Operation Banner’s 50th anniversary is a warning from the past

The 50th anniversary of Operation Banner should serve as a warning to us all: any short-term crisis can balloon into a major catastrophe if insufficiently managed.

In 1969, the first British army troops were sent into Northern Ireland as part of a temporary mission that became Britain’s longest continuous deployment. If the name Operation Banner did not initially register, that is because the last 20 years of peace and relative stability have lulled ...