Death
Bradford was shot dead by the IRA on 14 November 1981 in a community centre in Finaghy, Belfast, while hosting a political surgery. Kenneth Campbell, the 29 year old Protestant caretaker in the centre, was also shot dead in the attack.
The Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald made an expression of sympathy in the Dáil Éireann saying:
| “ | I would like to refer to the brutal murder, by the Provisional IRA, of the Reverend Robert Bradford, MP in Belfast on Saturday last. His death and that of Mr. Ken Campbell, caretaker at the Finaghy Community Centre, are part of a calculated series of atrocities committed in recent days. I know that all the people we represent share the sense of sorrow, anger and outrage widely felt in Northern Ireland at present.
The killing of an elected representative of the people calls for particular condemnation in the strongest possible terms and serves to remind us of the real objectives of the organisation responsible. The IRA has once again shown its utter contempt for human life and for the democratic process which it has recently sought to distort for its own ends. Its true attitude to democracy and freedom was summed up in a recent statement of an IRA spokesman who, when asked by an interviewer for a foreign newspaper about the wishes of the people in this part of the country concerning an aspect of reunification, replied, “We call the shots. We don't really give a damn what they want”. |
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His seat was won by Martin Smyth, also of the Ulster Unionists, in a by-election in 1982. A book about Bradford's life, A Sword Bathed in Heaven, was written by his widow, Norah, in 1984, dealing largely with his path to Methodism, although also examining his political career.
Read more about this topic: Robert Bradford (Ulster Unionist Politician)
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