[setanta]

Originally Posted by Shasown

On the first line I am in almost total agreement with you on that.

On the second, they did listen to the Nationalists, but because of Stormont being in existance at the time, the actual British Government's hands were tied, thats what most people dont get. Northern Ireland at the time technically was a dominion, it was to all intents and purposes self ruling.

There wasnt really a lot they could do. It would completely undermine the National Assembly and in some cases it would have been an internationally illegal act to interfere directly.

Consequently, they had to find occassion to find fault with the actions of Stormont in order to dissolve it. Certain Nationalist groups werent prepared to wait, certain unionist factions werent going to listen anyways.

But they disolved it for awhile and took total control of the area, right? And they didn't cover themselves in glory furing that period either. Look, it was a horrible situation but they didn't deal with as best they could really.

And Maggie was just plain silly in what she did.