On October 12, 1984, members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the once infamous “Provos,” attempted to decapitate the British government. The PIRA knew that the 1984 Conservative Party Conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton provided a predictable opportunity to strike at Prime Minister Thatcher, the members of her Cabinet, and many of the other Conservative parliamentary leaders.
‘We Have Only To Be Lucky Once’
The IRA understood a hard truth about political violence. Recent events suggest we would do well to remember it.
