Shadowboxing in the Dark: Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism in Northern Ireland

The prolonged and often bloody conflict witnessed in Northern Ireland between 1969 and the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement (1998) has often been euphemistically referred to as ‘‘The Troubles,’’ claiming the lives of some 3,700 people1 and witnessing a large-scale terrorism campaign initiated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) that was unequalled in its intensity and ferocity in the history of Western Europe since the Second World War.