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March 29 - April 14, 2020
‘We must build up dossiers on those men and women in this country who are a menace to this country because one of these days,
if and when the politicians fail us, it may be our job to liquidate the enemy.’
that his premiership was Stormont’s last chance.’
internment, Bloody Sunday and the fall of Stormont
‘Chief amongst those who have sought the emasculation and ultimately the downfall of Stormont have been the IRA terrorists themselves.’
SDLP walkout had ‘deprived Stormont of any remaining legitimacy’.
There were almost 2,000 explosions and over 10,000 shooting incidents, an average of around 30 shootings per day.
William Whitelaw.
One of the most important of these, which was to have significant long-term consequences, was to defuse a republican hungerstrike by conceding ‘special category status’ to prisoners associated with paramilitary groups.
was a later attempt to withdraw this concession which led to the republican hungerstrikes and political upheavals of 1980 and 1981.
The importance of Adams was emphasised by the fact that he was released from prison to make the trip.
The very fact that the meeting took place, however, was of great psychological importance in both political and paramilitary circles, being regularly cited in support of the argument that Britain might someday not rule out doing a deal with violent groupings.
‘Their purpose was to identify and exclude terrorists in places where the security forces could not guarantee protection. It was worth considering whether they could be employed as an “eyes and ears” force on a regular basis.’ Heath turned down the idea.
By the end of the year loyalists had killed 120 people.
On 11 July a number of drunken loyalists broke into the home of a Catholic family, killing a mentally handicapped youth and raping his mother.
You may well think that in this case we have reached the lowest level of human depravity.’
both Bloody Friday and Claudy were seen at the time as major political setbacks for the IRA.
representing the people as a whole’.
‘A settlement must recognise Northern Ireland’s position within Ireland as a whole. It is therefore clearly desirable that any new arrangements should, whilst meeting the wishes of Northern Ireland and Great Britain, be so far as possible acceptable to and accepted by the Republic of Ireland.’
The strength of feeling in the Catholic community had to be addressed, and that meant finding some way of involving the government of the Republic directly in the affairs of the province.’
View here is that the way to reach the Catholics of NI was through the intercession of the RoI
‘No UK government for many years has had any wish to impede the realisation of Irish unity, if it were to come about by genuine and freely given mutual agreement and on conditions acceptable to the distinctive communities.’
am prepared to kill and those behind me will have my full support. When we say force we mean force.
assassinate our enemies as a last desperate resort when we are denied our democratic rights.’
recklessly fanning the flames of violence.
Bombs planted in London in March 1973 led to one death and almost two hundred injuries, the first of many sporadic but often spectacular IRA attacks in England which in the course of the troubles would take more than a hundred lives.
but the political impact of attacks in Britain was often great.
Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals.
such as Craig and Paisley, who did not.
The "Trumps" of the situation
suspicious coalitions which knew what they stood against but disagreed on what they stood for.
Bernadette Devlin, the rump of the Civil Rights Association,
though UDA members killed an SDLP politician and a woman friend by stabbing them dozens of times.
Whitelaw, the principal architect of the new settlement, was promoted to a senior post in London, Heath believing that he needed his talents for his government’s confrontation with trade unions in Britain. He was replaced by the less experienced Francis Pym only four days before the Sunningdale conference took place.
‘They were contradictory arguments. The success of the agreement depended on neither side listening to what their allies were saying about it.’
but loyalist killings trebled.
Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, said, ‘There is no question of changing our constitution with regard to our claim of sovereignty over all of Ireland.’
