British Strategic interest in Northern Ireland

When it comes to the border North or South we don't really have any say in it we are at the mercy of her majesty.

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

From a strategic POV I’d say getting rid of it solves a few headaches, you lose the disaffected Catholics. Conversely for the Republic taking it gives you a big one, you get the unionists.

The point is the benefits of Northern Ireland outweigh the negatives to the British as the PM has made quiet clear recently.

Mullaghteelin wrote: »

In fairness, even if they wanted to dump the likes of Gibraltar, The Falklands or Tristian de Cunha, the inhbitants of such places tend to be as pro-Britiain as the Unionists themselves. The inconvenient legacy of planting settlers around the world in centuries past.

Pretty sure it's the opposite of inconvenient to them allowing them to easily hold onto overseas territory which would have otherwise been lost.

Just how far MI5 will go in relation to the Dublin Monaghan bombings At the time of the bombings, Colin Wallace was a
top British Intelligence Corps officer and a psychological warfare specialist at the British Army's Northern Ireland headquarters. Since his resignation in 1975, he has exposed scandals involving the security forces, including state collusion with loyalists and most famous of all he exposed the kincora boys scandal years before anyone else even mentioned it, He gave evidence to the Barron Inquiry

In an August 1975 letter to Tony Stoughton, chief of the British Army Information Service in Northern Ireland, Wallace writes:

There is good evidence the Dublin bombings in May last year were a reprisal for the Irish government's role in bringing about the [power sharing] Executive. According to one of Craig's people [Craig Smellie, the top MI6 officer in Northern Ireland], most of those involved – the Youngs, the Jacksons, Mulholland, Hanna, Kerr and McConnell – were working closely with [Special Branch] and [Military Intelligence] at that time. Craig's people believe the sectarian assassinations were designed to destroy Rees's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, and the targets were identified for both sides by [Intelligence/Special Branch]. They also believe some very senior RUC officers were involved with this group. In short, it would appear that loyalist paramilitaries and [Intelligence/Special Branch] members have formed some sort of pseudo gangs in an attempt to fight a war of attrition against the IRA by getting paramilitaries on both sides to kill each other and at the same time prevent any future political initiative.

In a further letter of September 1975, Wallace wrote that MI5 was backing a group of UVF hardliners who opposed the UVF's move toward politics. He added:

I believe most of the sectarian violence generated during the later part of the year was caused by some of the new [Intelligence] people deliberately stirring up the conflict. As you know, we have never been allowed to target the breakaway UVF, nor the UFF, during the past year. Yet they have killed more people than the IRA!