Killing Thatcher (2024)

Killing Thatcher is a gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher and wiping out the British Cabinet in an extraordinary assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and described as the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder Plot. Veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous 1984 Brighton bombing, an incident that shaped the United Kingdoms political landscape for decades. He begins with the 1979 execution of Lord Mountbatten, for which the IRA took full responsibility, then follows Margaret Thatchers rise, her response to the Troubles in Ireland, and the events leading to the 1981 hunger strikes and the deaths of ten republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From then on, Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA, which swore revenge. Opening with a fast-paced prologue introducing bomber Patrick Magee before the attack, Carroll explores the intrigue surrounding the assassination attempt across three continents, from pubs and palaces to safe houses, interrogation rooms, hotels and barracks. On one side are an elite IRA team, a renegade priest, funds raised in the United States and Libyas Qaddafi; on the other are intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb-disposal officers. The book combines true crime with political history and is the first major investigation of the Brighton attack.