Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the twice weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thanks so much for tuning in wherever you are, around the world and indeed the UK and today we're going to be

focusing on well I bet all of you have been focusing too given the events of recent days

the situation in Northern Ireland Ireland the relationship with the UK via Rory Carroll

who's just written a brilliant, compelling book,

which raises so many interesting themes, killing Thatcher, the IRA, the manhunt, and the long

war on the crown. And Rory is also Ireland correspondent of The Guardian and has been reporting on events of recent days, of course, months and years as well.

Rory, thanks so much indeed for joining us.

Could I begin, actually, by asking you, I'm going to relate it straight away to the book,

but your reading of the current situation, your book, just to clarify, focuses on the

IRA plot to kill Margaret Thatcher in the Brighton conference with a bomb in her hotel,

the Grand, and will come on to all of that. Your assessment now, where Northern Ireland is,

there have been celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement,

President Biden in Belfast and Ireland, and yet the DUP are not going to take part in the Assembly,

so it's not running. There is talk of terrorist alerts being heightened. What's your reading of

now compared with this extraordinary period you chronicle in your book? Hi, Stephen. Thank you very much

for having me on the show. Well, there's a lot to celebrate in Northern Ireland right now.

I mean, compared to the 1980s when we were halfway through

the troubles, which were just awful. And now 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement,

the peace has held. And that really is a source of, you know, should and is a source of jubilation.

And congratulations for those who pulled it off. So that's the good

news. The bad news is that Northern Ireland is locked in this cycle of political dysfunction.

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