Ireland's Violent Frontier The Border and Anglo-Irish Relations During the Troubles

by Patterson, Henry

• ISBN13: 9780230299962
• ISBN10: 0230299962
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-03-01
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The important and controversial issue of cross-border security cooperation against the IRA during before the Good Friday agreement is woefully underrepresented in the literature on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. On this first book on the subject, Henry Patterson brings the role of the Irish State into sharp focus at a time when dealing with the past has become a central issue in Northern Irish Politics. It establishes the crucial importance of the border to the IRA campaign and shows why successive British governments considered the Republic a 'safe haven' for the IRA. It reveals the devastating effects of republican violence on Protestants in border areas and contains new archival material that sheds light on the Kingsmill Massacre, the role of the SAS, the murder of Lord Mountbattern as well as the Garda collusion. It also highlights how Mrs Thatcher's concern about the issue of border security led her to contemplate major concessions to the Irish government and how her Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Charles Haughey, sought to exploit this concern.

Author Biography

Henry Patterson is Professor of Politics at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Border and Anglo-Irish Relations 1969-1973
2. Security Co-operation and Sunningdale
3. The 'Anti-National Coalition' and Security Co-operation
4. Regression: Jack Lynch and the Border 
5. Disarray on the Border and the Arrival of Thatcher 
6. Haughey and Border Security
Conclusion: 'Buying Themselves into Having a Political Say'