Patrick Magee (Irish republican)

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For other persons named Patrick Magee, see Patrick Magee (disambiguation).

Patrick Joseph Magee (born 1950 or 1951) was a member (volunteer) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), best known for planting a bomb in the Brighton's Grand Hotel, targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, and killing 2 men and 3 women. He is sometimes referred to as the Brighton bomber.

Magee was born in Belfast but moved with his family to Norwich when he was two years old. He returned to Belfast at the age of 18 in 1969, and joined the Provisional IRA soon afterwards. By the height of the Troubles in the 1970s, Magee had been made the IRA's Chief Explosives Officer. Starting 1973, he served two years after admitting to being a member of the IRA. He then moved backed to Britain and attempted other bombings, evading police by escaping to Amsterdam and Dublin, before returning once again to England.

The plot to bomb the Grand Hotel had started in 1981 as an act of revenge for the hard-line stance Mrs. Thatcher had taken over the death of Bobby Sands and other IRA hunger strikers that were fighting for political status in prison.

Magee had stayed in the hotel under the false name of Roy Walsh three weeks previously, and planted the bomb, with a long-delay timer, in the bathroom wall of his room, number 629. The bomb exploded at 2:40 am on October 12, 1984, killing five (two Tory party members and three wives) and injuring 34. Magee escaped to Holland, but later returned to England. He was arrested in Glasgow in June 1985 while planning other bombings and in September 1986 he received eight life sentences. At his trial, the judge branded him "a man of exceptional cruelty and inhumanity"[1]. While in prison, he earned a PhD BA (first class hons) in 'Troubles fiction'. In August 1997 he was married for a second time, to novelist Barbara Byer.

Magee was released from prison in 1999, having served only 14 years in prison, under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. He has since indicated that he did not act alone at Brighton. He continues to defend his role in the blast, but he has expressed remorse for the loss of innocent lives.

One of the victims of the bombing was Sir Anthony Berry, whose daughter, Jo Tufnell, publicly met with Magee shortly after the GFA, and expressed her forgiveness in an effort at achieving reconciliation as envisioned in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.

[edit] Books

  • Gangsters or Guerrillas? Representations of Irish Republicans in 'Troubles Fiction' (2001) ISBN 1-900960-14-1

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME McGee, Patrick Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES "Brighton Bomber"
SHORT DESCRIPTION Provisional Irish Republican Army member
DATE OF BIRTH 1950/1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH
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