DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS by the late Charles Haughey to secure British agreement to a more proactive joint approach on the Northern Ireland issue are revealed in detail in State papers made available to the National Archives.
Newly released confidential documents relating to the Downing Street summit meeting with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher on May 21st, 1980, show the extent to which the then taoiseach was prepared to go to move the situation forward.
The sensitivities on the British side at the meeting, the first of its kind between the two leaders since they came to power, are evident from the report of the discussion.
Mr Haughey famously presented Mrs Thatcher with an 18th-century Irish silver teapot, and they held private talks after lunch which lasted about an hour.
When the plenary session of the British and Irish delegations began, the prime minister said the two leaders had agreed there would be “regular and continuing meetings” between them on matters of interest to Britain and Ireland.
Notes on the discussion by senior Department of Foreign Affairs official Noel Dorr record that Mr Haughey “confirmed this and said that they had agreed that there would be new forms of political co-operation which could be pursued between them”.
This caused some concern to both the foreign secretary and the prime minister: “Lord Carrington wondered what the phrase ‘new forms of political co-operation’ might mean, and prime minister Thatcher wondered if there was a danger of pushing the phrase too far at the cost of losing what they wanted to achieve.”
Mr Haughey, in an apparent attempt to allay their concerns, “gave as an example the fact that Irish residents in Britain can vote in British elections after six months’ residence, while British citizens resident in Ireland cannot do so”.
This seemed to satisfy Lord Carrington, who “expressed interest in this as a possible area for the co-operation referred to”.
Northern Ireland secretary Humphrey Atkins remained doubtful and “said that it was the word ‘forms’ which worried him”. The prime minister suggested the phrase “new and closer co-operation between the United Kingdom and Ireland” but, on further urging from the taoiseach, finally agreed to the term “political co-operation”.
The joint communiqué issued afterwards stated the two leaders “agreed that they wished to develop new and closer political co-operation between their two governments”.
The draft text of the communique referred to the “special” relationship between the peoples of the UK and the Republic, but this was altered at the request of Mrs Thatcher, who favoured the word “unique” instead. “After all,” she said, “you have a special relationship with the United States also, I imagine. Our relationship is unique, so let’s use the word – it is stronger.”
Mrs Thatcher accepted “in principle” an invitation from the taoiseach to visit Dublin at a suitable time of her choosing: “She mentioned that she had been very impressed during her visit to Dublin for the European Council by the Georgian squares, the Castle and Iveagh House.”
At lunch earlier, a wide range of topics came up, and “during a discussion of books and authors, the prime minister expressed great admiration for the works of Yeats”.
Another confidential document reports that the taoiseach had a meeting in his department five days earlier with British ambassador Robin Haydon. Describing the Northern situation as “deadlocked”, Mr Haughey said the guarantee to the unionists was the cause of this, and he was arguing strongly for “some concession on the guarantee”.
When the ambassador responded that “any question of removing the guarantee would not be well-received by the prime minister”, Mr Haughey responded that he was not seeking to have it withdrawn, but felt the discussion should be lifted to a different plane. In an apparent reference to possible Irish membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the ambassador asked whether Mr Haughey “had the international situation in mind”.
The report adds: “The taoiseach replied that he was seeking guidance on this.
“He had very much in mind the situation under which Chamberlain and de Valera had met prior to the outbreak of the 1939 hostilities.
“Circumstances now might very well be the same. The international scene was tense and dangerous.
“What we were seeking now was not an immediate ultimate solution, but something ongoing – the beginning of a process from which the end to the present historic problem could develop.”
UNITED IRELAND THATCHER GOVERNMENT NOT OPPOSED TO UNIFICATION
THE GOVERNMENT of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher privately signalled that it would not stand in the way of a united Ireland a year after taking power.
State files released for the first time show that the reputedly hardline Conservative administration told Dublin it had a greater interest in Northern Ireland than London.
But the then secretary of state Humphrey Atkins confided in minister for foreign affairs Brian Lenihan that “there would be an explosion” if it emerged they were making plans towards reunification.
“One step would have to be taken at a time,” he said, according to Irish government notes of a meeting between the two on April 15th, 1980.
“There was ‘no way’ he could go round promoting Irish unity. This was simply not possible. That was not to say however that it was something that the British Government would stand in the way of – but it could not promote it.”
Mr Atkins insisted that persuasion was needed to remove genuine Protestant fears and apprehensions.
The previously classified notes of the meeting in Dublin show Mr Atkins – considered by many an uncompromising Tory – advised then taoiseach Charles Haughey on the apparent British position.
“The Secretary of State indicated that he had said to the Taoiseach that the Irish Government’s interest in Northern Ireland was greater than any other party except of course the people of Northern Ireland,” the notes reveal.
A year later Mrs Thatcher memorably remarked that “Northern Ireland is as British as Finchley”. – (PA)
