Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History
Starred review from February 27, 2023
Carroll (Comandante: Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela), the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, recreates a real-life Day of the Jackal in this sterling account of a 1984 plot to assassinate British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with “former IRA members, police detectives, bomb disposal experts, politicians, officials, and friends and relatives of key players,” as well as other sources, Carroll vividly describes the attack, which involved an Irish Republican Army operative placing a bomb at the Brighton, England, hotel where Thatcher was staying during a Conservative Party conference. The explosive was smuggled into the hotel and detonated by Patrick Magee, who, despite being on the radar of numerous security agencies for more than a decade, was able to check into the hotel and plant the bomb that came disturbingly close to killing Thatcher; five others died and more than 30 were wounded in the explosion. Carroll gives the definitive account of this terror attack, delving into the security lapses and placing the events in a larger geopolitical context: “For want of two minutes, or a few feet, history could have turned, and with it the fate of Northern Ireland, Thatcherism, and the Cold War.” This is must reading for anyone interested in the history of the Troubles. Agent: Will Lippincott, Aevitas Creative Management.
June 10, 2024
Journalist Carroll (Comandante: Hugo Ch�vez's Venezuela) dissects the Irish Republican Army's 1984 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Narrator John Keating confidently walks listeners through the complex web of history surrounding the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the key figures involved in this unprecedented attack on English soil. Carroll takes a comprehensive approach by examining the life and background of not only the bomber, Patrick Magee, and his compatriots, but also of Thatcher, the prominent Conservative Party members directly impacted by the event, and those leading the subsequent investigation. Likewise, Keating makes a determined effort to match the accent and attitude of his narration to the point of view being represented. The volume of details needed to explore how and why the bomb was set and what happened when it exploded could have been difficult to grasp without Keating's steady intonation and sense of pace. This audio will be appreciated both by listeners with knowledge of the Troubles and those without. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing and the works of David Grann.--Natalie Marshall
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