Thomas Hennessey. The First Northern Ireland Peace Process

Thomas Hennessey’s new book is the latest addition to scholarly works exploring the early to mid-1970s, a highly significant period in Northern Ireland’s political history. A wealth of archival sources pertaining to these years is now available to researchers, and there is much within the documents to debate. Hennessey’s monograph adds to this discussion. He conducted extensive research in archives in London, Dublin, Galway, and Belfast, some of which remain underexplored, making The First Northern Ireland Peace Process: Power-Sharing, Sunningdale and the IRA Ceasefires, 1972–76 particularly welcome and timely. The significance of the period 1972–1976 in Northern Ireland cannot be underestimated. First, these years marked the collapse of Northern Ireland’s devolved Parliament and the introduction of direct rule from London. Second, the most intense violence occurred during the course of the conflict. Third, the creation of the first devolved government brought together both nationalist and unionist politicians in a power-sharing arrangement and established a Council of Ireland comprised of politicians from the northern and southern states as part of the Sunningdale agreement. Finally, the period ended with the British state’s engagement in tentative discussions with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), during which both sides discussed how and under what circumstances the conflict might end.

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