Editing Margaret Thatcher (section)

====Northern Ireland====
[[File:Margaret Thatcher on a visit to Northern Ireland.jpg|thumb|alt=Margaret and Denis Thatcher on a visit to Northern Ireland|Visiting Northern Ireland in 1982]]
In 1980 and 1981, [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (PIRA) and [[Irish National Liberation Army]] (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's [[Maze Prison]] carried out [[1981 Irish hunger strike|hunger strikes]] to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government.{{r|strike}} [[Bobby Sands]] began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions.<ref name="strike">{{Cite news |title=3 October 1981: IRA Maze hunger strikes at an end |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113034637/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm |archive-date=13 January 2018 |access-date=5 January 2008 |work=On This Day 1950–2005 |via=BBC News Online}}</ref> Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, having declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political".{{r|strike}} Nevertheless, the British government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Clarke |first=Liam |date=5 April 2009 |title=Was Gerry Adams complicit over hunger strikers? |url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111769 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111220938/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111769 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |access-date=23 October 2020 |work=The Sunday Times |via=the Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}</ref> After the deaths of Sands and nine others, the strike ended. Some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of political status.{{r|CAIN-hs}} Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes.{{sfnp|English|2005|pp=207–08}}

Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an IRA [[Brighton hotel bombing|assassination attempt]] at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12&nbsp;October 1984.<ref name="bbc-bomb">{{Cite news |title=12 October 1984: Tory Cabinet in Brighton bomb blast |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308094001/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm |archive-date=8 March 2017 |access-date=29 October 2008 |work=On This Day 1950–2005 |via=BBC News Online}}</ref> Five people were killed, including the wife of minister [[John Wakeham]]. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the Conservative Party conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.{{r|bbc-bomb}} She delivered her speech as planned,{{sfnp|Thatcher|1993|pp=379–383}} though rewritten from her original draft,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Travis |first=Alan |date=3 October 2014 |title=Thatcher was to call Labour and miners 'enemy within' in abandoned speech |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/03/thatcher-labour-miners-enemy-within-brighton-bomb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228014646/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/03/thatcher-labour-miners-enemy-within-brighton-bomb |archive-date=28 February 2017 |access-date=25 May 2017 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> in a move that was supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.{{sfnp|Lanoue|Headrick|1998}}

On 6&nbsp;November 1981, Thatcher and [[Taoiseach]] (Irish prime minister) [[Garret FitzGerald]] had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.<ref name="CAIN-hs">{{Cite web |title=The Hunger Strike of 1981 – A Chronology of Main Events |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206165221/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm |archive-date=6 December 2010 |access-date=27 January 2011 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] |publisher=Ulster University}}</ref> On 15&nbsp;November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough [[Anglo-Irish Agreement]], which marked the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest, the [[Ulster Says No]] movement led by [[Ian Paisley]] attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anglo Irish Agreement Chronology |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206111841/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm |archive-date=6 December 2010 |access-date=27 January 2011 |website=Conflict Archive on the Internet |publisher=Ulster University}}</ref> [[Ian Gow]], later assassinated by the PIRA, resigned as [[Minister of State]] in [[HM Treasury]],<ref>{{Cite news |title=15 November 1985: Anglo-Irish agreement signed |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307120742/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm |archive-date=7 March 2008 |access-date=4 May 2010 |work=On This Day 1950–2005 |via=BBC News Online}}</ref>{{sfnp|Moloney|2002|p=336}} and all 15 Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent [[List of United Kingdom by-elections (1979–2010)|by-elections]] on 23&nbsp;January 1986.{{sfnp|Cochrane|1997|p=143}}