Editing Christopher Ewart-Biggs (section)

==Death==
Ewart-Biggs was killed on 21 July 1976, at age 54, when his [[Armored_car_(VIP)|armoured]] [[Jaguar_Cars|Jaguar]] car, part of a four-vehicle convoy on its way to the [[Embassy of the United Kingdom, Dublin|British Embassy in Dublin]], was thrown into the air by a land mine planted by the IRA.<ref name="telegraph1">{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1538066/Ireland-and-the-death-of-the-ambassador.html|title=Ireland and the death of the ambassador |date=29 December 2006 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|date=19 July 2001 |title=MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR CHRISTOPHER EWART-BIGGS, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1976 |url=https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/54e6de9e0c383719802572b9005141ed/6b5fc952088d3044802572ab004b4468?OpenDocument |publisher=Foreign and Commonwealth Office |location=London }}</ref> He had been taking precautions to avoid such an incident since coming to Dublin only two weeks before. Among the measures he employed was to vary his route many times a week but, at a vulnerable spot on the road connecting his residence to the main road, there was only a choice between left or right. He chose right, and, 317 yards down the road, the [[Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army|IRA]] remotely detonated 200 pounds of explosives hidden under a culvert.<ref>{{cite news|date=26 May 2015|title=Sir Brian Cubbon, civil servant - obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11630077/Sir-Brian-Cubbon-civil-servant-obituary.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|location=London|accessdate=26 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto"/> Ewart-Biggs and fellow passenger and [[civil servant]] Judith Cooke (aged 26) were killed. Driver Brian O'Driscoll and third passenger [[Brian Cubbon]] (the highest-ranking civil servant in [[Northern Ireland]] at the time) were injured.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Liam |last=Collins |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/uk-diplomats-murder-on-lonely-dublin-road-triggered-state-crisis-34900857.html |title=UK diplomat's murder on lonely Dublin road triggered State crisis |newspaper=[[Irish Independent]]|date=21 July 2016 }}</ref> Republicans suggested Ewart-Biggs was targeted because of his intelligence connections<ref name="telegraph1"/> though possibly Cubbon was the intended target.<ref name="auto1"/> Two months after his murder, the IRA claimed responsibility and said that Ewart-Biggs had been sent to Dublin "to co-ordinate British intelligence activities and he was assassinated because of that." The [[British Foreign Office]] dismissed the claim as nonsense.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/imported/tragic-irony-of-brutal-murder-28353945.html | title=Tragic irony of brutal murder | newspaper=Belfasttelegraph }}</ref>

It later emerged that the UK's [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]], [[Merlyn Rees]], had at the last minute been forced to cancel plans which would have placed him in the convoy. He was to travel to the Republic to consult with the ambassador and Irish ministers, but postponed his trip after [[Margaret Thatcher]] refused to allow Northern Ireland ministers to [[Pair (parliamentary convention)|''pair'' their votes]] in [[House of Commons]] divisions. Rees wrote in his memoirs, ''Northern Ireland, a Personal Perspective'', that it seemed likely the IRA had known of his impending visit but were unaware of its cancellation.<ref name="auto"/>