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During 1996, law enforcement entered a British residence and arrested Michael Gallagher on suspicion of Irish Republican Army activities. His girlfriend, an university lecturer focused in mathematical physics, was shocked and outraged.

Attenborough was skeptical that her intellectual partner – a ex-government worker who assisted those in need – was involved with the IRA. He had previously impressed her by finishing a difficult puzzle in only record time.

Court Case

The accused was prosecuted with working to assist the IRA carry out bombings at a key transport hub in the mid-1990s. While these attacks resulted in no injuries or deaths, they produced widespread chaos.

She gathered funds and public support to defend her boyfriend's lack of guilt. In spite of these efforts, Gallagher was sentenced of conspiring to cause explosions and was given a 20-year prison sentence.

Aside from a small number of individuals, I didn’t really inform anyone,” she said. “It was not a matter I was happy about because Gallagher had deceived me.”

Revealing the Truth

Currently, nearly 30 years afterward, the pair are still together and have written together a publication that reveals Michael was, actually, involved.

Gallagher had been an IRA fixer who assisted various missions, including the airport incident. He concealed the truth from his partner and only admitted subsequent to his guilty verdict, making her devastated.

Life After Prison

Following his release under the conditions of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, the couple relocated to the Irish countryside and established a digital company, which they manage to this day.

The memoir, called Unbroken: Deception, Truth and Lasting Love, changes narratives between the pair and withholds the revelation of his involvement until following his sentencing.

“I know Gallagher isn’t a terrible person, he is a truly decent person,” she remarked. “Merely failed to prioritize me, and it is unclear whether I see that as disloyalty. It was not his purpose.”

Background and Relationship

Attenborough and Gallagher met in 1985 through organizations that backed labor activists and demonstrated against racial segregation.

Attenborough, hailing from the West Midlands, held a doctorate in mathematical physics. Gallagher, of Scottish origin, was an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic.

He had Northern Irish roots and performed tasks for republican groups, arranging housing, transport and paperwork for IRA members in England.

Truth Emerges

He hid his involvement from his partner, who favored a united Ireland but disapproved of violent tactics.

I had given a pledge to the organization and a commitment to Attenborough and I believed I could keep it hidden – that I was able to handle each,” Gallagher commented.

Security forces identified him as a person of interest who had visited a building with traces of bomb-making materials. They monitored him and monitored the couple’s home for nearly 24 months, ending in the pre-dawn raid at their London residence on October 28, 1996.

Later Realizations

During over a year – during her meetings in jail and the trial in early 1998 – Gallagher held onto his secret.

I could not inform her because had I told her then, she must have to inform her brother: ‘Don’t bother arranging bail for Michael because he’s guilty,’” Gallagher stated. “That was absolutely an difficult period.”

The possibility of being found not guilty supported his false story until the court ruled he was responsible. Soon afterward, when she came to see him to talk about further court actions, he revealed his involvement.

In the beginning, I was uncertain whether to believe him,” Attenborough recalled. “I wondered, well, whose story of the truth ought I believe?”

Emotionally shaken, she contemplated leaving the connection, but in later meetings she accepted his explanations and understood his hidden involvement.

Clearly I disapproved with this involvement with the IRA. Yet, it wasn’t a leading position that he was playing.”

Final Revelations

During the writing of their memoir, he revealed a further past deception to his partner: when he quickly solved the puzzle in her copy of the Guardian, he had earlier solved it in his own copy.