The name Patrick “mad dog” Magee conjures up the Brighton bomber, his extraordinary release under the good Friday agreement in the glare of the media, fists raised, amid much jubilation. The Brighton bomber was out.
This new book that he has out, Where Grieving Begins is mainly concerned with his journey from Brighton bomber to an activist for peace and reconciliation. The first few chapters on his roots are not of any interest to me as a reader. I don't want to know his maternal or paternal grandma and grandpas.
When the family come back to Belfast they settle in Unity Flats. Shortly before that, he arrives in Belfast the morning after a riot. Amid burning debris he has to walk four miles to an aunt’s house in Andersonstown. During this time he is drinking in a club next to the graveyard which I presume is St Galls? The toilets are downstairs and he is captured there by four guys who think he is a British agent. His aunt vouches for him and they let him go.
Then he approaches someone if he could join the IRA and from then on begins as a volunteer. He joins G company in ‘72 in Unity Flats but “Ardoyne for orders”. When he first goes to Ardoyne he strays into wrong territory and a few kids start to brick him, but they’re called off by two women in a doorway. He reasons they may have thought he was a bit simple. It needs to be realised here that here is a blow-in and somehow he gets into the IRA where he gets his first lecture on handling a rifle until he could do it blindfolded. Then he gets a job as E.O. Maybe that's why they took him?
He then begins a life in the Republican Movement moving around billeting in different areas always up before the often expected 4am raid, with the odd scoop. During one of these times when he was arrested they drove him in a car up the Shankill Road and they booted him, out shouting he’s a Fenian. He’s a loyal soldier no doubt about it. He gives me the impression that he is a lone wolf, moving between Belfast, Norwich, Glasgow London and Dublin. The Brit authorities had a name for him, Chancer.
The setting up of the bomb itself is withheld. Merely, it clears up what was used about 105 lbs of gelignite was used and placed three weeks prior to detonation.
As the days drew nearer to the moment of detonation, I had to brief a comrade on what I considered the likely physical impact of the explosion, in terms of damage to the building and killing range. He in turn would brief others in order to plan for the likely reaction. In a Dublin bar on a napkin, I roughly drew an outline of the Grand’s frontage. I indicated with a small x where the device was concealed and then drew a circle to show the likely reach of the explosion. In light of the facts when they emerged , my assessment was very accurate.
He then outlines reaction to the bomb and his trial afterwards, and the evidence used to convict him. A partial finger print and a thumb print and evidence from the crime scene detectives.
It’s such a cheat to the reader not to explore some of these themes more fully, using the last six chapters on this reconciliation work. I remember a teacher once telling our class at school that picking up a book was an act of great humility. You are saying this person knows more than me, and Magee is a very intelligent person. He is resourceful, he could have with great ease spun a much fuller account of his time in the movement and his time in England. Magee wants to belong. He wanted to feel he belonged in Belfast, he wanted the belonging in the IRA. Collectivity of group belonging is very central to him. Perhaps this is why he has joined the fellowship of Seeds of Hope in order to belong.
I feel so sorry for his first wife Eileen. She bears him a son and supports him, moving South with him to squat in a flat in Ballymun. They are eventually allocated a flat. He praises the people of Ballymun, he noted their poverty and support. The poverty in Ballymun was as bad as Divis Flats.
The one my friend lived in had loads of washing above the bed on pully lines, it had underground heating, the floor was where the heating came in, five kids and two dogs. Poverty was everywhere.
Eileen throws her lot in with him in Ballymun and Kerry. They agree that he wouldn't be always away leaving her on her own to raise their son. When he goes to England and is arrested in a Glasgow flat and brought to London to be charged he is housed in one of Britain's jails. Eileen goes to visit bringing a copy of the decree absolute and she asks him does he want to year it up, regretfully he says no. He then regrets the mental health problems. The poor woman, all this forgiveness he talks about, the life's journey and exploration at understanding etc. didn't appear to matter here.
He’s out of prison and the movement after release as he claims it was futile to report back to the movement and so what's next? He married again. He tries to set up house with his wife and baby son in Lenadoon in a flat belonging to Martin Meehan. And again discovered what so many did before him that it is impossible to be a breadwinner and a volunteer in the IRA.
The jobs he gets as an ex prisoner are on building sites etc. and eventually he meets the daughter of one of his victims who is a first cousin of Diana the Princess of Wales.
He gives me the impression he's like a missionary meeting people like ex RUC, squaddies.
He's on RTE who made a documentary about his story from bomber to peace and reconciliation but not all are understanding about his endeavours. He writes:
He comes across to me as a pitiful figure. On the one hand a loyal soldier, and on the other a peace missionary. He doesn't let go of his firm belief in republicanism, but he won't repent or apologise .He sees the armed struggle as being needed. It left me feeling it's others that do the reconciling and forgiveness. He has a chapter on the "F" word.
It’s such a cheat to the reader not to explore some of these themes more fully, using the last six chapters on this reconciliation work. I remember a teacher once telling our class at school that picking up a book was an act of great humility. You are saying this person knows more than me, and Magee is a very intelligent person. He is resourceful, he could have with great ease spun a much fuller account of his time in the movement and his time in England. Magee wants to belong. He wanted to feel he belonged in Belfast, he wanted the belonging in the IRA. Collectivity of group belonging is very central to him. Perhaps this is why he has joined the fellowship of Seeds of Hope in order to belong.
