The IRA bomb had been set to detonate during the Conservative Party’s conference in the city. It killed five people and changed the shape of politics.
Firemen take a break in a shelter the morning after the bombing (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
Each day this week The Argus is looking back at the politically-defining events of the tragedy and how it unfolded 40 years ago.
Today, we start with some of the most striking pictures taken from both inside and outside of the hotel as we start to look back on what happened. Later this week we will hear from those who were there and look at the effect it had both locally and internationally.
A woman at the Conservative Party conference reads The Argus on the morning after the bombing (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus) But the story started one month before, when a man giving the name Roy Walsh checked into The Grand hotel, overlooking the seafront in Brighton.
He stayed for four nights in room 629, five floors above the Napoleon Suite, where then-Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was due to stay for the party’s conference the following month.
He arrived under the guise of being one of the many visitors enjoying the sights and sounds Brighton has to offer, but unknown to staff and guests at the hotel, Walsh was not who he had made out to be.
Patrick Magee was given the deadly task of killing Thatcher and her cabinet members during the conference. He had brazenly used the name of an IRA bomber caught in 1973 after two car bombs in London.
Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Reece inspecting the Prime Minister’s bathroom after the bombing (Image: The Argus)
He concealed a bomb, packed with 20lb of explosive gelignite, inside the room’s bathroom with a timer set to go off one month later.
At the time, tensions between Irish unionists and republicans were on a knife edge.
Clashes between security forces and republican paramilitaries were a familiar sight and it was bound to be a hot topic at the year’s Conservative conference at the neighbouring Brighton Centre.
It started without incident, with senior politicians descending on the coastal city to discuss policy at a time when the Tories were the leading party in Government.
All of this changed at 2.54 am on Friday, October 12, however, when a huge part of The Grand hotel – where the conference’s dignitaries were staying – was blown open by Magee’s explosive.
A dinner service menu inside the hotel, from the night before, covered in ash from the blast (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
Despite the devastating blast, the IRA’s key target – Mrs Thatcher – remained unharmed having stayed up late working on her speech in a different room for the following morning’s conference.
She was rushed to Brighton Police Station and later taken to a safehouse – but insisted her conference speech the following day would go ahead, defiant against the catastrophic act of terror.
But five others were killed:
- Eric Taylor, chairman of the Conservative Party’s north-west region.
- Lady Jeanne Shattock, wife of Gordon Shattock, the western area chairman of the party,
- Lady Muriel Maclean, wife of Sir Donald Maclean, president of the Scottish Conservatives.
- Roberta Wakeham, wife of Parliamentary treasury secretary John Wakeham.
- Sir Anthony Berry, MP for Southgate. His wife was badly injured.
Ambulances lined up on the seafront outside the hotel (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
Mrs Thatcher’s cabinet colleague Lord Norman Tebbit was rescued from the rubble along with 33 other injured people after hours trapped under bricks and furniture.
His wife, Margaret, was left paralysed in the aftermath.
Lord and Lady Tebbit outside The Grand hotel in Brighton 25 years after the bombing (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
Journalists and photographers working at The Argus were awoken by the booming shockwave – including photographer Simon Dack, who captured many of the most impactful images of the night at the King’s Road hotel.
Cabinet member Keith Joseph in his dressing gown after being evacuated from the hotel (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
They joined emergency services who were racing to the scene, not yet knowing the scale of the damage, or who might be injured.
The press at The Argus’s office in North Road, Brighton, kicked into action within moments of journalists arriving, ready for a special edition published later in the morning.
It was printed with the striking headline “BOMBED!” within hours of the detonation.
The extra special edition of The Argus on Friday, October 12 (Image: The Argus)
Conference continued with Thatcher’s defiant speech the following morning, criticising the attempt to “cripple” the democratically-elected government at the time.
She said: “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.”
Margaret Thatcher receives applause after addressing conference the morning after her hotel was bombed (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus) Magee was arrested one year later at a home in Glasgow and put on trial in 1986. He was convicted of murder charges and sentenced to life in prison, with a recommendation of 35 years behind bars.
But he served just half, being released in June 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Patrick Magee and Jo Berry pose for a picture while preparing to address an audience in Brighton 20 years after her father Sir Anthony Berry was killed amongst others by Magee’s bomb (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus) Following his release, Magee met with Sir Anthony Berry’s daughter, Jo Berry in an effort to build bridges in the name of peace.
Since, the pair have met and even formed a friendship despite the challenging circumstances.
The Argus will be publishing stories every day to mark the anniversary of the 1984 bombing in print and online.
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