Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown

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Rory Carroll, a Dubliner who reported from Belfast in the mid-1990s, when Northern Ireland’s Troubles were winding down—and is now the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent—has knitted together an impressive array of sources to tell, for the first time, the complete story of the plot to kill the British leader. He chronicles, too, the hunt to identify and then catch Mr Magee and his accomplices. The aftermath of the IRA bombing at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, on October 12 1984. Picture: PA Wire. Who’s It Good For? — Primarily, history and politics buffs, politicos with an interest in international affairs or modern history, the average reader who just wants to understand The Troubles / the IRA a bit better, Thatcher lovers and haters 😂

Earlier in 1981 when Thatcher had to decide how to handle Northern Ireland, she takes a hard stance that to treat all resistance movement as criminal activities. This leads to belittling of the Irish sentiments and builds hatred. Politician Bobby Sands openly started threatening the British of repercussions and follows it by various factions setting off bombs across England.

The book is marketed as ‘a blend of true crime and political history’. Most true crime writing takes crimes that are obscure or opaque and uses them to illustrate wider points about the society in which they took place. There was, though, never much mystery about the Brighton bomb. Many understood what had happened as soon as they heard the bang. Magee was eventually arrested and convicted but he was released from prison after the Good Friday Agreement. He wrote a book and spoke freely about what he had done – he once lectured to undergraduates in my own department. Carroll has conducted over a hundred interviews but he does not really have much to add to what we already know about the Northern Ireland Troubles. At times, his account is padded with banal detail. We are told twice that down the corridor from the room in which Magee was setting the bomb, a guest was paying a photographer ‘to take erotic portraits of his female companion’. One sometimes senses that an author desperate to reach his daily quota of words is raising his eyes to heaven: ‘an azure sky unfurled over the Atlantic’; ‘the sun hung in a cloudless sky over London’; ‘a patch of sky [was] paling over the Palace Pier.’

He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. The one person who stands tall in this entire book is Margaret Thatcher. There is a subtle admiration even by those who are trying to bring her down and political opponents. Her entire strategy, rise in politics after two losses, her response to the Irish problem and the almost superhuman response to the bombing make you admire the person! For me, this was the first account with her as a central character and I surely would want to read a bit more of her era and stories set in this era.In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 - an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 - for which the IRA took full responsibility - before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the 'Troubles' in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA - and the organisation swore revenge. if there is one thing to take away from this book, it is that the brighton bombing gave way to one of the hardest warnings of all time: In 1984, the IRA killed five people and came dangerously close to assassinating then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - and yet this disaster has gone mostly undiscussed in recent years. In this book, Carroll brings together the long chain of events which led up to the bombing, and unravels the complicated investigation that followed. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us Much like the Assassination of Kennedy or the 9-11 bombing, it was an event you remember where you where when you were told or found out. I remember being woken by my father on the morning of 12th October to be told the IRA had made an attempt to blow up the Conservative Goverment during their 1984 conference by planting a huge bomb the Grand Hotel Brighton.

In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore revenge. After three years of planning, a time-bomb planted by Magee was detonated during the Conservative Party conference at the Grand Hotel on October 12, 1984, killing five people and injuring many more. Killing Thatcher is the gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher and to wiping out the British Cabinet - an extraordinary assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder Plot. I want the reader to see her as a human figure, she’s not just some icon with a halo of hair and a stern voice. She was also a human being and a politician.”The author draws on his decades long experience as a seasoned journalist covering war torn countries and nonstate violent actors to weave the story. All this ended with the launch of an armed struggle by the Provisional IRA in 1969. The number of British politicians who were killed by republican groups was small, but British politics was changed for the worse. Politicians associated with Northern Ireland, defence, home affairs and justice – and, a fortiori, the prime minister – could no longer walk the streets or strike up casual conversations. Ministers became ever more remote from the people over whom they ruled; any intelligent person who wanted their family to have a tolerable life thought twice before going into politics.

She was more than midway through the first of her three terms as British prime minister and she was already arguably the world’s most powerful woman, lauded by US president Ronald Reagan as “the only European leader I know with balls” and glorying in the label “Iron Lady” bestowed on her by a Soviet newspaper. Apart from Magee and Thatcher, the person who looms largest in this book is former Sinn Féin president, TD and abstentionist MP Gerry Adams. It was Adams who told Magee and others in Long Kesh that they could defeat the British if they built a political movement and retooled the IRA for a “long war”. He declined to speak to Carroll. Delivery with Standard Australia Post usually happens within 2-10 business days from time of dispatch. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery and due to various reasons, the delivery may take longer than the original estimated timeframe. With high emotions and competing narratives on all sides, he said his goal was to be fair, accurate and empathetic. So, add Carroll's name to that hypothetical list of nonfiction writers who are able to encase significant, highly-charged historical events in a palatable, easy-to-read, novel-like narrative structure, that will appeal to both academic and amateur historians alike.Later, the 1981 hunger strikes are described as the “animating force” that led to the Provisional IRA actively seeking revenge against the Prime Minister. its difficult not to compare this book to "say nothing" --both extremely thoroughly researched, exploring the social and political evolution of the ira over time, focusing on specific leading "characters" to drive the narrative, balancing informing and storytelling. that being said, i think they compliment each other well, they build on each other instead of serving as substitutes. because there will be fire focuses on the brighton bombing, there is a much more intense concentration on that event (of course), but also the role of thatcher and her government in the troubles in the lead-up Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. Books about the Troubles always read as highly ambitious to me, because of how extensive and complicated a political conflict it proved to be; indeed, I must admit that there were several moments when I first started reading this where I worried if Rory Carroll was casting his critical-authorial net too far and wide, worried if the book would be overwhelmed by the full-scale, unrelenting intensity of the subject. Boy, was I wrong! The connections and links that Carroll draws between seemingly unrelated events paints an incredibly well-rounded, multi-faceted, and, yes, overwhelming (but in the best way!) picture of this decades-long 'war'—its gains and its costs, its deadly effects on ordinary people, and the price of political power.