Margaret Thatcher

This week I looked into Thomas Hennessey's book, Hunger Strike: Margaret Thatcher's Battle with the IRA. In it, Hennessy explains constant struggle with the IRA. From the early days of the revolutionary forces, most opposition mainly held civil strikes with small fractions of more violent forces. Regardless, Thatcher sent in troops in late 1969 which only radicalized the rebels even more. Though their direct orders were to restore law and order in a "limited operation", violence escalated in the region until the first soldier died in 1971. A year later, the British soldiers shot civilians in what is known as "bloody sunday". From that point on, the IRA threatened British soldiers and the crown with numerous bombings leading up to the impactful bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton. This threat upon Thatcher led towards her agreement with Garret Fitzgerald to establish Ireland as an independent country. Nevertheless, the bombings continued for a full thirteen years until the Good Friday Agreement established the Northern Irish Assembly. Even after this progress, bombings and assassinations frequented by splinter groups of the IRA. Nevertheless, Thatcher continued to pave way for Irish independence.

It would make sense for Thatcher to send in the military, because Machiavelli teaches us that if we wish to be violent, we should do it quickly.  After the violence, it is important to pave peace.  When the bombings continued, Thatcher didn't retaliate with escalated violence.  This allowed Thatcher to characterize the IRA as a domestic terrorist threat.  The bombing upon Thatcher's hotel was an attempt to radicalize Thatcher into fighting back, however Thatcher used game theory to see this act as a move in a grander plan to undermine her legitimacy.  Instead, Thatcher decided to broker peace with the Irish regime.  This allowed Thatcher to project a positive image of her in the media.  Rather than being a tyrant, people saw Thatcher as a strong compassionate leader.  Pool and Kessler explain in their hypothesis that individuals pay less attention to facts that contradict their previous views.  Even in a time of crisis, England could look up to Thatcher to guide them into security because they already had seen her sternly stand up to nearly deathful bombing attempts.  This also made Thatcher more relatable to the average Englishman during times of crisis; she faced the same threats as they had.  By maintaining this image, Thatcher was able to pave a way for Irish-English peace in a manner that allowed the Catholic citizens their own freedom.