In early October 1972, Taoiseach Jack Lynch received a letter from a man claiming to be a representative of the Inner Council of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association. The letter accused Lynch of allowing the Irish state to be used as a base for the Provisional IRA to carry out cross-border attacks. The UDA, it said, would now embark on a campaign of violence south of the border, including to eliminate IRA “safe havens”. Over the next four months, the UDA carried out a series of cross-border attacks, killing seven people and wounding hundreds more.  Today, the…

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