Politician s wife survived IRA party conference bombing
Politician s wife survived IRA party conference bombing
December 23, 2020 3.25pm
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Lady Tebbit, who has died aged 86, suffered severe spinal injuries when the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel at Brighton during the 1984 Conservative conference, also seriously injuring her husband, the Trade and Industry Secretary Norman Tebbit.
Though paralysed below the neck, Margaret Tebbit fought back, with the support of her husband, to lead a reasonably full life within the constraints of her need for 24-hour care. She campaigned for greater mobility for the disabled and for a national training scheme for carers.
The scene of the bombing on October 12, 1984 I m glad to say that she never forgave those who blew up the Grand Hotel, Lord Tebbit remarked. We all know it s a Christian duty to forgive - but not those who will not repent, and of course the people who did this have never repented; they were joyful about what they had done.
Belfast IRA man Patrick Magee was convicted of planting the killer bomb and given eight life sentences at the Old Bailey in 1986, with a recommendation that he spend at least 35 years in jail.
He was released in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Lady Tebbit, campaigner and former nurse badly injured in the 1984 Brighton bombing – obituary
Cared for by her husband Norman after the blast at the Conservative Party conference, she went on to champion research into spinal injuries
21 December 2020 • 5:50pm
Margaret and Norman Tebbit at the 1983 Conservative Party conference, one year before the bombing
Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
Lady Tebbit, who has died aged 86, suffered severe spinal injuries when the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel at Brighton during the 1984 Conservative conference, also seriously injuring her husband, the Trade and Industry Secretary Norman Tebbit.
Though paralysed below the neck Margaret Tebbit fought back, with the support of her husband, to lead a reasonably full life within the constraints of her need for 24-hour care. She campaigned for greater mobility for the disabled, and for a national training scheme for carers.
Her husband always called her my Margaret , but it was not in order to distinguish her from the other Margaret in his life.
Instead, there was a profound tenderness in his use of the possessive. It was a mark of how, throughout their 64-year marriage, she had always been by far the most important person in his life.
If anyone had ever doubted the depth of the love and devotion that Norman Tebbit gave to his wife Margaret, they had only to see him pushing her wheelchair any time in the past 36 years, smiling determinedly in the face of their shared tragedy, refusing to wince from his own permanent pain, challenging the world to dare pity them.