ABSTRACT
As the years pass, the Northern Ireland Troubles appear to have become institutionalized at an intolerable but apparently irreducible level of violence. The real history of Ireland is seen as largely accommodating in political matters, not even focused on separatism, and not a matter of endless centuries of confrontation with Britain. The British and then the Irish governments have passed emergency legis- ation, filled the prisons with the suspected or convicted, and undertaken elaborate and costly security initiatives. The British government has apparently run out of political initiatives, opted in despair for a policy of drift, hinted at disengagement and soldiered on. The experiment in power-sharing was brought down in May 1974 by a Protestant general strike that gradually shut off electrical power until ruin faced the province. James Callaghan's A House Divided is a straightforward chronicle of Irish events seen from Labour London without startling revelations, scathing comment, or intimate asides.
