On 12 September 1988 the BBC news carried the story of the attempted assassination of Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, then Head of the Civil Service in Northern Ireland. In the aftermath of this event Gerry Adams used the media to warn all other Civil Service 'collaborators' that they were under threat from the IRA. In response Margaret Thatcher introduced the broadcasting ban, ensuring that terrorists were unable to freely articulate threats through the British media. Though the ban was not advocated by Ken Bloomfield, this event provided his first major role in the contemporary history of the...