IRA bomb blasts British cabinet
THE British cabinet, Tory MPs and key personnel in the Tory Party were the targets of a 100lb gelignite bomb, planted by the IRA, which ripped through the Grand Hotel in Brighton in the early hours of Friday, 12 October.
When the bomb exploded shortly before 3am, it blew out the façade of the top four floors in one section of the hotel, while internally the top rooms crashed down more than seven floors into the basement.
Almost the entire Tory cabinet and other senior figures in the party were staying in the hotel at the time and those who died in the blast included Sir Anthony Berry MP, Eric Taylor, a Tory area leader, Roberta Wakeham whose husband, Tory Chief Whip John Wakeham, was seriously injured, and Jeanne Shattock, wife of another Tory district leader, who was also seriously injured.
Besides those who died, another 30 were injured, some seriously, including Tory Minister Norman Tebbit, who was hauled feet first from the wreckage of his bedroom hours after the blast. Although Margaret Thatcher was not killed in the blast, she was obviously badly shaken: ``You hear about these atrocities, but you don't expect them to happen to you.''
The IRA issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack: ``Mrs Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country, torture our prisoners and shoot our people on their own streets and get away with it. Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to lucky once - you will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.''
Phoblacht, Thursday 17 October 1984
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