IRA plot to kill Queen Elizabeth in San Francisco during 1983 trip to USA revealed in unsealed FBI documents

Newly-releasedFBIdocuments show that agents were concerned of an “ever-present” threat to theQueenduring 11 visits to the US across her seven-decade reign. TheFBI’s vault filescontaining information of high public interest, show they received intelligence that Queen Elizabeth might be targeted by an Irish Republican Army sympathiser, who wanted to avenge the death of his daughter inNorthern Ireland, on her 1983 trip

According to the files, a San Franciscopolice officerinformed FBI agents he had received a call from a man he knew from drinking at Irishbarsin the city on February 4, 1983, about a month before the Queen and Prince Philip were due to visit. The FBI memo states the man claimed he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth by dropping an object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the royal yacht Britannia as it sailed underneath.

The 102 pages of records about the monarch’s trips were publicly released on Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted byNBC Newsand other media, following the Queen’s death last year.Policealso warned FBI agents that due to the wide variety ofprotestersagainst both Ronald Reagan and the British monarch, “it will be very hard to anticipate and prevent incidents which may embarrass either the queen or thepresident.”

Records do not indicate if the FBI or other law enforcement agencies arrested anyone during that or any other visit. Nor do they confirm just how serious the threat was treated by the FBI or other security forces.