When police thundered into their London home in 1996 and arrested Michael Gallagher on suspicion of IRA activity, MaryAttenborough was shocked and indignant.
She was an English academic who wrote books on geophysical software and her Scottish partner was a former civil servant who helped homeless alcoholics. The idea of him as an IRA man seemed ludicrous. Gallagher was romantic and cerebral – he had wowed Attenborough by completing the Guardian’s cryptic crossword in three minutes.
