Heath cabinet minutes rejected ‘abandoning the province’ despite public doubts

What was said

"the cabinet minutes say they know and I quote, "Many people would favor abandoning the province to its fate, a course which the government could not contemplate." And the reason they couldn't contemplate it is they say international opinion would damn us for it."

Dominic Sandbrook says cabinet minutes after the first British soldier was killed in Northern Ireland recorded ministers recognising that many voters wanted withdrawal, but that the government ruled it out. He says the stated reasons were reputational damage abroad and the risk of a sectarian bloodbath if the British state pulled out.