranged to be been opened early for them. The Conservative Party paid for new clothes for them and had them back at the conference centre for it to open. Observing this, the BBC producer Ivor Gaber said "If you ever want to understand how the Conservatives always win elections, you just watch the organisation." The conference started at 9:30 am with a standing ovation for Thatcher as she arrived on stage, followed by a two-minute silence. At 2:00 pm she gave her close-of-conference speech, which opened with comments on the bombing:

The bomb attack on the Grand Hotel early this morning was first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent unsuspecting men and women staying in Brighton for our Conservative Conference. ... [The bomb] was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our Conference; it was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty's democratically-elected Government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined—is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.

Reactions

Condemnation of the attack came from world leaders. It included denunciation from the Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, who called the bombing "a gross miscalculation of the character of the British people and the nature of British democracy". Thatcher's decision to continue with the conference was supported by her domestic political opponents Neil Kinnock of the Labour Party, David Steel of the Liberal Party and David Owen of the Social Democratic Party. Kinnock said "That is the way we must respond such vile acts in this democracy. There can be no concessions to the murdering madness of those who commit crimes like this bombing." The political historians Ioana Emy Matesan and Ronit Berger consider that "it seems as though since the target was the Conservative party, there was no widespread public condemnation and no rise in public fear of being targeted". They conclude that although there was some domestic condemnation, "overall the public condemnation was fairly weak".

The attempt was celebrated in some quarters. Republican prisoners in the H Block celebrated the news of the explosion with cheers of "Fuck Thatcher" and "Up the 'Ra". While touring Northern Ireland with The Smiths, the singer Morrissey commented "The only sorrow of the Brighton bombing is that Thatcher escaped unscathed." In 1998 the author John O'Farrell wrote "I felt a surge of excitement at the nearness of her demise and yet disappointment that such a chance had been missed. This was me—the pacifist, anti-capital-punishment, anti-IRA liberal—wishing that they had got her."

Investigation and Magee's actions, 12 October 1985 – 22 June 1985

The investigation began at daybreak on the morning of 12 October, with police forensics teams examining the seafront and roadway directly in front of the hotel. They were unable to access the interior until the fire brigade had found the final missing guest. This turned out to be the body of Jeanne Shattock, which was located either in the evening of 12 October, or the following day. Police instructed the firemen to leave her body in situ as the location was a crime scene. Forensic teams went through the rubble, sifting and searching as they went. Over eight hundred long tons (810 t) of rubble was collected in nearly 3,800 plastic dustbins and sent to the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment at Fort Halstead, Kent. Once there, it was sieved again and forensically analysed.

In the basement of the hotel, the police located the registration cards of the previous guests of the hotel; pre-computerisation of the booking system, these were the only records of those who had stayed at the Grand. After two weeks of searching a part of the Memo Park Timer was located in the U-bend of the toilet in room 329. The police searches of the hotel lasted until 30 October. The Anti-Terrorist Branch of the police informed the investigation team of the cache uncovered in Selcey Forest which had a missing timer that was possibly set to twenty-four days, six hours and thirty-six minutes. This would have meant placing the bomb on 17 September. Looking at the registration cards for the four rooms at the epicentre of the explosion—rooms 528, 529, 628 and 629—for that day, they investigated the people who had stayed on at date and established that the card for Roy Walsh was a false name and address. The registration card was fingerprinted and showed partial palm print; in January 1995 this matched with prints taken for Magee when he was arrested in Norwich in 1967.

With no knowledge of where Magee was, the information that Magee was the bomber was kept secret within the investigation team. Surveillance by the RUC Special Branch and the Garda Síochána on Magee's wife—the RUC while she was still in Northern Ireland; the Garda when she crossed the border to Eire—had located Magee in Ballymun, an outer suburb in the north of Dublin. Rather than request extradition to the UK, the British government, police and security services decided to wait until Magee returned to the UK. The British government decided not to tell their Irish counterparts that Magee was the bomber, but instead had the police ask the Garda to keep him under surveillance.

In 1985 the IRA planned a series of bomb attacks in British tourist destinations, mainly seaside resorts, over the summer period. The aim was to have sixteen bombs exploding in fourteen days. Magee volunteered to be included in the group. A small team of four was formed: Magee; Gerry McDonnell, who was experienced with electronics and had operated in England previously; Martina Anderson, who had been charged with causing an explosion in 1981; and Ella O'Dwyer a newcomer to the IRA's active service, who had joined their cause because of the hunger strikes.

In March 1985 Magee gave the Irish police surveillance team the slip and travelled to Britain where he and O'Dwyer rented a flat in Glasgow. On 15 June he and a female partner rented a room at the Rubens Hotel, overlooking the Royal Mews, which is situated in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. They rented room 112 for £70 for one night and planted a pre-assembled bomb that comprised 3 pounds 9 ounces (1.6 kg) of gelignite, set with a Memo Park timer to explode at 1 pm on 29 July. It was placed behind the bedside table, which had to be unscrewed from the wall for the device to be placed, and then screwed back in place.

Repercussions and legacy

• Changes in approach to government protection and security. (See "The State and the Assassination Threat in Britain, 1971–1984")
• As "a catalyst" for the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

In addition to news and historical coverage, the Brighton bomb has been described in books, including histories of what happened and personal memoirs from those involved. Additionally, the events have have been depicted in fiction. The events have also been examined in television documentaries.

