The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

Normally the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6) served abroad, and MI5 at home, but the difficulties about defining whether the Six Counties were part of the ‘UK mainland’ or the ‘UK overseas’ had resulted in MI6 taking over, or rather being given the turf, after the 1971 internment fiasco. Heath overcame the objections of Sir Maurice Oldfield that MI6 should not become involved. Oldfield’s preference was for political-type activity. He favoured the planting of long-term informers and ordered MI6 to desist from the use of assassination as a tool worldwide. It was not until the period described by Wallace that MI5 won the battle, having begun to ‘invade’ the province from the time in 1972 when the IRA started to extend its bombing campaign to the ‘UK mainland’.