The Information Research Department, unattributable propaganda, and Northern Ireland: promising salvation but ending in failure?

Cormac, Rory (2016) The Information Research Department, unattributable propaganda, and Northern Ireland: promising salvation but ending in failure? English Historical Review, 131 (552). pp. 1074-1104. ISSN 1477-4534

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Abstract

This article examines the role of the IRD (Information Research Department) in Northern Ireland during the first half of the 1970s. After discussing British conceptualisations of propaganda, it offers a detailed account of IRD activity, including how a Foreign Office department came to be involved on British soil; how IRD propaganda fitted into the broader apparatus in Northern Ireland; the activity in which the IRD was engaged – both in Northern Ireland and beyond; and some of the challenges faced which limited the campaign’s effectiveness. It argues that the IRD’s role was driven from the very top of government and came against a context of cuts, a deteriorating security situation in Northern Ireland, and a tradition of domestic propaganda in the UK. IRD activity pressed four key themes: exploiting divisions within the IRA; undermining the IRA’s credibility amongst the population; linking the IRA to international terrorism; and portraying the IRA as communist.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/807819
Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in The English Historical Review following peer review. The version of record The Information Research Department, Unattributable Propaganda, and Northern Ireland, 1971–1973: Promising Salvation but Ending in Failure? / Rory Cormac. Vol. 131, issue 552, pp. 1074-1104 is available online at: http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/131/552/1074.full
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cew342
Depositing User: Cormac, Rory
Date Deposited: 20 Jul 2016 07:41
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 18:08
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/35187

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