Notes and references

Sources

Books

• Bell, J. Bowyer (1993). The Irish Troubles: A Generation of Violence, 1967-1992. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-3120-8827-9.
• Bell, J. Bowyer (2000). The IRA, 1968–2000: Analysis of a Secret Army. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 978-1-1363-3308-8.
• Berry, Jo (2017). "'I'd find a way to contribute to peace'". In Dawson, Graham; Dover, Jo; Hopkins, Stephen (eds.). The Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain: Impacts, Engagements, Legacies and Memories. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 334–341. ISBN 978-0-7190-9631-0.
• Bishop, Patrick; Mallie, Eamonn (1987). The Provisional IRA. London: Heinemman. ISBN 978-0-4340-7410-5.
• Bret, David (2004). Morrissey: Scandal & Passion. London: Robson. ISBN 978-1-8610-5968-0.
• Carroll, Rory (2023). Killing Thatcher. London: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0-0084-7666-3.
• Cochrane, Feargal (2021). Northern Ireland: The Fragile Peace. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-3002-0552-7.
• Coogan, Tim Pat (1994). The IRA: A History. Niwot, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers. ISBN 978-1-8793-7399-0.
• Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal, 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace. New York: Palgrave for St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-3122-9418-2.
• Dawson, Graham (2017). "Introduction". In van Leeuwen, Sacha; Dawson, Graham (eds.). The Brighton 'Grand Hotel' Bombing: History, Memory and Political Theatre (PDF). Brighton, East Sussex: Centre for Research in Memory, Narrative and Histories, University of Brighton. pp. 1–10. OCLC 1090426341.
• English, Richard (2003). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1951-6605-7.
• Everton, Julie; Melia, Josie (2017). "The Writing, Production and Reception of The Bombing of the Grand Hotel". In van Leeuwen, Sacha; Dawson, Graham (eds.). The Brighton 'Grand Hotel' Bombing: History, Memory and Political Theatre (PDF). Brighton, East Sussex: Centre for Research in Memory, Narrative and Histories, University of Brighton. pp. 59–68. OCLC 1090426341.
• Gaffikin, Frank; Morrissey, Mike (1990). Northern Ireland: The Thatcher Years. London: Zed Books. ISBN 978-0-8623-2906-8.
• Kelly, Stephen (2021). Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-3501-1537-8.
• Magee, Patrick (2021). Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges After the Brighton Bomb. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-4177-4.
• McGladdery, Gary (2006). The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign, 1973-1997. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-7165-3373-3.
• Moore, Charles (2013). Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography. Vol. Two: Everything She Wants. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-3079-5894-5.
• O'Farrell, John (1998). Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter, 1979–1997. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-3854-1059-5.
• Oppenheimer, A. R. (2009). IRA, the Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-7165-2894-4.
• Ramsey, Steve A. (2018). Something Has Gone Wrong: Dealing with the Brighton Bomb. London: Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7859-0336-6.
• Revill, James (2016). Improvised Explosive Devices: The Paradigmatic Weapon of New Wars. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-3193-3833-0.
• Stern, Chester (1997). Dr Iain West's Casebook. London: Warner. ISBN 978-0-7515-1846-7.
• Strong, M. C. (1995). The Great Rock Discography. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-0-8624-1541-9.
• Tebbit, Norman (1989). Upwardly Mobile. London: Futura. ISBN 978-0-7088-4392-5.
• Thatcher, Margaret (1993). The Downing Street Years. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-0025-5049-9.

Journals and magazines

• English, Richard (July 2013). "Terrorist Innovation and International Politics: Lessons from an IRA Case Study?". International Politics. 50 (4): 496–511. doi:10.1057/ip.2013.18.
• Matesan, Ioana Emy; Berger, Ronit (4 May 2017). "Blunders and Blame: How Armed Non-State Actors React to Their Mistakes". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 40 (5): 376–398. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2016.1210891.

News

• "Body Clue to Seat of Bomb in Hotel". The Times. 13 May 1986. p. 3.
• Burke, Declan (18 January 2014). "Gripping RUC Thriller has Troubles in Mind". Irish Examiner.
• Cavendish, Dominic (20 October 2008). "The Bomb". The Daily Telegraph. p. 26.
• Goodman, Lee-Ann (13 October 2007). "Tube Talk". Waterloo Region Record. p. 32.
• Hoggart, Paul (16 May 2003). "Secret History was a Sobering Reminder of a Terrorist Attack that Could Have Changed the Course of British History". The Times. p. 23.
• "Lady Tebbit; Nurse and Loyal Political Spouse Left Paralysed After the IRA Bombing of the Grand Hotel, Brighton". The Daily Telegraph. 22 December 2020. p. 35.
• Linton, Martin (13 October 1984). "Thatcher Right to Carry On, Says Kinnock". The Guardian. p. 3.
• Moore, Charles (2 December 2011). "Margaret Thatcher: A Figure of History and Legend". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
• Senior, Jennifer (14 March 2016). "Review: Jonathan Lee's 'High Dive' Revisits a Plot to Kill Margaret Thatcher". The New York Times.
• Tendler, Stewart (10 May 1986). "Bomb Part 'Found in Hotel Lavatory'". The Times. p. 3.
• Webster, Philip (13 October 1984). "Leaders Support Decision to Carry on with Conference". The Times. p. 3.

Websites

• Clark, Gregory (2023). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
• Thatcher, Margaret (12 October 1984). "Speech to Conservative Party Conference". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
• "The Brighton Bomb". BBC Genome. 14 September 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
• "The Hunt for the Bomber". BBC Genome. 14 September 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2024.