But Catholic and Protestant politicians are equally skeptical
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher looked on pensively as her Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Humphrey Atkins, presented the long-awaited document to the House of Commons. The 16-page paper outlined an ambitious government plan for restoring self-government to Ulster after roughly eight years of direct rule by Westminster and a decade of sectarian violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives. Atkins guardedly insisted that the Thatcher government's initiative contained "grounds for some optimism. I detect that the leaders of the political parties really do want to find a way forward."
The new...
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