Expelling Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and inviting Dublin to share in its administration were among several options being examined by a Downing Street think tank in 1971, according to documents released at the Public Record Office yesterday.
As the security situation in Northern Ireland deteriorated, the central policy review staff drew up a confidential report for the Conservative prime minister, Mr Edward Heath, which said if the six counties ceased to be part of the UK the saving to the public purse would be "considerable".
The document described defeating the IRA and restoring law and order as a "negative aim" and suggested the six counties could be redrawn with Irish soldiers on the streets of Northern Ireland regaining the trust of an alienated Catholic community.
Policy review staff noted: "The fact that Northern Ireland is constitutionally part of the United Kingdom is no more or less relevant in terms of political realism than the fact that Algeria was part of metropolitan France. If the six counties ceased to be British . . . the net saving to public expenditure would be considerable."
In a covering memo from the cabinet secretary, Sir Burke Trend, on September 3rd, 1971, he acknowledged that "to let Ulster go totally in the sense of expelling it from the UK is, presumably, unthinkable in the current climate. But is it less unrealistic to think in terms of an arrangement which would give Dublin, not complete control over Ulster, but at least more effective say in its administration?"
And in prophetic language, he noted: "Sooner or later, all the parties will be driven to the negotiating table. It will be both more honourable and more economic to go there sooner rather than later."
The Conservative government was loath to introduce internment but agreed in the face of the collapse of political rule, former British Prime Minister Mr Edward Heath commented yesterday.
Documents released under the 30-year rule revealed Mr Heath agreed to internment despite the advice of the army that it would have a "harmful" effect on security. But in an interview with the BBC website, UK Confidential, Mr Heath said internment was introduced as a last resort.