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

by Tim Pat Coogan

the result of the second election was to ensure that circumspection was to be removed from the British Army’s lexicon for a critical period. On 18 June 1970, a British general election toppled Labour and returned a Conservative government under Edward Heath. Instead of the hands-on Callaghan, there was installed the hands-off Reginald Maudling. The Unionist Party vote on housing indicates the difficulties that lay in the path of even the most vigorous London overseer in obtaining reform. Maudling displayed a lack of vigour to the point of indolence. But above all, in place of the considerable restraint to which the army was subjected under Labour, a quite brutal search-and-ransack operation of the Falls Road area was sanctioned within days of the Tories taking over. This action confirmed moderate Nationalist opinion in the belief that the Conservative and Unionist Party was resuming the traditional alliance which had led to the setting-up of the statelet in the first place. Where the Provisional IRA was concerned, a tidal wave of recruitment was released which transformed the movement from a conspiracy to a guerrilla army.