Revealed: how a false name nearly exposed IRA plot to kill Margaret Thatcher

Why did Brighton bomber Patrick Magee risk all by checking into the Grand hotel under the pseudonym of a fellow IRA member?

Shortly after noon on 15 September 1984, a young, smartly dressed man walked into the Grand hotel at Brighton and asked for a room facing the sea. The receptionist offered number 629, on the sixth floor. The guest paid 180 cash for three nights. On the registration card, he gave his nationality as English, his address as Braxfield Road, London, and his name as Roy Walsh. Thus was born one of the great riddles of the Troubles.

Nearly four weeks later, at 2.54am on 12 October, the guest's purpose was revealed when a bomb in room 629 exploded. It obliterated adjoining rooms and unleashed a blast wave that shredded the roof. A five-tonne chimney stack crashed down into the rooms below, sweeping all away in its path.