From the archives: IRA tries to kill Maggie Thatcher

Four feared dead after IRA bomb blew up Brighton's Grand Hotel, where Britain's Conservative Party was holding its annual conference

The upper floors of the Grand Hotel Brighton, severely damaged in the aftermath of an IRA bomb, which was planted during Tory Party conference week in 1984. Picture: PA

Four people were feared dead last night after IRA bombers devastated Brighton's Grand Hotel — but narrowly failed to assassinate British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Senior Tory MP Sir Anthony Berry, whose four children are cousins of the Princess of Wales, is one of two people known to have been killed by the IRA bidding to wipe out the British cabinet.