occasion of a return t has proved the •HE Manchester bomb has proved the fire media hysteria towards Republicanism. But behind the empty posturing the British strategy is proving remarkably durable.
The British state claims it has "no selfish strategic or economic interest" in Ireland. With the end of the cold war there is less of a threat in the Western Approaches of the North Atlantic.
Ireland. Despite the financial cost of the bombing campaign, Britain still a crucial political interest in Ireland The Common Agricultural Policy has put an end to Ireland's traditional role as what Marx called "an agricultural district of Britain".
But Britain still has a crucial political interest in This is not just because of the presence of 18 MP's from the North of Ireland in the British Parliament, but because the British government has a strong and continuing interest in stable bourgeois rule on the island of Ireland. socialists. one Dublin commentator put it, "to eradicate the cancer ofrepublicanism from the island of Ireland" because of the threat it poses to both of them.
John McAnulty of the Irish group Socialist Democracy assesses the long-term effects of the latest developments and Socialist Outlook's David Coen examines the role of Ireland in British politics and the importance of the question to British