Huh ? "Thatcher did more for Ireland than other UK leaders"

[steve2470]

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/thatcher-did-more-for-ireland-than-other-uk-leaders-1.1353244


Margaret Thatcher had a huge influence on Ireland during her 11 years as British prime minister. She was loathed by republicans, disliked by nationalists and distrusted by unionists yet she paved the way for peace by committing her country to the Anglo Irish Agreement of 1985.

Thatcher’s relationship with Ireland got off to the worst possible start when her Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave was murdered by republicans in March 1979 just months before she took power.

When Charles Haughey took power in Dublin at the end of the year, partly by adopting a more aggressive nationalist line than his predecessor Jack Lynch, it was widely assumed that political stalemate would ensue. Instead during the “teapot diplomacy” phase of Anglo Irish relations that followed there was a significant breakthrough.

Haughey went out of his way to make an impression on Thatcher at their first summit in London in May 1980 with his gift of a silver teapot symbolising his willingness to engage in substantive discussions.

*end of excerpt*

What say you, UK and Irish DU'ers ?

[Pab Sungenis]

1. If you look at it that way

Then she and Oliver Cromwell are in a close race for who did more for Ireland.

Or are we misspelling "to?"

[life long demo]

2. Oliver Cromwell, well now there is a guy who never

met an Irish man, woman or child he didn't want to kill or ship out of the country as a slave.

Yes, Margaret is in good company.

[Pab Sungenis]

3. Exactly.

Margaret left an almost unparalleled trail of destruction behind her.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I think Good Queen Bess could be added to this list.

[Nye Bevan]

5. This does have more credibility coming from the "Irish Times" than if it came from the Daily Mail.

And it is true that the Anglo-Irish Agreement was a significant step on the road to the peace that is enjoyed today.

I would compare Margaret Thatcher's policies in Ireland very favorably with W's appalling misadventures in the Middle East.

[RetroLounge]

6. Who did more for Poland?

Hitler or Stalin?



RL

[FunkyLeprechaun]

7. I'm slightly bit confused about it

But if you look at the Tories/Labour throughout the eighties and nineties there were leaps and bounds in repairing Anglo-Irish relations compared to the decades prior to that (I grew up in Northern Ireland in the summertime in the eighties and I remember tanks in Belfast and seeing British soldiers on patrol in the streets and I've returned on and off since then, I was just in Belfast last week, and I've seen nothing like that since the 1980s).

I wish Thatcher had approached the Hunger Strikes issue differently- I was very anti-Thatcher because of that. As I grew up and learned more about the Hunger Strikes (my great aunt witnessed the hunger strikes as she worked in the H blocks in the kitchens during that time and wrote a letter to my sister who was researching Irish history about it), the IRA, and 7 years ago I took an Irish history class in Boston and it was really interesting. I'm proud of my heritage (I have an Irish name, I look Irish (red hair, freckles, green eyes) and embrace the uniqueness of being British and Irish at the same time (The Republic of Ireland includes Northern Ireland in its constitution so anyone born in NI is automatically an Irish citizen regardless of their background- so they are Irish and British at the same time).

Thatcher's policies did affect Northern Ireland politics for sure, but I'm not sure whether it was good or bad for civilians (I think she handled the IRA/Hunger Strikes badly but it was certainly during her term that Anglo-Irish relations were beginning to improve and led to the Good Friday Accords).

[loli phabay]

8. good post, I think the peace accords where a good part of her legacy

Even more astounding after what happened in Brighton.