Award-winning author Doris Lessing has said that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre were no more devastating than what happened at the hands of the IRA.
She described the deaths of almost 3,000 people six years ago as 'not that terrible' compared to the 30-year campaign of terror by the provos, during which more than 3,700 died.
Lessing, 88, who won the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month, told Spanish newspaper El Pais: 'September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible.
'Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be.
'Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our Government. It killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget.' The IRA bombed the Brighton Grand Hotel hosting the Conservative Party Conference in October 1984, killing five.
As well as the 3,700 deaths, tens of thousands of people were injured during the Northern Ireland Troubles. The IRA murdered about 1,800 civilians and members of the security forces.
The author of the classic novel The Golden Notebook also poured scorn on former Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George Bush. She said: 'I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning. 'Many of us hated Tony Blair. I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. 'I said when he was elected, "This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems", and he did. 'As for Bush, he's a world calamity. Everyone is tired of this man. 'Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars.'
Lessing, the author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, was praised by the Nobel Prize judges for her 'scepticism, fire and visionary power'.