Margaret Thatcher survived the 1984 assassination attempt in Brighton. One MP and 4 Conservative Party workers were killed and 33 injured in the most audacious terrorist attack on British soil since the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The attack signalled that the IRA was willing to strike at the heart of the highest levels of power in the British government. The PM was defiant in the face of the violence. Patrick McGee the IRA bomb specialist was sentenced to 35 years in gaol but was released after 14 years under the Blair government's Good Friday Agreement in 1999.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Bombing Brighton, The Plot to Kill Thatcher, documentary, 2024, BBC directed by Sandy Smith, features an interview with Patrick McGee the IRA bomb maker.
• Rory Carroll, Killing Thatcher, the IRA The Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown, Mudlark, 2023
• Kieran Hughes, Terror Attack in Brighton, Blowing Up The Iron Lady, Pen and Sword 2015

COURSE OUTLINE

• Factors which contributed to the escalation of violence in Northern Ireland 1970-1984 and the Irish resistance to the occupation by the British army
• IRA attacks and their motivation, including the hunger strikes of 1981 in the Maze Prison in Belfast, the intransigence of Margaret Thatcher from the time of her election as PM in 1979.
• The role of Patrick McGee and the planning of the terrorist attack in the Brighton Hotel
• Casualties including death of Sir Anthony Berry MP, Conservative Party workers and injuries to Norman Tebbutt MP and his wife.
• Immediate and longer term impact of the assassination attempt 1984-1998/9
• Impact on the leadership of Margaret Thatcher as PM and her successor John Major

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Discuss the intensity of the IRA bombing campaigns and the determined responses from the British government in the face of successive terrorist attacks 1970-1999 both before and after the Brighton attack
2. Consider the short term and longer term impact of the failed 1984 assassination attempt on the PM including the steps to the Good Friday Agreement 1998/1999 negotiated by PM Tony Blair