ABSTRACT
One of the long-lasting costs paid, if not always admitted by the United Kingdom, was the corruption of the judicial system, especially in the province, but more telling in the aftermath of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombs on the mainland. The unionists had always considered the armed struggle sectarian violence. The IRA armed struggle continued, the loyalist paramilitaries were active, conventional politics went on with not unexpected results, and the death total kept going up. The arena could not change so as to eliminate the armed struggle. Increasingly the IRA did just that, focused on the armed struggle, on persistence and escalation, on the day-to-day activities. Money did not count more than funerals; but money counted, investment counted, and what counted most was that many in the British establishment, even some unionists, while preferring repression, had grown pragmatic. And finally all the concerned, including the unionists, would be involved in an end game with agreed limits and prospects.
