In the Melody Maker, November 1984, Morrissey said:
The sorrow of the Brighton Bomb is that she (the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher) escaped unscathed. The sorrow is that she’s still alive. But I feel relatively happy about it. I think that for once the IRA were accurate in selecting their targets… They want us to believe that such attacks can only work in the government’s favour but I believe that’s utter nonsense. Immediately after the event Maggie was on television attacking the use of bombs – the very person who absolutely believes in the power of bombs. She’s the one who insists that they’re the only method of communication in world politics. All the grand dame gestures about these awful terrorist bombs is absolute theatre.
He’s mostly annoyed that Thatcher was on television denouncing her own methods and the implication is that the IRA usually pick their targets badly, but the first sentence (usually the only one quoted) was enough to have him denounced as a terrorist sympathiser. The Smiths received death threats from Loyalist paramilitaries, the Irish Government insisted they play a scheduled Irish tour, and the IRA, not fussed about the ‘for once’, took it as a compliment.
https://lostinbelfast.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/13-barbarism-begins-at-home/
In May 2011 he was in trouble with conservatives in Ireland and the UK for saying the Queen should give the six counties back.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/morrissey-tells-queen-to-hand-over-six-counties-1.573354
https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/921
Even the UK left-wing press was sniffy – choosing to highlight his comparison of a constitutional Monarch with a dictator.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/18/morrissey-compares-queen-muammar-gaddafi
In April 2013 he got flack for mocking Thatcher’s death and for using a crass picture of the Queen.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/apr/10/morrissey-statement-margaret-thatcher
In a statement on True To You, 9th April 2013, he said:
The difficulty with giving a comment on Margaret Thatcher’s death to the British tabloids is that, no matter how calmly and measuredly you speak, the comment must be reported as an “outburst” or an “explosive attack” if your view is not pro-establishment. If you reference “the Malvinas”, it will be switched to “the Falklands”, and your “Thatcher” will be softened to a “Maggie.” This is generally how things are structured in a non-democratic society. Thatcher’s name must be protected not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it, and therefore any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics. Thatcher was not a strong or formidable leader. She simply did not give a shit about people, and this coarseness has been neatly transformed into bravery by the British press who are attempting to re-write history in order to protect patriotism. As a result, any opposing view is stifled or ridiculed, whereas we must all endure the obligatory praise for Thatcher from David Cameron without any suggestion from the BBC that his praise just might be an outburst of pro-Thatcher extremism from someone whose praise might possibly protect his own current interests. The fact that Thatcher ignited the British public into street-riots, violent demonstrations and a social disorder previously unseen in British history is completely ignored by David Cameron in 2013. In truth, of course, no British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday will be heavily policed for fear that the British tax-payer will want to finally express their view of Thatcher. They are certain to be tear-gassed out of sight by the police. United Kingdom? Syria? China? What’s the difference?
No one in the UK press has tried to explain why they believe he was an IRA supporter AND a supporter of their enemies, the UK far right.
On a side note – The Guardian had to apologise for employing an IRA supporter who used his platform to smear a rape survivor.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56292056
And on an even sider side note – in a weird quirk of fate – Scottish comedian Limmy, whose brother was jailed for anti-Irish Catholic sectarian racism, could drag Irish Catholic Morrissey for British Nationalism. It’s funnier if you’re Glaswegian.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/tv-comic-limmys-brother-jailed-3006790
Folk Devil 