Papers reveal bickering, manipulation
Posted by Jim on January 8, 2019
We publish a round-up of the state papers declassified at the turn of
the year by the Dublin and London governments, dating from 1988 and
1994. Please note that, as usual, some papers have not been released for
reasons of ‘state security’.
Papers released in Dublin and London show that discussions between
Thatcher and Haughey in 1988 focussed on the repeated demands by
Thatcher for increasingly oppressive policing measures against
republicans and the rapid extradition of “terrorists”.
In turn, Haughey raised British injustices. A request by him for
clemency for the Birmingham Six was rebuffed immediately by Thatcher.
Three years before the convictions were quashed — leading to
compensation for the six men — Thatcher told Haughey she was “totally
convinced” by a 1988 court ruling rejecting their grounds for appeal.
During another meeting, Thatcher descended into a racist rant, brought
on by Mr Haughey’s arguments in favour of a united Ireland.
“You talk of unity and I ask would that be better? I say no, there
would be the worst civil war in history, she said.
“And it would spread to the mainland. Your people come over to us. I
wish they wouldn’t. They come looking for housing and services. If
there was a vote tomorrow they would vote to stay with us. They have
better conditions in Northern Ireland and in England.”
A press release dated after the meeting said that “a great deal of
useful work had been done”.
Haughey even suspected the Thatcher government was working with the
opposition in Dublin, Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats, to
undermine his political position.
The British ambassador took exception to the suggestion.
“I have not spoken to [PD leader Des] O’Malley. I exchanged two
sentences with Mr [Alan] Dukes [then leader of Fine Gael] on the margin
of a rugby match. Please don’t entertain that suspicion,” he said.
A declassified state paper claimed that Danny Morrison, former Sinn
Fein publicity director, met the 26 County government’s “usual contact”
in April 1988 and told them that tensions over IRA funerals had been “a
godsend” for Gerry Adams’s re-election efforts, and that Sinn Fein was
happy to see confrontations with the RUC at funerals continue.
The paper also claims that Morrison alleged that “Martin McGuinness had
been personally involved in the planning and execution” of a
high-profile incident in Derry the previous year, in which a final
salute was fired over the coffin of IRA Volunteer Gerard Logue outside
a church.
The identity of the alleged “contact” remains unknown. In a response
this week, Morrison has said he is “seriously sceptical about the
truthfulness of this report”.
A confidential note, entitled “mood at Westminster”, was written by
Irish Embassy official Richard Ryan after he spoke to some 20 MPs of
“all shades” days after a particularly violent period in March 1988
which began with then SAS ambush in Gibraltar and ending with the
deaths of two British soldiers at the hands of the IRA after they drove
into a republican funeral in west Belfast.
The diplomat said many MPs who did not take an active interest in Irish
affairs became “puffed with outrage and conviction” about doing
something. He said suggestions ranged from demands for a tougher and
revised policy of policing funerals to a demand for internment
throughout Ireland and, in “more cases than previously”, to a demand to
setting a date for withdrawal from Ireland “in order to let the Irish
get on with butchering each other”.
The UVF held secret talks with the IRA army council in 1988 to discuss
the prospect of a federal Ireland, state papers in Dublin have claimed.
The meetings were facilitated by Father John Murphy, a chaplain in the
Long Kesh.
One memo, to the Taoiseach’s office in November 1988, said that Fr
Murphy was anxious to keep the meetings secret and listed the three
opponents as “the NIO, the RUC and the DUP”.
“Fr Murphy was frankly surprised at the speed with which events had
moved and was particularly surprised at the signs of apparent
flexibility being shown by the UVF in this exercise where they
demonstrated a willingness to at least talk about a wide range of
possible future arrangements for Ireland, not excluding concepts like a
federal Ireland,” Brendan Mahon, of the Anglo Irish Division wrote.
Mr Mahon said Fr Murphy’s understanding of the concept of a federal
Ireland was “based on the four provinces including a nine-county Ulster
with a separate province-type arrangement for Dublin similar to the
District of Columbia in the US”.
The US administration in 1994 voiced concern at reports of a pact
between Conservatives and Ulster Unionists at Westminster, fearing any
such deal would impact negatively on the North of Ireland.
American ambassador to London Ray Seit said that “considerable
suspicion would exist in Ireland and nationalist circles that [the
British government] had done some deal incompatible with the objectives
of the peace process”.
Then British Direct Ruler Patrick Mayhew insisted that no deal had been
done. The ambassador had accepted this but observed “that there would
be considerable interest in Irish-American circles and that anything
that was bugging Boston would soon be conveyed to the White House”.
An announcement that former taoiseach Albert Reynolds was to start a
lecture tour in the US after he left office in December 1994 was met
with “deep gloom” by British diplomats who wanted him stopped.
Roderic Lyne, then private secretary to prime minister John Major,
expressed alarm at the possibility that Reynolds might make revealing
statements to an American audience.
“I think that we should keep a careful eye on Reynolds’ movements. If
he showed signs of heading for America sooner than March or April, we
should at least consider whether there is anything we might do to
mitigate the likely damage.
“The range of options could include a direct appeal to Reynolds to be
statesmanlike, either by HMG [her majesty’s government] or by an Irish
intermediary (both probably in the realm of wishful thinking); and some
steps to shadow the Reynolds tour and try to counteract its influence
on gullible American opinion.”
In 1994, Ian Paisley junior wanted a devolved Stormont government which
could negotiate with the 26 Counties, including possible changes to the
border, according to files declassified in London.
Mr Paisley jnr, then a 27-year-old aide to his DUP leader
father, told diplomat Larry Robinson that the DUP would be happy to
re-enter peace talks at Stormont provided that Sinn Fein was kept out
and the Dublin government committed to a referendum on removing the
articles of the constitution which made a territorial claim on the
north.
The record noted Mr Paisley’s hope that a “devolved government in Northern
Ireland would have full powers to negotiate any agreement with the
Republic including (I gather Mr Paisley swallowed at this point) border
adjustments”.
Ireland has a “moral claim” to a priceless trove of impressionist
paintings, including world-famous works by Renoir, Monet and Manet, its
British keepers admitted.
Previously secret files show top-level negotiators from the National
Gallery in London “verbally” agreed Dublin’s right to the 39 works at
the centre of a 100-year-old row as far back as four decades ago.
Cork-born art collector Hugh Lane, who died on board the Lusitania when
it was sunk by a German torpedo off the coast of Ireland in 1915,
originally left the collection to London.
It was later discovered that he had written a codicil, or amendment, to
his will shortly before his death, stating that he had changed his mind
and instead bequeathed the paintings to Dublin.
The legality of the codicil was challenged by the National Gallery in
London, who were allowed to retain possession of the paintings.