Former Enfield Southgate MP Sir Anthony Berry was killed in a terrorist attack on this day in 1984

The aftermath of the Brighton bombing and (inset) former Enfield Southgate MP Sir Anthony Berry

The daughter of a local MP murdered 40 years ago today has reflected on the lessons she’s learned after meeting her father’s killer.

Jo Berry is the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry, who was the Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate prior to his death in the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton on 12th October 1984.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary, Jo has been giving various interviews and told BBC Five Live yesterday (Friday 11th) how her father’s sudden and violent death affected her at the time.

“I was 27 and I woke up to hear a bomb had gone off at the Grand Hotel,” recalled Jo. “My brother tried to find out news and found my step-mother in hospital [but] we had to wait eight hours to find out his [Sir Anthony’s] body had been identified.”

Tory MPs had been staying at the hotel for that year’s Conservative Party Conference, and the bomb had been an assassination attempt on the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, by the Provisional IRA during the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, although the terrorist group would have known it was likely to kill many more.

In the end, Thatcher was unharmed, but five people in total were killed, of whom Sir Anthony was the only parliamentarian. He was three days away from marking the 20th anniversary of his election to parliament as Enfield Southgate’s MP. Many more people were also injured, including Norman Tebbit who was a secretary of state.

Jo said: “I was really impacted by how it happened and the fact it was a terrorist attack and part of a conflict, and I had this other shock and trauma. It never occurred to me that my dad would be a target.”

The bomb was planted in the hotel by IRA member Patrick Magee, and Jo would go on to meet him many times after he was released as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought the Troubles to an end.

“Two days after the bombing I made the decision to bring something positive out of it,” explained Jo. “It was about building bridges, and I travelled to Belfast in 1985 and 1986 to meet people there.

“When Magee came out of prison I decided to meet him. I needed to see him as a human and hear his story – it wasn’t to get an apology.

“It didn’t go how I expected it to go – he said he was disarmed by my empathy and wanted to hear how it had affected me. He then recognised he had dehumanised my father and others in the Conservative Party.”

Jo said she had since reflected on what drives people to kill others and added: “I have learned that the nature of violence is that people reach a point where they don’t see people as humans.”

Both Jo and Magee are appearing at an event in London next week as part of a campaign called The Forgiveness Project. The event will focus on the “courage and complexity of a healing journey developed over 24 years” and takes place at St James’s Church in Piccadilly on Wednesday, 16th.

Jo added: “I want us to learn about how relevant this is now to what is going on in the world. It is about changing the future and how we can stop blaming and dehumanising each other, because when we have an enemy we are further away from peace.”

The BBC has produced a new documentary to mark 40 years since the Brighton bomb. Watch it on iPlayer:
Visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0023sgk/bombing-brighton-the-plot-to-kill-thatcher

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