Patrick Magee (Irish republican)

Patrick Joseph Magee (born 1951[1]) is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, best known for planting a bomb in the Brighton Grand Hotel targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet, which killed five people. He is often referred to as the Brighton bomber.

"Brighton bomber" redirects here. For WWII bombers, see Brighton Blitz. For the Australian Rules Football team, see Brighton Bombers. For the actor of the same name, see Patrick Magee (actor).

Early life and IRA career

Patrick Magee was born in Belfast and moved with his family to Norwich when he was two years old.[2] He returned to Belfast at the age of 18 in 1969[2] and later joined the Provisional IRA.[2]

He was interned without trial at Long Kesh between June 1973 and November 1975.[3]

Brighton hotel bombing
Main article: Brighton hotel bombing

The plot to bomb the Grand Hotel had started as an act of revenge for the stance the British government had taken over the 1981 Irish hunger strike.[4]

Magee had stayed in the hotel under the false name of Roy Walsh four weeks previously, during the weekend of 14–17 September 1984. He planted the bomb, with a long-delay timer, in the bathroom wall of his room, number 629.[5] The bomb exploded at 2:54 a.m. on 12 October 1984, killing five people and injuring 34.[6] He was arrested in the Queen's Park area of Glasgow on 22 June 1985 with four other IRA members, including Martina Anderson, while planning other bombings in England.[2] In April 2023 the Scottish Special Branch officer in charge was interviewed and gave an account of the operation and arrests.[7] At his trial in September 1986, he received eight life sentences, with the judge branding him "a man of exceptional cruelty and inhumanity."[2][8] In August 2000, Magee admitted to The Guardian that he carried out the bombing, but told them he did not accept he left a fingerprint on the registration card, saying "If that was my fingerprint I did not put it there".[9] While in prison, he completed a PhD examining the representation of Irish republicans in Troubles fiction.[10] In August 1997, he married for a second time.[11]

After prison

Magee was released from prison in 1999, having served 14 years, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Originally he was sentenced to eight life sentences and a minimum tariff of 35 years.[12] Jack Straw, the then Home Secretary, attempted to block Magee's release, but this attempt was overturned by the High Court.[13]

He continues to defend his role in the blast, but he has expressed remorse for the loss of innocent lives.[14] One of the victims of the bombing was Sir Anthony Berry, whose daughter Jo Berry publicly met Magee in November 2000 in an effort at achieving reconciliation. They have met several dozen times since that date.[15]

Harvey Thomas, a senior adviser to Thatcher who survived the bombing, forgave Magee in 1998. Thomas has since developed a friendship with Magee, including hosting him in his own home. Thomas cited his Christian faith as the reason why he felt compelled to forgive.[16][17] Norman Tebbit, whose wife was paralysed in the Brighton bombing, has asserted that he could only forgive Magee if he went to the police and provided them with the names of anyone else who was responsible for the bombing. He has argued that giving up violence is insufficient, stating: "If Dr. Shipman had announced he was not going to murder any more of his patients, I don't think we would have felt that was a case for going 'good old Shipman' and giving him a slap on the back and a special award from the BMA."[18]

Books
  • Patrick Magee, Gangsters or Guerrillas? Representations of Irish Republicans in 'Troubles Fiction' (2001) ISBN 1-900960-14-1
  • Patrick Magee, Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb – a Memoir' (2021) ISBN 978-0-7453-4177-4

References
  1. "Brighton bomb: Filming forgiveness". BBC News. 13 December 2001. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  2. "Patrick Magee: The IRA Brighton bomber". BBC News. 22 June 1999. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  3. O'Donnell, Ruán (2015). Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons Vol.2: 1978-85. Irish Academic Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-7165-3301-6.
  4. Gerard Gilbert (10 May 2003). "Staying in: The night they bombed the Grand". The Independent. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  5. Gareth Parry (10 June 1986). "Patrick Magee convicted of IRA terrorist attack". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  6. "1984: Tory Cabinet in Brighton bomb blast". BBC News. 12 October 1984. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  7. "Police officer recalls taking down IRA plot". 14 April 2023.
  8. Taylor, Peter (2001). Brits. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 157–159. ISBN 978-0-7475-5806-4.
  9. Wilson, Jamie (28 August 2000). "Brighton bomber thinks again". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  10. Patrick Magee (22 October 2015). "Patrick Magee: my Troubles with fiction". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  11. Martin Fletcher (23 June 1999). "Uproar as Brighton bomber walks free". Irish Independent. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  12. "Outrage as Brighton bomber freed". BBC News. 22 June 1999. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  13. "IRA prisoners to go free". BBC. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  14. "Brighton bomber's regrets". BBC News. 11 October 2002. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  15. "Jacobin – Why I Planted the Brighton Bomb for the IRA and What Came Next". Jacobin magazine. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  16. "Brighton bomb victim: Why I forgive". BBC News. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  17. "Love Thy Enemy". HuffPost. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  18. "BBC NEWS – Programmes – Politics Show – Lord Tebbit on the Brighton bomb". BBC. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
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