Brighton bombing: Jo Berry's foreword to Patrick Magee book

Jo Berry and Patrick Magee have struck up a friendship since the 1984 attack targeting then prime minister Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party conference.

Ms Berry, whose father Sir Anthony Berry was one of five people killed in the blast at the Grand Hotel, said writing the foreword was "an honour and a challenge".

Writing in the book Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges After The Brighton Bomb, she described the “epiphany” moment when Magee “stopped justifying” his actions.

She recalled her first meeting with Magee in 2000, after he was released from prison having served 14 years, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Jo Berry and Patrick Magee have struck up an unusual friendship following the Brighton bombing

Ms Berry said: “I remember the difference – he was no longer justifying or saying the word we.

“He was speaking from his heart, being vulnerable and asking me about my father.

“He was visibly shaken and emotional, his voice had more depth … it was dawning on him for the first time that my dad had been a human being and he had killed him.

“He realised he had lost some of his humanity and was guilty of demonising them in the same way he accuses the other of demonising republicans.

“I had reached my limit of being able to listen after another hour, and that was when he said ‘I am sorry I killed your father’.

“He spoke with great feeling and conveyed how this weighed heavily in him.

“I say, ‘I’m glad it was you’ – the words just popped out, and 20 years later we are still discussing what I meant.”

The aftermath of the bomb blast in Brighton

The bombing was carried out by the IRA, a paramilitary organisation fighting for Northern Ireland to be a part of the Republic of Ireland, rather than the United Kingdom.

The prime minister narrowly escaped injury in the attack on 12 October 1984.

Ms Berry also writes: “I have never felt comfortable with justification for violence and there is much in this book.

"I understand that he is writing for some of his community who do not feel heard.

“For some people he may have gone too far, for others not far enough.”

Magee, who originally received eight life sentences, regularly appears alongside Ms Berry to discuss peace and reconciliation.

How The Argus covered a meeting of omber Back in Brighton Patrick Magee and Jo Berry in 2004

In the book, he talks about how he came to be involved in the IRA, explaining how he felt “no other choices” had been open to him, referring to an “anti-imperialist struggle”.

Magee also writes about his “tabloid branding as the Brighton bomber”. 

He recalled having “misgivings” about his first meeting with Ms Berry.

Their relationship grew and their pair have since filmed for TV together and the name of Magee’s memoir is in part inspired by a poem she wrote.

READ MORE: Remembering the IRA bomb at The Grand hotel in Brighton

“One unalterable factor, intrusive and unsettling, continually asserted itself: I had killed this woman’s father,” he wrote of their first meeting.

“Placed in the same situation I would be grateful for one iota of the calm integrity she exuded.

“Nothing in her demeanour or conduct betrayed any hint of hostility or bitterness.

“Instead, she epitomised dignity and poise.”

He said he shared his perspective, that the targeting of the Thatcher administration “was a legitimate act of war”.

Magee's book is released later this month from Pluto Press

Magee later reflects in the book that the “breaking down of stereotypes was a two-way street”.

He wrote that from the start of their dialogue, he learned that her father had been a “decent man”.

“I grew to see a stunningly simple truth: the goodness and intelligence and value I perceived in this woman must in some measure have come from her father.

“And I had killed him.

“I had killed a fine human being,” he wrote.

“It had evidently been more comfortable for me to live with the perception that as a Tory he was simply the enemy, a warmonger, driven by greed, without a personal moral code or a rounded background.

“I too was guilty of demonising the enemy.

“This realisation cut through all the layers of defence and denial, the justifications, reasoning and rationalising.”