The Taoiseach’s department wanted to wash its hands of compensation claims for victims of the Stardust fire disaster over fears it would be chaotic and controversial, State papers have revealed.

Two future leaders of Fine Gael clashed in January, 1985, over proposals to increase the price of stamps.

THE discovery of a newborn’s body on a beach and a family’s alleged confession they had killed a baby days earlier and put the body into the sea led to the Kerry Babies Tribunal.

Garda killer Michael McHugh, who was released at the start of this month after serving 30 years of a 40-year prison sentence, was branded a reckless but highly intelligent criminal in Government documents.

A large number of people from Co Donegal who applied for a postal vote in the 1985 local elections were ineligible, a Garda investigation concluded.

John Hume wanted to have talks with the IRA Army Council in what senior government officials thought was a plan for a public and damaging confrontation.

One of the country’s main tobacco manufacturers threatened the coalition in 1986 with cancelling a £50m investment plan if the Government pressed ahead with new anti-smoking laws.

Plans to introduce a distinctive new 20p coin were shelved after it left consumers short-changed — a blunder which has turned out to be lucrative for some.

TODAY’S insatiable appetite for information about family roots will certainly be satisfied by the National Library’s initiative to put almost 300 years of Catholic parish registers online. Effectively this means that, for the first time, accurate details on births and marriages, the very stuff of genealogy, will be available free of charge to anyone who has a basic computer.

The baptismal records of Irish historical figures, including 1916 leader Padraig Pearse and writer Peig Sayers, are contained in Catholic Church parish records released online yesterday by the National Library of Ireland.

It seems there were major disagreements within Garret FitzGerald’s government in the early 1980s when it came to making a decision about what to do with struggling industries in the Cork Harbour area.

While taoiseach in 1982 Charles Haughey fulfilled the invitation to the White House for St Patrick’s Day that had been extended to his predecessor Garret Fitz-Gerald. Mr Haughey then invited the president to Ireland on a state visit.

State documents show the Government was uncertain on how to prosecute an Irish soldier accused of the murder of three of his colleagues in Lebanon in 1982.

ARTISTIC director of the New Ross Piano Festival, pianist Finghin Collins, has put together a bold Russian-themed programme for the festival’s eighth edition. Having secured President Michael D Higgins as the festival patron, and taking place amid celebrations of the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s visit, it’s an auspicious year for the festival.

The Government paid SDLP chiefs top-class expenses and mileage during the 1970s, it was revealed today.

The Government was concerned republicans would meet the Pope during the Papal visit sparking possible sectarian tension and violence, official documents show.

An amnesty for prisoners to mark the visit of Pope John Paul II was put back over fears of a burglary blitz on the country’s empty homes, Government files revealed today.