Word: ulsterization
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...political violence continues, Ulster faces a steadily worsening economic crisis. Male unemployment is already running at nearly 15%, more than twice Britain's national average. Foreign investment has been difficult to attract, and the Thatcher government, grappling with Britain's own recession, is hardly able to fill the gap. Last week Atkins announced that the government would have to pump an additional $153 million into the ailing Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff in a last-ditch effort to save 7,000 jobs. British public expenditures in Northern Ireland, including the cost of security operations, average...
...predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland, ever faithful to their goal of Irish unity, also reacted cautiously to the limited home-rule plan. An official statement from Dublin welcomed the discussion of "possible solutions" but insisted on "closer political cooperation between the British and Irish governments" on the Ulster question. Some measure of cooperation actually began in May, when Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey had a cordial meeting with Thatcher, at which the two leaders agreed to hold regular consultations. At that time, Haughey insisted that the Republic did not seek to annex the six northern counties...
...Most of Ulster's Protestants reject unification. Their longstanding distrust of the Catholic South has been intensified by continuing hit-and-run raids across the long, largely open border by Provisional Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) terrorists based in the Republic. In the border area of Newtownbutler alone, 51 Protestants have been shot by terrorists in the past few years. "It's as bad as Viet Nam here now," said a South Tyrone auto mechanic who had seen two co-workers gunned down by Prove hit men a week earlier. At an angry protest meeting in Newtownbutler last month...
Dublin intelligence sources claim that quiescent Protestant guerrilla groups are now back in operation. Indeed, Protestant "death squads" are suspected in the separate killings last month of two of Ulster's prominent Republican sympathizers, Landowner-Politician John Turnly, 44, and Queen's University Lecturer Miriam Daly...
Westminster's desire for a speedy solution to Ulster's tragic and costly turmoil is reflected in Atkins' ambitious timetable: he plans to meet separately with the four main political parties in the coming weeks, reach a consensus on one of the proposed formulas by September and present a bill to Parliament before the Queen's speech in November. If the Ulster politicians cannot agree, as seems likely, the Thatcher government could submit its own plan to the people in the form of a referendum. That course runs the risk of further underlining the sectarian divisions...