ABSTRACT
The development of an ‘internal security’ strategy for Northern Ireland took place while Merlyn Rees was Northern Ireland Secretary. The internal security strategy owed more to the European experience combating urban terrorist groups than it did to the colonial experience. Far from the British confronting rebellion and insurgency in Northern Ireland during the 1970s with a proven model of counter-insurgency campaigning, what people have is a security establishment that certainly possessed considerable experience, but much of it was of failure. With the failure of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to contain the Catholic working class revolt of August 1969 and the beginning of serious inter-communal fighting, the Army was introduced in a peacekeeping role. Over a comparatively short period the Army became involved in confrontation with Catholic working-class communities, succeeded in effectively alienating them and in this way acted as a recruiting officer for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
