Assassination of Airey Neave

1979 murder in City of Westminister, London

Assassination of Airey Neave

Part of the Troubles

The wreckage of Neave's car on the ramp of the House of Commons' car park

Location| City of Westminster, London, England
Date| 30 March 1979; 46 years ago (1979-03-30)
14:58 (UTC)
Target| Airey Neave

Attack type

| Bombing
Weapon| Booby trap bomb
Deaths| 1 (the target)
Perpetrator| Irish National Liberation Army

* v
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The Troubles
in Britain and continental Europe

1970 – 1981

* Aldershot bombing
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* * *

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* * *

See also: The Troubles in Ireland and Assassinations during the Troubles

* v
* t
* e

The Troubles
Assassinations in Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe

1970s

* John Barnhill killed by OIRA
* Tommy Herron killed by UDA/UFF
* Joe McCann killed by British Army
* Michael Naan and Andrew Murray killed by British Army
* Paddy Wilson and Irene Andrews killed by UDA/UFF
* Ann Ogilby killed by UDA/UFF
* Billy Hanna killed by UVF
* Jim Hanna killed by UVF
* Billy Fox killed by UDA/UFF
* Billy McMillen killed by INLA
* Thomas Niedermayer killed by PIRA
* Martin McBirney killed by PIRA
* William J. Staunton killed by PIRA
* Ross McWhirter killed by PIRA
* Robert McConnell killed by PIRA
* Majella O'Hare killed by British Army
* Máire Drumm killed by UVF
* Christopher Ewart-Biggs killed by PIRA
* Seamus Ludlow killed by RHC
* John Francis Green killed by UVF
* Robert Nairac killed by PIRA
* Seamus Costello killed by OIRA
* Jeffery Agate killed by PIRA
* Richard Sykes killed by PIRA
* Airey Neave killed by INLA
* Louis Mountbatten killed by PIRA

* * *

1980s

* Miriam Daly killed by UDA/UFF
* Ronnie Bunting killed by UDA/UFF
* James Stronge killed by PIRA
* Norman Stronge killed by PIRA
* William McCullough killed by INLA
* John McKeague killed by INLA
* Lenny Murphy killed by PIRA
* Robert Bradford killed by PIRA
* George Seawright killed by IPLO
* Edgar Graham killed by PIRA
* Anthony Berry killed by PIRA
* John Bingham killed by PIRA
* Larry Marley killed by UVF
* Ta Power killed by IPLO
* Gerard Steenson killed by INLA
* Maurice Gibson killed by PIRA
* Robert Seymour killed by PIRA
* John McMichael killed by PIRA
* William "Frenchie" Marchant killed by PIRA
* Aidan McAnespie killed by British Army
* James Craig killed by UDA/UFF
* Pat Finucane killed by UDA/UFF

* * *

1990s

* Ian Gow killed by PIRA
* Fergal Caraher killed by Royal Marines
* Eddie Fullerton killed by UDA/UFF
* Martin O'Prey killed by UVF
* Pearse Jordan killed by RUC
* Sammy Ward killed by PIRA
* Trevor King killed by INLA
* Ray Smallwoods killed by PIRA
* Joe Bratty killed by PIRA
* Raymond Elder killed by PIRA
* Gino Gallagher killed by INLA-GHQ
* Hugh Torney killed by INLA
* John Hemsworth killed by RUC
* Billy Wright killed by INLA
* Rosemary Nelson killed by LVF

* * *

acronyms

* Republicans
INLA = Irish National Liberation Army
IPLO = Irish People's Liberation Organisation
OIRA = Official Irish Republican Army
PIRA = Provisional Irish Republican Army

* Loyalists
LVF = Loyalist Volunteer Force
RHC = Red Hand Commando
UDA/UFF = Ulster Defence Association / Ulster Freedom Fighters
UVF = Ulster Volunteer Force

* Security Forces
RUC = Royal Ulster Constabulary

see also: The Troubles in Ireland See also: The Troubles in Britain and Europe

On 30 March 1979, Airey Neave, British Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army with a bomb fixed under his car. The bomb detonated in the car park of the Palace of Westminster in London and mortally wounded Neave, who died shortly after being admitted to hospital.[1]

## Background

[edit]

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), and its political wing the Irish Republican Socialist Party, was formed at a meeting in a Dublin hotel in December 1974.[2][3] In 1975 it began carrying out a paramilitary campaign in Northern Ireland on British Government facilities and officials with the strategic objective of removing Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, using the front names of the "People's Liberation Army",[4] and the "Armagh People's Republican Army".[5]

Through the 1970s Neave, an influential Conservative Member of Parliament, had been advocating within British political circles for an abandonment of the British Government's strategy of a containment of Irish paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland against the British State, and for the adoption of strategy of waging a military offensive against it, seeking its martial defeat. This brought him to the attention of both the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the INLA as a potential threat to their organisations and activities. A member of INLA's leadership later stated:

> He (Neave) was coming in on the heels of Mason to settle the Northern problem, and made Mason look like a lamb. He wanted to bring in more Special Air Service, and take the war to the enemy.[6]

Following the Labour Government's defeat in the House of Commons on a vote of no confidence on 28 March 1979, a general election was called in the United Kingdom, and with the Conservatives expected to win the election, Neave, as the party's Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was set to become the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, which would place him in a position of governmental executive authority to bring his military strategy for the province into fruition.

