Defeating the IRA
Presuming, against some weight of evidence, that the Provisional IRA has as its genuine political objective the unification of Ireland and the removal of the British, and is not simply a gang of bomband gun-happy anarchists, fascists, thugs and kids, then its latest series of nasty stunts could become self-defeating. Bombs in London shops and letterbombs to prominent people will only serve to irritate and anger the British and reinforce their determination to stay in Ulster. The Provisional IRA's activities can have no other effect than to prolong indefinitely the presence of British troops in Ireland and the political division of that unhappy country. Mr Heath was quite right, for once, in his assessment of a British reaction to events when he said over last weekend that the Provisional IRA could not be more wrong if they thought they could threaten the British people or blackmail them by bomb outrages.
This said, we wonder whether the British Government should continue to make matters so extremely easy for the IRA and its sympathisers. Every holidaymaker who has travelled to and from southern Ireland this summer will realise how absurdly easy it is for bombs and guns, or anything else for that matter, to be run from Ireland into England. Security checks on boats leaving Ireland are perfunctory when they exist at all; and before last weekend there were no security checks on at least some of the boats arriving in England. Mr Heath has suggested that the IRA might be banned In Britain. Well and good. It will have come as a surprise to many that it has not been banned long since. More to the point, however, will be to improve intelligence so that, for instance, Sinn Fein becomes unable to hold conferences in Birmingham addressed by leaders from Dublin.
The time may well be approaching when British policy towards southern Irish nationals in Britain will require re-examination. Undoubtedly a small minority of these Irishmen are sufficiently sympathetic to the Provisional IRA to offer them protection and assistance. If bomb attacks in Britain continue, then it may become sensible not only to place controls on ports of entry but also to issue identity cards to Irishmen working and living here, the better to identify those who have no good reason for their presence. Such procedures will be highly inconvenient; but it will be worth a good deal of inconvenience to prevent any serious attempt by the Provisional IRA to export themselves and their brutalities to Britain. At the same time, it would be prudent to consider whether an identity card system, using photographs and fingerprints, might be introduced throughout Northern Ireland. Direct military action can never defeat guerilla activity; but vigilance, constant harassment and a regular flow of intelligence can, over a time, wear down such activity until the guerillas are worn out. The only other way to defeat them is to make them unacceptable to the people among whom they move, which is to say to the people on whose behalf they claim to be murdering, bombing and shooting. Not until the Irish catholic communities in Ireland, north and south, and in Britain reject and cast out the Provisionals will the IRA be truly defeated, and peace be restored.
