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So there are many questions being asked here, and while I acknowledge the Eric Andre joke, there are a few tricky areas of concern when it comes to discussing Thatcher's role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Let's start with Thatcher's relationship to the PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) and to a certain extent by proxy also the INLA (The Irish National Liberation Army). This relationship is probably best expressed in her comments about the 1981 Hunger Strikes that took place at Long Kesh/HM Prison Maze. The Hunger Strike is pretty famous, and writers/participants/casualties like Bobby Sands helped spread its impact around the world both during and after.

Now Thatcher's opinion on the Hunger Strike and the death of the strikers is a matter of public record. She refused openly to give into their demands for certain concessions: notably, the right to be treated as political prisoners of war and allowed access to their own clothing/the refusal of prison labor. She called them criminals and commented that she felt no sadness for the death of Sands, as he was nothing more than a criminal who had made his choice. She refused to negotiate at all... well, so she claimed in public, and this would lead to the retaliatory bombing of the Brighton Hotel in 1984, about three years later.

But here's the thing... the National Archives released files which showed she used MI6 back channels to conduct negotiations with the IRA during the Hunger Strike. These were released under the 30 Year Rule. These documents are available on the UK Archives website and easily searchable... but I cannot seem to link them, as the page gets 404'd. I'm not sure if this is because I no longer have a UK domain name, or the website is just crapping out on me as I go to give you a link. This makes life a bit difficult, as most the works I source from are only updated through their second or third editions and were published a couple of years before 2011, when the documents were released. If any redditors have a UK domain name and could post them below, that would be amazing. That being said, both Beresford's excellent "Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Hunger Strike" has coverage of the lack of negotiations and the speculation that Thatcher's government actually was in conversation at the time.

Now, none of that is directly related to the claim that she "funneled money into death squads". So let's address that instead. We would probably start by assuming that, if this was true, Thatcher's conservative government would be supporting the illegal Loyalist militant forces like the UVF (the Ulster Volunteer Force), as they are ideologically aligned in maintaining British rule in Northern Ireland. But one must remember that the UDR (the Ulster Defense Regiment) also existed, and was a legal regiment within the British Army that had an OVERWHELMING Protestant makeup. In 1975, while head of the opposition, Thatcher was privy to a conversation whose minutes make known that many in the UK government acknowledged that the UDR - a force supported by the British military - was infiltrated by Protestant extremists. I possess the minutes from this meeting and would be happy to include them in a link.

With all respect to Mr. Andre, it should also be noted that supporting active violence and terror campaigns was not unique to Thatcher as PM. From 1971-1973, the MRF (Military Reaction Force) acted as a covert under cover unit tasked with sowing discord among the different Republican factions, often attributing their actions to Ulster Loyalist. They were responsible for civilian deaths, and were accused of supplying weapons, bombs, and other materials to both sides of the conflict in order to destabilize the Republican opposition and cover their tracks as a military unit.

All of which is to say that Thatcher's government had a serious role in the conflict, and she certainly engaged with terrorists more than she let on. She also supported the UDR at a time when the government was concerned with its extremist makeup. However, to be... fair... to Thatcher, that type of undercover support against the Republican movement was not new to her PMship.

Sources:

Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Hunger Strike by David Beresford

"New releases on Thatcher government 1981" - Released by the National Archives of the United Kingdom, October 2011

"Ms Thatcher's Call to the Prime Minister on 10th September, 1975" - Accessed through the Pat Finucane Center

Making Sense of the Troubles, 2nd Ed by David McKittrik

A Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney

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