In telling the story of Margaret Thatcher it’s necessary to talk about the IRA too. It’s unfortunate as it marks out a Premiership with terrorism that English people felt personally.
It isn’t her fault but her Premiership is marked in some way by the feeling of it.
Yet the facts do not always bear out for all of us.
I once spoke to an Irish dissident who called himself so because he deviated from a narrative he saw as stopping Ireland’s future from materialising, not a policy or program as it were.
This is the state of things in a news era, he’d imply.
He believed an IRA man to be an early type of intelligence spy. He said he knew of a few people who knew a few facts of the matter, of political discussions higher up.
He said it made sense to see it as so.
The ensuing events, as he saw it, confirmed his views but I can’t be so sure. This sort of cloak and dagger talk is normally beyond me and I don’t engage with it.
However he felt sure and I was clear I’d listen to him.
I don’t believe it necessarily but it’s a case sometimes of if the shoe fits.
In his case he was upset about the prospects of his country so it didn’t seem worth challenging him on it.