Almost half a century ago, Northern Ireland’s home affairs minister John Taylor was ambushed leaving the family engineering business in his home town of Armagh. Two men raked the 34-year-old’s car with machine-gun fire. He was hit five times in the face and neck and left for dead, slumped over the steering wheel. Somehow, the politician, just about to become a father, survived. But his wounds were so severe he spent a year in hospital, requiring reconstructive surgery to the jaw. The Official IRA claimed responsibility for what was the first assassination attempt on a member of the Northern Ireland government.