I feel so sorry for his first wife Eileen. She bears him a son and supports him, moving South with him to squat in a flat in Ballymun. They are eventually allocated a flat. He praises the people of Ballymun, he noted their poverty and support. The poverty in Ballymun was as bad as Divis Flats.
The one my friend lived in had loads of washing above the bed on pully lines, it had underground heating, the floor was where the heating came in, five kids and two dogs. Poverty was everywhere.
Eileen throws her lot in with him in Ballymun and Kerry. They agree that he wouldn't be always away leaving her on her own to raise their son. When he goes to England and is arrested in a Glasgow flat and brought to London to be charged he is housed in one of Britain's jails. Eileen goes to visit bringing a copy of the decree absolute and she asks him does he want to year it up, regretfully he says no. He then regrets the mental health problems. The poor woman, all this forgiveness he talks about, the life's journey and exploration at understanding etc. didn't appear to matter here.
He’s out of prison and the movement after release as he claims it was futile to report back to the movement and so what's next? He married again. He tries to set up house with his wife and baby son in Lenadoon in a flat belonging to Martin Meehan. And again discovered what so many did before him that it is impossible to be a breadwinner and a volunteer in the IRA.
The jobs he gets as an ex prisoner are on building sites etc. and eventually he meets the daughter of one of his victims who is a first cousin of Diana the Princess of Wales.
He gives me the impression he's like a missionary meeting people like ex RUC, squaddies.
He's on RTE who made a documentary about his story from bomber to peace and reconciliation but not all are understanding about his endeavours. He writes:
Later in the spring, I contacted my co-accused in the sea side bomb blitz, Ella O’Dwyer, who was still working for Coiste na n-Iarchimi in Dublin on behalf of republican ex-prisoners. I brought Ella up to date on what I had been doing. She said, tongue half in cheek, that there was a rumour circulating that I had been captured by the Moonies, implying that I had found religion in a David Icke-like moment of epiphany. As they say there had been talk, and by the tone, it was disparaging … Ella quoted a former blanketman and fellow Coiste member as saying in regards to Seeds of Hope that he “wouldn't touch it with a bargepole." - Patrick Magee in his book Building Bridges After The Brighton Bomb.
He comes across to me as a pitiful figure. On the one hand a loyal soldier, and on the other a peace missionary. He doesn't let go of his firm belief in republicanism, but he won't repent or apologise .He sees the armed struggle as being needed. It left me feeling it's others that do the reconciling and forgiveness. He has a chapter on the "F" word.
All in all, its wasn't a great read.
Patrick Magee, 2021, Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb. Pluto Press. ISBN-13 : 978-0745341774
Patrick Magee, 2021, Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb. Pluto Press. ISBN-13 : 978-0745341774
⏩Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.
Kate - thanks for publishing on TPQ. I enjoyed your take. I met Pat and found him engaging, not in any way hostile - in contrast to others who share his perspective on the way things turned out. I have often wondered about some of his logic.
ReplyDeleteKate I enjoyed reading this, could it be Pat's need to fit in was due to his early upbringing.
ReplyDeleteI have almost finished this book, and found it an excellent read. Pat is clearly a hugely intelligent man, and in many ways open to the personality traits that perhaps led him down a number of different paths: including petty crime, and then highly dedicated paramilitary.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to think of a way to best describe him, and settled on thoughtfully fanatical. His dedication to the Provisional cause is self-evident - he risked massive prison terms in England, Ireland, and Europe. His stories of G company in the 1970s are of interest to anyone with an interest in the conflict.
I have read elsewhere that G Company were involved in sectarian actions, and Pat makes only passing reference to Gerry Bradley, his comrade who fell out of favour with the Provisionals for writing his memoirs, about a decade ago. Perhaps Gerry Bradley's ostracism and suicide weighed heavily on his mind. Perhaps he was committed to a certain version of history, than many in Sinn Fein want to promote to the exclusion of others. Perhaps both of these things are connected. Whatever, it feels like there is much he does not say. I was surprised at quite how active he was in Belfast in the 1970s - he always seemed to me to have a sleeper, espionage vibe to him. Unnoticeable, not obviously militant, small, compact, intellectual. But he was involved deeply in the street battles and sectarian skirmishes.
Some have been sceptical about Pat's commitment to peace, and reconciliation, but I am not one of them. He is a flawed human, as we all are. He believes that the Brighton bomb speeded up a conclusion to the conflict, and sets this out. The campaign in England certainly seemed to have caused some impetus towards the Major government seeking a settlement, but that settlement, as has been detailed on this site many times far better than I could, was far short of what the stated aims of the Provisionals were. For all his dedication to the cause, he embraced the "peace process" readily. I am glad that he did. But I think he has constructed a narrative, in keeping with the Provisional narrative, that it was a just war, that he was part of it, and that those killed in the Grand Hotel were legitimate ruling class targets. Many who read this blog would not disagree with this analysis. But Pat is deeply moved at the charity and goodwill of the daughter of a man killed by his bomb, and the direct forgiveness of a top Tory who reaches out to him whilst he is in prison.
As Organized Rage has mentioned here, Pat is open about his desire to fit in - which is natural enough. I think this book is in part his desire to reconcile his lack of political regret for the deaths he caused, and his personal turmoil.
He is a "company man" - he toes the Sinn Fein line, and that can be a frustration in reading this book. But all in all, it's a good, if incomplete, story of a man who sought out many things, and still is.