Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to reassess the approach of the Heath premiership to policy in relation to Northern Ireland. The chapter identifies how the Heath premiership was undermined by a number of poor, and perhaps avoidable, decisions notably in the area of security policy and the decision to support the use of internment, and the handling of the aftermath of the killing of unarmed civilians by the Army on Bloody Sunday is discussed in depth. The chapter argues that the outworking of these decisions, and the refusal of the Heath premiership to confront the military mind-set that produced them, had serious implications for how the conflict developed during the early 1970s. The chapter does, however, stress the evolution in the Heath government’s approach to the conflict which recognised that the ‘Irish dimension’ was crucial as well as enshrined a role for Dublin in attempting to forge a political settlement [152].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The term ‘salami tactics’ is attributed to Hungarian communist Mátyás Rákosi and usually refers to a piecemeal strategy, where one’s opponent doesn’t realise what has happened until it is too late.
Bibliography
Archives
The National Archives. London.
Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Belfast.
Published Primary Sources
Bloody Sunday Inquiry (BSI). (2010). Volume 1. London: HMSO.
Compton Report. (1971). Report of the enquiry into allegations against the Security Forces of physical brutality in Northern Ireland arising out of events on the 9th August 1971. Cmd. 4823. London: HMSO.
House of Commons Parliamentary Debates (HC Deb).
Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals. (1973). Cmd. 5259. London: HMSO.
Parker Report. (1972). Report of the Committee of Privy Counsellors appointed to consider authorised procedures for the interrogation of persons suspected of terrorism. Cmd. 4901. London: HMSO.
Sunningdale Agreement (Communique). (1973). Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN), https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/sunningdale/agreement.htm.
Widgery Report. (1972). Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into the events on Sunday, 30 January 1972, which led to loss of life in connection with the procession in Londonderry on that day by The Rt. Hon. Lord Widgery, O.B.E. T.D. H.L. 101, H.C. 220. London: HMSO.
Newspapers and Periodicals
Private Eye. (1972). 265. 11th February.
Memoirs and Diaries
Faulkner, B. (1978). Memoirs of a Statesman. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Heath, E. (1998). The Course of My Life. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Hogg, Q. (1990). A Sparrow’s Flight: Memoirs of Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone. London: William Collins.
Books, Chapters and Articles
Anderson, D. (1994). 14 May Days: The Inside Story of the Loyalist Strike of 1974. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Aveyard, S. C. (2016). No Solution: The Labour Government and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1974-79. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Arthur, P. (1996). The Heath Government and Northern Ireland. In S. Ball & A. Seldon (Eds.), The Heath Government (pp. 1970–1974). Harlow: Pearson.
Baston, L. (2004). Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling. Stroud: Sutton.
Bleakley, D. (1974). Faulkner. Belfast: Universities Press.
Bloch, M. (2014). Jeremy Thorpe. London: Abacus.
Bowyer-Bell, J. (1973). The Escalation of Insurgency: The Provisional Irish Republican Army’s Experience, 1969-1971. The Review of Politics, 35(3), 398–411.
Campbell, J. (1993). Edward Heath: A Biography. London: Jonathan Cape.
Bruce, S. (2007). Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Craig, T. (2010). Crisis of Confidence: Anglo-Irish Relations in the Early Troubles, 1966-1974. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
Cunningham, M. (2001). British Government Policy in Northern Ireland 1969-2000. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Duffy, A. (2019). Torture and Human Rights in Northern Ireland: Interrogation in Depth. London: Routledge.
Faul, D., & Murray, J. (2016). The Hooded Men: British Torture in Ireland, August, October 1971. Dublin: Wordwell.
Fisk, R. (1975). The Point of No Return: The Strike Which Broke the British in Ulster. London: Deutsch.
Garnett, M., & Lynch, I. (2002). Splendid! Splendid! The Authorised Biography of William Whitelaw. London: Jonathan Cape.
Hanley, B. (2018). The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland, 1968–1979: boiling volcano? Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Kerr, M. (2005). Imposing Power-Sharing: Conflict and Co-Existence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
McDaid, S. (2012). The Irish Government and the Sunningdale Council of Ireland: A Vehicle for Unity? Irish Historical Studies, 38(150), 283–303.
McDaid, S. (2013). Template for Peace: Northern Ireland, 1972-75. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
McGlynn, C., & McDaid, S. (2016). Northern Ireland. In A. Crines & K. Hickson (Eds.), Harold Wilson: The Unprincipled Prime Minister? Reappraising Harold Wilson. London: Biteback.
McGrattan, C. (2009). Dublin, the SDLP and the Sunningdale Agreement: Maximalist Nationalism and Path Dependency. Contemporary British History, 23(1), 61–78.
McGuffin, J. (1974). The Guinea Pigs. London: Penguin.
Murray, D. (2011). Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry. London: Biteback.
O’Brien, J. (2000). The Arms Trial. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
O’Leary, B. (1989). The Conservative Stewardship of Northern Ireland 1979-1987. Sound-bottomed Contradictions or Slow Learning? Political Studies, 45(4), 663–676.
O’Leary, B. (2004). The Labour Government and Northern Ireland. In J. McGarry & B. O’Leary (Eds.), The Northern Ireland Conflict: Consociational Engagements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Purdie, B. (1988). Was the Civil Rights Movement a Republican/Communist Conspiracy? Irish Political Studies, 3(1), 33–41.
Smith, J. (2007). Walking a Real Tight-rope of Difficulties: Sir Edward Heath and the Search for Stability in Northern Ireland, June 1970–March 1971. Twentieth Century British History, 18(2), 219–253.
Sunday Times Insight Team. (1972). Ulster. London: Penguin.
Warner, G. (2006). The Falls Road Curfew Revisited. Irish Studies Review, 14(3), 325–342.
Wing, L. (2010). Dealing with the Past: Shared and Contested Narratives in ‘Post-conflict’ Northern Ireland. Museum International, 62(1-2), 31–36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McDaid, S., McGlynn, C. (2021). Northern Ireland. In: Roe-Crines, A.S., Heppell, T. (eds) Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-53672-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-53673-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)