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

by Tim Pat Coogan

The possibility of a break in the talks logjam opened up on 11 May when, after a meeting between Peter Brooke and a group of Unionist leaders, it was announced that, though the Anglo-Irish Agreement would not be suspended, there would be a moratorium on meetings of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. However, Unionist conditions on when these talks should begin – not until after there had been substantial progress on devolution – made both Dublin and the SDLP go cold on the proposal, and on 5 July, during a debate on the renewal of direct rule, Brooke was forced to inform the House of Commons that he was unable to report any schedule for talks. The IRA didn’t require one. On 24 July, in Armagh, a 1, 000lb bomb triggered by a command wire not only killed three RUC men but claimed the life of a nun, Sister Catherine Dunne, into the bargain. At the end of the month, on 30 July, the IRA also killed Ian Gow, the Sussex MP, with a car bomb outside his home. Two IRA men were shot dead at Loughgall on 9 October. And on the 24th of the month the IRA retaliated by killing five soldiers near Derry and another soldier and a civilian near Newry, in ‘human bomb’ attacks in which the drivers were strapped into cars and forced to drive to their targets.