Terrorism in Northern Ireland: The Curse of the Conflict Junkies

Last year [2009] Northern Ireland suffered 22 terrorist-related attacks; so far this year there have been 39. Last year 17 people in the province were charged with terrorist offences; this year, according to Matt Baggott, the chief constable of Northern Ireland’s police service (PSNI), the figure is already 74. On September 24th, acting on advice from the Security Service, MI5, Theresa May, the home secretary, raised the official perception of the threat from republican groups to a level that implies an attack on the mainland is “a strong possibility”.

The specter of the Bad Old Days in the UK?