In a new book about Northern Ireland historian Peter Rose argues that if Harold Wilson's government in the late sixties had pursued a different policy the province might have been spared The Troubles. Wilson had promised the Catholics that they would be granted their civil rights. However, new evidence suggests that Westminster was deliberately gagged to prevent MPs demanding that the Stormont administration ended discrimination in the province. Had the government acted on intelligence of growing Catholic unrest, it could have prevented the rise of the Provisional IRA without provoking an unmanageable Protestant backlash. The book draws upon recently released official documents and interviews with many key politicians and civil servants of the period to examine the failure of British policy to prevent the troubles.

General Editor's Preface Author's Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Chronology Introduction 'Leave it to Terence': the Labour Government, October 1964-March 1966 The 'Crucially Difficult Year', April-August 1966 Putting off the Evil Day, September 1966-May 1967 The Phoney Peace, May 1967-March 1968 The Road to Londonderry, April-October 1968 'History is Against Us', November 1968-April 1969 To the Top of the Agenda, May-August 1969 Conclusion Bibliography Index

PETER ROSE is currently Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster. He was born in Harrogate and trained as a journalist on newspapers in Yorkshire. For 15 years he worked as a Parliamentary lobby correspondent at Westminster and in the Seventies was co-author with Robin Oakley, now the BBC's political editor, of two books about Parliament. In the mid-eighties he left journalism to become a full-time mature student at London University and graduated in Modern British History. From 1993-1996 he was a part-time teacher at QMW. Then in 1997 he was awarded a PhD by London University for a thesis on the Northern Ireland policy of the first Wilson government. He has contributed to several books including The Northern Ireland Question in British Politics and By-elections in British Politics.