## Assassination

[edit]

On Friday 30 March 1979 two INLA paramilitaries gained entry to the House of Commons' underground car park posing as workmen, carrying the bomb in a tool box. Once inside they identified Neave's car, and fixed a 16-ounce (450 g) explosive device with a mercury tilt detonator on to the floor panel under the driver's seat.

Neave left the House of Commons a few minutes before 3 p.m. As he drove up the underground car park's exit ramp the angle tilted the bomb's mercury switch and it exploded, the blast knocking Neave unconscious, severing his legs and trapping him in the mangled wreckage of the vehicle. Neave was cut free from the wreckage by the emergency services, and rushed to Westminster Hospital by ambulance, dying there a few minutes after arrival, not having regained consciousness.[7][8]

## Reactions

[edit]

The INLA issued a statement regarding the attack in the August 1979 edition of its publication The Starry Plough:[9]

> In March, retired terrorist and supporter of capital punishment, Airey Neave, got a taste of his own medicine when an INLA unit pulled off the operation of the decade and blew him to bits inside the 'impregnable' Palace of Westminster. Margaret Thatcher said on television that he was an 'incalculable loss' – and so he was – to the British ruling class.

Margaret Thatcher was due to broadcast to the nation that evening, but cancelled her plans due to her grief at Neave's death.[10] The House of Commons decided to resume its business less than an hour after the tragedy, with Labour Chief Whip Michael Cocks and Conservative Norman St John-Stevas taking the view that "legislation should not be baulked by murdering thugs."[10]

Neave's death came just two days after the vote of no confidence which brought down Callaghan's government and a month before the 1979 general election, which saw a Conservative victory and Thatcher come to power as Prime Minister. Neave's wife Diana, whom he married on 29 December 1942, was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Airey of Abingdon.

Neave's biographer Paul Routledge met a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (the political wing of INLA) who was involved in the killing of Neave and who told Routledge that Neave "would have been very successful at that job [Northern Ireland Secretary]. He would have brought the armed struggle to its knees".[11]

As a result of Neave's assassination the INLA was declared illegal across the whole of the United Kingdom on 2 July 1979.[12]

Memorial plaque to Airey Neave at his alma mater, Merton College, Oxford

Neave's body was buried in the graveyard of St. Margaret's Church at Hinton Waldrist, in Oxfordshire.[13]

## See also

[edit]

* Brighton bombing
* Downing Street mortar attack
* List of attacks on legislatures
* List of British MPs killed in office

## Sources

[edit]

* Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions'
* The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ISBN 1-84488-120-2
* CAIN project
* Coogan, Tim Pat, The IRA, Fontana Books, ISBN 0-00-636943-X
* The Starry Plough – IRSP newspaper

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "1979: Car bomb kills Airey Neave". 30 March 1979 - via news.bbc.co.uk.
2. ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald: INLA Deadly Divisions pp 6
3. ^ "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1974". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
4. ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald: INLA Deadly Divisions pp 63, 64
5. ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald: INLA Deadly Divisions p. 84
6. ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald: INLA Deadly Divisions p. 137
7. ^ Jack Holland & Henry McDonald: INLA - Deadly Divisions pp. 138, 139
8. ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
9. ^ Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1996). INLA Deadly Divisions. Poolbeg. p. 221\. ISBN 1-85371-263-9.
10. ^ a b Parkhouse, Geoffrey; Trotter, Stuart (31 March 1979). "Car bomb outrage at Commons kills MP". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
11. ^ Routledge, p. 360.
12. ^ Wharton, Ken (2014). Wasted Years Wasted Lives: British Army in Northern Ireland 1978–79 v. 2. Helion & Company. p. 214\. ISBN 978-1909982178.
13. ^ Entry for Neave's grave in the Findagrave website. http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108412973/airey-neave

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INLA and the IRSP

General|

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Attacks|

* Central Bar bombing
* Assassination of Airey Neave
* 1982 Divis Flats bombing
* Droppin Well bombing
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* 1994 Shankill Road killings
* Newtownhamilton bombing

Personalities|

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* Johnnie White

Associates|

* Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America

Derivatives|

* Independent Socialist Party
* Irish People's Liberation Organisation
* Republican Socialist Collective

Prominent killings|

* Billy McMillen
* Henry Byrne
* John Morley
* William McCullough
* John McKeague
* Patrick Joseph Morrissey
* Trevor King
* Billy Wright

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Major events

* 1967–1972
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* 1974
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* 1979
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* Maze Prison escape
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1979 United Kingdom general election

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* Incumbent prime minister: James Callaghan (Labour)
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the House of Commons|

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Results by area|

* England
* Northern Ireland
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See also|

* Thorpe affair
* Labour Isn't Working
* Winter of Discontent
* 1979 Scottish devolution referendum
* 1979 Welsh devolution referendum
* 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry
* Assassination of Airey Neave
* Thatcherism

1979 United Kingdom local elections
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