Brighton bomber Magee remains ‘an object of contempt’ says Tebbit

The former Tory Cabinet minister remains scathing in his assessment of the former IRA terrorist who was jailed for his role in the bombing that claimed five lives.

Magee was released in 1999 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement having served less than half of his stipulated 35-year sentence.

Although Lord Tebbit recovered from serious injuries, his wife Margaret, a former nurse, was left paralysed and later developed Lewy Body Dementia. She died in December 2020.

In the book, ‘Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb,’ Magee explains his reasons for joining the IRA, stating how he felt “no other choices” had been open to him.

The book’s blurb says that to “understand the Troubles is to set them in the context of the historical root causes of the conflict”.

However, Lord Tebbit responded, saying Magee remains an “object of contempt” who has never attempted to “make amends” for the suffering caused.

“It only confirms my view of Mr Magee,” Lord Tebbit told the News Letter.

“He cannot be forgiven because he has never confessed to his sins or offered to make amends. So he cannot be forgiven and is still an object of contempt.”

Lord Tebbit said it was regrettable that some people continued to try to “justify the unjustifiable” and added: “No one can stop him from publishing a book, but equally I hope no one will buy it.”

Promotional material for the book describes the author as having spent 27 years as “a committed member of the IRA and to its ‘Armed Struggle’. He remains a republican”.

It goes on to describe Magee as living “a life impacted by the bloody imposition of Irish partition,” and quotes former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams’ describing it as “compelling” reading.

The foreword to the book has been written by the daughter of a Conservative MP killed by the Brighton bomb.

Jo Berry, daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, established a friendship with Magee and the pair have carried out a number of speaking engagements together.

Despite conceding that she has “never felt comfortable with justification for violence and there is much in this book,” Ms Berry said she “understands that he is writing for some of his community who do not feel heard”.

Magee writes that from the start of his dialogue with Ms Berry, he learned that her father had been a “decent man”.

“I grew to see a stunningly simple truth: the goodness and intelligence and value I perceived in this woman must in some measure have come from her father. And I had killed him. I had killed a fine human being,” he wrote.

“It had evidently been more comfortable for me to live with the perception that as a Tory he was simply the enemy, a warmonger, driven by greed, without a personal moral code or a rounded background.

“I too was guilty of demonising the enemy.

“This realisation cut through all the layers of defence and denial, the justifications, reasoning and rationalising.”

Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United described the Brighton hotel bomb as a “merciless and premeditated” attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet ministers, and that the bombers “were equally prepared for others to die viewing them as collateral damage”.

Mr Donaldson said: “Patrick Magee... remains an unreconstructed an unapologetic terrorist. We as an organisation have forever acknowledged that there were reasons behind all human behaviours, but that never, ever justifies murder.

“Innocent victims/survivors of terrorism... will rightly view Patrick Magee in the same manner they viewed him in the aftermath of his being charged and convicted for that heinous atrocity.

“The end objective is the acceptance of terrorism as a necessary and legitimate action in pursuing political objectives.

“We and others will vehemently resist this psychological terrorist warfare.” “We and others will vehemently resist this psychological terrorist warfare.”

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