Culture | Margaret Thatcher and the IRA

“Killing Thatcher” tells the full story of the Brighton bombing

Rory Carroll recounts the IRA plot to assassinate the prime minister in 1984 and the ensuing manhunt

Mandatory Credit: Photo by ANL/Shutterstock (1449062a)Ira Bombing Of The Grand Hotel In Brighton During The Conservative Party Conference - October 1984 Ira Bombing Of The Grand Hotel In Brighton During The Conservative Party Conference - October 1984
Image: REX Shutterstock

Just after midday on September 15th 1984, a neatly dressed young man carrying an unusually heavy suitcase walked up to the reception desk of the Grand Hotel in Brighton and asked for an upper-floor room with a sea view. The smiling receptionist offered him room 629. All he had to do now was fill in the registration card with his false name and an address in London, and avoid leaving any fingerprints. By a stroke of luck, 629 was one of the rooms that best suited his plan: to plant a bomb with a long-delay timer that would detonate in the early hours of the morning 27 days later—and kill Britain’s prime minister and much of the cabinet.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The long fuse of history”

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