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From the very beginnings of the Northern Ireland state, the Stormont government had special powers to combat violence. Internment without trial had been used in response to various IRA campaigns since the 1920s, but was most widely and controversially applied in the 1970s.

In this programme, Fergal Keane speaks to Professor Conor Gearty of the London School of Economics about the human rights implications of such special powers legislation and to Paddy Joe McClean who took a successful case to the European Court of Human Rights in response to his experience of torture when an internee.

A former RUC Special Branch officer describes the use of paramilitary informers to gather intelligence on behalf of the state and former paramilitary Billy Hutchinson explains the impact of informers upon his organisation's operations.

Producer: Owen McFadden.