Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams says there would have been ‘very few tears’ shed in “working class Scotland” if the IRA had killed Margaret Thatcher in the 1984 Brighton bombing.
Adams, 74, was discussing the Troubles in Northern Ireland on the Rest is Politics podcast on Monday. The pod is hosted by former Downing Street Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell, 65, and ex-Tory MP Rory Stewart, 50.
Adams was asked if he would have been ‘happy’ to see Thatcher killed in the 1984 bombing. Five people died and 31 injured when the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton during Conservative Party conference.
Adams said: “Happiness or happy is not a term I would use. The fact is, there was a war. Margaret Thatcher was notorious, not just for her presiding over the deaths of the hunger strikers which could have been easily resolved, by very simple improvements in the prison regime.
“There would be very few tears shed for Margaret Thatcher in Republican Ireland, or in many villages in Wales and working class Scotland and England itself. But, it’s done, it’s over, it’s gone. All of that was in the past.”
The bombing failed to kill any cabinet ministers in the attack - instead killing one Tory MP, Sir Anthony Berry, regional party chairman Eric Taylor and three MP’s wives. Thatcher survived the attack, despite the blast badly damaging her hotel suite.
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