It was felt that direct rule ‘would put the British soldiers under pressure from the Republicans and the Catholics’. Both Healey and Callaghan, the two ministers most affected, argued that the Cabinet’s interest lay in working: …through the Protestant Government. The Protestants are the majority and we can’t afford to alienate them as well as the Catholics and find ourselves ruling Northern Ireland directly as a colony. We have also to be on the side of the Catholic minority and try to help and protect them against their persecutors.
