This article raises more questions than it is able to answer.
It suggests there were elements within the British Establishment that were less
than happy with Thatcher's overtures vis-à-vis the Irish Republic.
Was it an MI5 agent that approached the Ulster Volunteer
Force (UVF)? Or was it someone masquerading as an MI5 agent? If it was an MI5
agent that raises a series of fascinating questions regarding British politics
and the UK's Deep State. If it wasn't, then one is sent down other equally
tantalising paths of inquiry. Who could it be? Disaffected Unionists? IRA
hardliners? the CIA, or someone else entirely? Britain has many enemies today
and yet it had even more a generation ago.
The UVF like all the paramilitary groups involved in The
Troubles has always been somewhat shadowy. Its leaders were often answering to
unseen names and faces and there were internal struggles often leading to
violence. The UVF had a very dirty record and its members have a lot of blood
on their hands. Was it a tool in the hands of MI5? Some people think so and
there's a case that can be made for such an argument. Of course there are also
more than a few (and somewhat suspicious) connections to Ian Paisley. Of course
in addition to being a religious and political leader, Paisley was also deeply
involved in the militias. He wouldn't have wanted his name connected to the
extreme violence of the UVF, and yet his name often comes up.
The UVF was hidden by layers of obfuscation and its funding
remains a labyrinth. Its participation in the drugs trade certainly points to
other equally intriguing precedents.
This article leaves us with a great historical 'what if'? For
if the Taoiseach had been slain by Unionists in the late 1980's, what would
have happened over the subsequent decade? Would the Good Friday agreement of
1998 happened? Who can say?
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