Thatcher stood up to the IRA

The death of Margaret Thatcher has left us grappling with her considerable legacy.

Her relationship with Ireland was never comfortable and is linked with the hunger strikes. What did her period in office mean for Anglo-Irish relations?

The conventional narrative is that Thatcher was the devil incarnate, intent on breaking the will of the Provisional IRA through her treatment of the hunger strikers. This further entrenched the IRA and led to the Brighton bombing, in which she narrowly avoided death a few years later.