Brighton hotel bombing
| Brighton hotel bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of The Troubles | |
The Grand Hotel on the morning after the bombing
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| Location | Grand Hotel, Brighton, England |
| Coordinates | 50°49′17″N 0°08′50″W / 50.82139°N 0.14722°WCoordinates: 50°49′17″N 0°08′50″W / 50.82139°N 0.14722°W |
| Date | 12 October 1984 2:54 am (BST) |
| Target | Margaret Thatcher |
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Attack type
|
Bombing |
| Weapons | Time bomb |
| Deaths | 5 |
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Non-fatal injuries
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31 |
| Perpetrator | Provisional IRA |
The Brighton hotel bombing was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination attempt against the top tier of the British government in 1984. It missed its main targets but killed five others. It occurred on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Brighton Hotel in Brighton, England. A long-delay time bomb was planted in the hotel by IRA member Patrick Magee, with the purpose of killing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, who were staying at the hotel for the Conservative Party conference. Although Thatcher narrowly escaped injury, five people were killed including a sitting Conservative MP, and 31 were injured.
Patrick Magee had stayed in the hotel under the pseudonym Roy Walsh during the weekend of 14–17 September 1984. During his stay, he planted the bomb under the bath in his room, number 629. The device was fitted with a long-delay timer made from videocassette recorder components and a Memo Park Timer safety device. IRA mole Sean O'Calan claimed that 20 lb (9 kg) of Frangex (gelignite) was used. The device was described as a 'small bomb by IRA standards' by a contemporary news report, and may have avoided detection by sniffer dogs by being wrapped in cling film to mask the smell of the explosive.
The bomb detonated at approximately 2:54 am (BST) on 12 October. The midsection of the building collapsed into the basement, leaving a gaping hole in the hotel's facade. Firemen said that many lives were likely saved because the well-built Victorian hotel remained standing. Margaret Thatcher was still awake at the time, working on her conference speech for the next day in her suite. The blast badly damaged her bathroom, but left her sitting room and bedroom unscathed. Both she and her husband Denis escaped injury. She changed her clothes and was led out through the wreckage along with her husband and her friend and aide Cynthia Crawford, and driven to Brighton police station.
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