Editing James Callaghan (section)

====Northern Ireland====
[[File:James Callaghan and James Chichester-Clark 1970.jpg|thumb|Callaghan in 1970 (left), with [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland]] [[James Chichester-Clark]]]]
Callaghan's tenure as home secretary was marked by the emerging conflict in [[Northern Ireland]]: Like all British governments since the [[partition of Ireland]] in 1921, Harold Wilson's Labour government preferred not to intervene in the affairs of Northern Ireland. However in August 1969, [[1969 Northern Ireland riots|escalating sectarian violence]] between the province's [[Ulster Protestants|Protestant]] and [[Irish Catholics|Catholic]] communities, gave the [[Government of Northern Ireland (1921–1972)|Government of Northern Ireland]] little choice but to ask the British government to intervene directly and send in troops, and it was as home secretary that Callaghan took the decision to [[Operation Banner|deploy British Army troops]] in the province. In return Callaghan and Wilson demanded that various reforms be implemented in the province, such as the phasing out of the Protestant paramilitary [[B-Specials]], and their replacement by the [[Ulster Defence Regiment]], which was open to Catholic recruits, and various reforms to reduce discrimination against Catholics, such as reforms to the voting franchise, and a reform of local government boundaries and housing allocations. Although the troops were initially welcomed by Northern Ireland's Catholics, by early 1970 this had soured, and the [[Provisional IRA]] emerged, and embarked on what became a decades long violent campaign during what became known as [[The Troubles]].{{sfn|Conroy|2006|pp=64–71}}