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Thu 08 Aug 2007Coming to terms with the British questionWhy, in the discussion of Britishness and the nationalist threat to the integrity of the UK, does no one mention Northern Ireland, asks Dennis KennedyIn pondering British identity and the problems of Scotland, of assimilating reluctant minorities, no one refers to the most serious assault by far in recent times on that integrity - a terrorist campaign that led to 3,500 deaths, and which has absorbed vast amounts of British government time and diplomacy in reaching the accommodation we have today.