Roy Mason (British Politician) - Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

A high-profile politician, his appointment to Northern Ireland was unexpected and seemed to indicate a tougher response from the British Government than that pursued by his predecessor, Merlyn Rees. In late 1976, he told the Labour party conference that "Ulster had had enough of initiatives, White Papers and legislation for the time being, and now needed to be governed firmly and fairly".

He rejected both military and political solutions in favour of "justice for all; with equality before the law; and, crucially, with republican terrorism treated as a security problem, and nothing else".

While Secretary of State for Defence he had been responsible for the introduction of SAS units into the 'bandit country' of South Armagh. At Stormont Mason was responsible for the tougher role taken by the security forces and authorised an increase in British Army covert tactics with the SAS allowed to operate throughout Northern Ireland.

Mason's time in Northern Ireland was characterised by a reduction in violence; "in 1976 there were 297 deaths in Northern Ireland; in the next three years the figures were 112, 81, 113 and it was an IRA man who acknowledged that 'we were almost beaten by Mason'".

In 1977, he stood up to militant loyalists attempt to repeat their successful Ulster Workers Council strike tactic of 1974. In the same year he twice attempted to get some movement towards a political settlement from the local political parties but both attempts failed.

Mason's policies in Northern Ireland backfired in March 1979, however, when the Labour government lost a vote of no confidence by one vote, precipitating the 1979 general election. Irish nationalist MP Gerry Fitt abstained in the vote of no confidence, stating that he could not support a government with Mason as its Northern Ireland secretary.

After Labour's election defeat in 1979 he came under increasing pressure from leftwingers in his constituency party under the influence of Arthur Scargill but did not countenance joining the Social Democratic Party. Roy Mason receives full police protection, over 30 years after leaving office. In 1982, the then Energy Secretary Nigel Lawson suggested to Margaret Thatcher that she should make Mason the next Coal Board chairman, but she refused, saying that Mason was "Not one of us". Instead, Ian MacGregor was appointed.