ABSTRACT
Chapter Five looks at the conflict in Ireland during the 1980s. It describes the way in which the British Government under Prime Minister Thatcher slowly recognized the importance of the southern Irish Government in underwriting any future peace settlement. It also raises the possibility, ignored in much of the literature, that the British Government was interested at this stage in a military withdrawal from Ireland. This, of course, had been part of the intention behind the Uisterization process, but Chapter
Five argues that the Government became more seriously engaged in pursuing some form of Irish settlement in the early 1980s far a number of reasons. The first was what might be termed the 'internationalization' of the conflict. Mter the deaths of several hunger strikers in Narthern Irish prisons in 1981, international pressure, not least from North America, began to build for the British Government to end the conflict.8 Simultaneously, the evolution of the judicial institutions of the European Community provided a forum for open criticism of British behaviour in Ireland.9 The second imperative for change was that the PIRA was beginning to enter 'normal' politics through contesting elections. If they succeeded, the British Government feared a radical and hard-line Republican lobby could veto future political developments. Chapter Five argues that these considerations led Mrs Thatcher to sign the Hillsborough Agreement in 1985, allowing the southern Irish a formal voice in the affairs of Northern Ireland and thus, the chapter argues, paving the way far an eventual dilution of British influence. Throughout this political activity, the Army underwent perhaps its most controversial phase in Ireland, when the security forces were accused of operating a 'shoot to kill' campaign in the Province. The damage to the reputation of the RUC that inquiries into these allegations raised, meant that despite high-level discussions on a way to redesign the security arrangements and withdraw troops, the British Army was regarded as key to maintaining stability in an era of political transformation.
