The Brighton Bomber
Patrick Magee attempted to kill the former Prime Minister, Margaret
Thatcher and her cabinet in 1984. He did this during the Conservative
party’s annual conference. He planted a bomb at the Grand Hotel in
Brighton which the Conservative party were staying at. The bomb left
five people dead and another 34 injured, miraculously. the Prime
Minister and the cabinet managed to escape. Magee had stayed at the
hotel before the Conservative party conference and planted a bomb in
the room that Margaret Thatcher was later going to be staying in. He
had stayed in the hotel three weeks before the bombing under the false
name of Roy Walsh. Sussex police traced and eliminated 800 people from
50 countries who had stayed at the hotel in the month before the
attack. The only person that could not be traced was Roy Walsh.
Magee’s true identity was discovered after a palm print from a hotel
registration card matched that of Magee. The detectives didn’t want to
issue a public alert and waited and hoped that Magee would come back
to the British mainland. Luckily for them whilst they were tracing
another IRA suspect, Peter Sherry, they were led to Magee in a Glasgow
safe house in 1985. He had also planned attacks on 16 other hotels
around the coast. At Magee’s trial in 1986 the judge recommended that
he serve a minimum of 35 years in prison. Magee was sentenced for
planting and exploding the bomb, five counts of murder and conspiracy
to bomb 16 other targets. Magee was released early under the Good
Friday agreement. He only served 14 years and was released in 2000. He
was the 277th prisoner to be released early under the agreement and
...
... middle of paper ...
...rocess. This is shown in source 23.
Due to America’s history they may sympathise with the Republicans in
Ireland. America fought a war for Independence in the 1770’s which
eventually led to the Declaration of Independence. This led to the end
British rule in America. Many people still feel that it was a war to
stop British Imperialism and empathise with the people in Ireland who
believe that the British have taken over their country.
Due to all these reasons American Presidents need to take interest in
Northern Ireland. If they didn’t take an interest the Irish-Americans
would criticize them and they would not be acting in the interest of
peace around the world. The President’s need to act neutrally to
resolve the historical issue of Northern Ireland because they have
close ties with both the British and the Irish.