Patrick Magee (Irish republican)

Patrick Joseph Magee ( _ga. Pádraig Seosamh Mac Aoidh; [http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/names.htm] born 1951cite web | title = Brighton bomb: Filming forgiveness | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1704600.stm | publisher = "BBC News" | date = 13 December, 2001 | accessdate = 2007-04-30] ) is a former member (volunteer) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), best known for planting a bomb in the Brighton's Grand Hotel, targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, which killed 2 men and 3 women. He is sometimes referred to as the Brighton bomber.

Background and IRA career

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 IRA soon afterwards.cite web | title = Patrick Magee: The IRA Brighton bomber | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/301223.stm | publisher = "BBC News" | date = 22 June, 1999 | accessdate = 2007-04-30] By the height of the Troubles in the 1970s, Magee had been made the IRA's Chief Explosives Officer. In 1973 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment after admitting to being a member of the IRA, and was released in November 1975. In 1978 he traveled to England and planted sixteen bombs in cities across the country, including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Coventry and Southampton. [cite book | last = Bishop, Patrick & Mallie, Eamonn | first = | authorlink = | title = The Provisional IRA | publisher = Corgi Books | year = 1987 | pages = pp. 423-426 | doi = | isbn = 0-552-13337-X]

The plot to bomb the Grand Hotel had started in 1981 as an act of revenge for the stance Mrs. Thatcher had taken over the death of Bobby Sands and other Republican hunger strikers who were fighting for political status in prison. [cite web | title = Staying in: The night they bombed the Grand | author = Gerard Gilbert | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030510/ai_n12684263 | publisher = "The Independent" | date = 10 May, 2003 | accessdate = 2007-04-30]

Magee had stayed in the hotel under the false name of Roy Walsh four weeks previously, during the weekend of 14-17 September 1984, when he planted the bomb, with a long-delay timer, in the bathroom wall of his room, number 629. [cite web | title = Patrick Magee convicted of IRA terrorist attack | author = Gareth Parry | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,,1235581,00.html | publisher = "The Guardian" | date = 10 June, 1986 | accessdate = 2007-04-30] The bomb exploded at 2:54 a.m. on 12 October 1984, killing five people and injuring 34. [cite web | title = 1984: Tory Cabinet in Brighton bomb blast | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm | publisher = "BBC News" | date = | accessdate = 2007-04-30] Magee escaped to Holland, but later returned to England. He was arrested in the Queen's Park area of Glasgow on 24 June 1985 with other members of an ASU, including Martina Anderson, while planning other bombings and at his trial in September 1986 he received eight life sentences, with the judge branded him "a man of exceptional cruelty and inhumanity".cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Brits | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | year = 2001 | pages = pp. 157-159 | doi = | isbn = 0-7475-5806-X] While in prison, he earned a PhD in 'Troubles fiction'. In August 1997 he was married for a second time, to novelist Barbara Byer.

After prison

Magee was released from prison in 1999, having served 14 years in prison, under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. [cite web | title = Outrage as Brighton bomber freed | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/375092.stm | publisher = "BBC News" | date = 22 June, 1999 | accessdate = 2007-04-30] 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. [cite web | title = Brighton bomber's regrets | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/2315579.stm | publisher = "BBC News" | date = 11 October, 2002 | accessdate = 2007-04-30]

One of the victims of the bombing was Sir Anthony Berry, whose daughter, Jo Tufnell, publicly met with Magee in November 2000, in an effort at achieving reconciliation as envisioned in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.

Books

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

References

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,204987,00.html Freedom for the Brighton bomber] June 23, 1999
* [http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2000/09/03/story265578038.asp Coming to terms: Brighton bomber's story] September 03, 2000
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,360012,00.html Brighton bomber thinks again] August 28, 2000
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/bomb.html The Brighton bomb – no impact?] 2004
* [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/bibdbs/magee01/index.html Book review, with full Appendix A: Troubles Fiction bibliography] September 2007

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