Members of the 1984 Conservative Party conference were tucked up in bed at The Grand hotel ready for the last day of the political event, with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher due to deliver her closing speech at the neighbouring Brighton Centre the next day..
But instead, just as the clock struck 2.54am on October 12, a timed explosive tore through the hotel’s upper floors – planted in a bathroom three and a half weeks before by Irish republican activist Patrick Magee.
The scene outside the hotel (Image: Simon Dack)
He had checked into The Grand under a false name, with the intention of killing Thatcher ahead of the big day – leaving 20lb of explosive gelignite inside the room’s bathroom with a timer set to go off during conference.
Read more: Pictures which captured history: 40 years after the IRA bombed Brighton
Clashes between security forces and republican paramilitaries in Ireland were a familiar sight and it was bound to be a hot topic at the year’s event.
Politicians from across the country had descended on the coastal resort to discuss policy at a time when the Conservative Party was in charge of the nation.
Firemen clearing debris from the hotel (Image: The Argus)
But instead, Magee’s explosive was the biggest agenda-defining moment of that year’s event, changing the security and political landscape at the time. Its effects are still being felt today.
Despite the devastating explosion, which caused much of the hotel’s frontage to collapse, key target Margaret Thatcher came out unscathed – having stayed up late writing her speech for the next day.
Fire engines lined up outside the Kingswest Centre (Image: The Argus)
Five people were killed in the explosion and its aftermath:
- 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.
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.
Tebbitt being rescued after the explosion (Image: BBC)
Thatcher 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.
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.”
Patrick Magee leaving Maze Prison (Image: PA)
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.
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