Conclusion

Abstract

The assessment of the peace process and the Belfast Agreement may be considered to move between diametrically opposed views. At one extreme, proponents of a critical view have argued that the peace process and the Belfast Agreement were made possible significantly because of the counter-terrorist professionalism and, in particular, the efficiency of the intelligence gathering undertaken by the security forces. Proponents of this view argue that the IRA had been brought close to the point of defeat by the early 1990s. The human cost to the security forces was very considerable. Between 1969 and 2001, 302 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers died in the Troubles. In 1983, Interpol concluded that Northern Ireland was then the most dangerous place in the world to serve as a police officer, the risk of personal injury being more than twice that of El Salvador, the second most hazardous location. The RUC was presented with the George Cross on 12 April 2000 and the citation referred to ‘the brave and resolute stand’ its members had taken against paramilitary violence. The impact on the families of local members of the security forces killed or injured over thirty years in north and south Armagh is graphically recorded in Legacy of Tears (Patterson, 2006).