Brighton bomber Magee ‘stands by his actions’

PATRICK MAGEE, the IRA man who planted the Brighton bomb which killed five people during the Conservative Party conference almost 20 years ago, has said: “I stand by my actions.”

Magee has said he felt relief the bomb had exploded as he watched television coverage of the atrocity in a bar in Cork.

He had planted the bomb on a long-term timer 24 days before it exploded in the suite above that occupied by Margaret Thatcher.

Magee, who received eight life sentences and served only 13 of the 35 years’ recommended, spoke out in an exclusive interview with She magazine in the latest issue due out tomorrow.

The interview also involves Jo Berry, whose father, Sir Anthony Berry, was killed in the outrage, and who has since befriended Magee.

He says of their first meeting, in November, 2000: “I had an overwhelming urge to talk to Jo alone. It felt like the presence of anyone else was intrusive and would stop me opening up and being as frank as I needed.” They spoke for three hours.

Recalling that meeting, he said: “I’d gone in there with a political head on, not thinking emotionally, but all that fell through in those three hours.

“I wasn’t prepared, and I felt totally inadequate with someone sitting there with all that pain, telling it to me, while at the same time trying to understand me.

“There was certainly guilt there, that I’d caused this woman’s father’s death. But that feeling only came to the forefront when we were coming out of the IRA struggle, because during the struggle there wasn’t time and you couldn’t have engaged in it if you’d had that mind.

“Some day I may be able to forgive myself. Although I still stand by my actions, I will always carry the burden that I harmed other people.”

However, he went on: “I am not seeking her (Jo’s) forgiveness and I feel Jo is entitled to her anger and pain.”

But he has continued to defend the use of violence to further a political cause.

“It’s stood as an impediment between me and Jo when I reiterate that I stand behind my actions.

“It’s hard for her to hear me say that, but if I am put on the spot and asked a difficult question, I’ll answer it.”

Magee admits that what Jo had done for him was to force him to stop depersonalising the “collateral damage” he caused in Brighton.

“For years I’d demonised them, seen them as ‘the enemy’ - then suddenly I realised they were all these people whose families had been hurt and there was an overwhelming sense of loss.”

Of their friendship, Magee says: “It’s stressful, but the fact that we’re still sitting here talking to each other must say something.

“It’s rare to meet someone as gracious as Jo.

“She’s come a long way in her journey to understanding - she’s come more than halfway to meet me.”

In the interview Jo says: “Only Pat could understand how I felt. He was the only person who actually wanted to hear how I felt. When we first met, he said, ‘I want to hear your anger and feel your pain’. No one else had ever said that to me.”

She said on the first Sunday after the bombing, she went to St James’s Church in Piccadilly, London. “An incredible feeling came over me as I prayed to be able to find the strength to understand those who had done this and not stay a victim.”