Description
Throughout the Northern Ireland Troubles intelligence gathering played an ever-increasing role in combating paramilitary threats to the British state. This is a trend common throughout other British campaigns and which was accompanied by the ever-present questions about ethics and trust. These processes have received significant and growing attention from scholars of Northern Ireland in general and intelligence in particular. However, one element which has remained underdeveloped is the decisions about which organisations and their subunits were allowed or, indeed, trusted to collect intelligence. While the intelligence agencies were clearly designed to collect and assess intelligence, as the conflict progressed more and more uniformed troops from the British Army were involved in intelligence gathering. The increased focus on uniformed intelligence gathering even led to the development of tailored recce platoons. Interestingly though, one uniformed group, the Ulster Defence Regiment, which had been established explicitly to support the army through the benefit of its ‘local knowledge’ was prohibited from engaging in many intelligence activities. This then begs the question of how we determine who is and is not allowed i.e. trusted to gather intelligence and what this tells us about inter-organisational dynamics.
