Concerns about delays in the results of smear tests for cervical cancer are not new.

Controversy over the alleged shoot-to-kill policy in the North had grave implications for cross-border co-operation, while Anglo-Irish relations suffered a “serious setback”, newly released state files reveal.

Margaret Thatcher accused the Irish Government of doing nothing to help extradite a priest who allegedly worked for the IRA, state papers have revealed.

Taoiseach Charles Haughey told British prime minister Margaret Thatcher that the Irish government was ‘constantly ballyragged’ by the British and received ‘no credit’ for the work they had been doing, writes Seán McCárthaigh

The multi-millionaire businessman, Larry Goodman, attempted to squeeze further concessions out of the Charles Haughey-led government in 1987, despite having already secured one of the largest ever state grants for a private company.

The new National Lottery had major concerns in 1987 that its success could be threatened by a rival lottery being set up by two charities which it feared was exploiting legal loopholes restricting the size of jackpots.

The late Labour TD, Michael Moynihan, was identified to gardaí by three constituents as being the supplier of forged Revenue forms which were used to obtain grants fraudulently.

Martin McGuinness personally set up the rendezvous which led to the brutal murder of a suspected IRA informer, the Government was told in 1987.

"This is not something I want to do but you can only suffer so much and to suffer it for something you didn't do makes the suffering intolerable."

The British government considered leaking details of Irish "intransigence" during Northern Ireland talks in 1990.

Charlie Haughey was warned by loyalist paramilitaries that MI5 ordered his assassination, declassified State papers have revealed.

Gerry Adams was said to have been working on a peace strategy in early 1987, state papers have revealed.

Charlie Haughey was warned by loyalist paramilitaries that MI5 ordered his assassination, declassified state papers have revealed.

Peter Robinson’s reputation for cowardice was shown up by his backfired “invasion” of a small village on the Irish border, Northern Ireland’s most senior civil servant said at the time.

The British PM hit out over cases that collapsed in the Irish courts, writes Seán MacCárthaigh

The first meeting between Charles Haughey and British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, after Haughey was appointed Taoiseach for a second time, in 1987, was described as “friendly”.

William Whitelaw, former British deputy prime minister and the first Northern Ireland secretary, believed power-sharing in the region could lead to a united Ireland, newly declassified State papers reveal.

Six wrongfully imprisoned for Birmingham pub bombings ‘offered nothing but false hope, promises’

Bertie Ahern sought to reverse a decision of the previous government to sell the former CIE group of hotels. This was within months of his taking office in his first ministerial appointment.

Gerry Adams was working on a peace strategy in early 1987, State papers have revealed.

Proposals by the energy minister, Dick Spring, to compel the ESB to buy gas from the Kinsale gasfield at uncommercial rates were described as “hopelessly illogical” by the country’s most senior civil servant.

The Cabinet was divided over the merits of allowing postal voting after reports of widespread abuse of the system during the 1985 local elections.

The British and Irish governments ruled out co-operation on testing emissions from the nuclear plant at Sellafield in 1986 in the wake of the major nuclear accident at Chernobyl.

The State-owned mansion in Dublin’s Phoenix Park used to accommodate visiting heads of state was described in 1986 as “slightly shabby” with an interior that was “one of spacious but faded elegance”.

Ever since 1991, the release of the state papers has become an annual ritual for the Irish media. Prior to that, they had to look to state papers being released in Britain, or the US to get information on what was happening in this country.

The IRA was able to tap Garda telephone calls, the Irish Government accepted in the 1980s.

New documents show Margaret Thatcher was "depressed" over the situation in Northern Ireland in the 80s.

The Irish Government feared a "big" loyalist bomb in Dublin during a bitter unionist revolt against the Anglo-Irish Agreement, then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald said.

Working class Catholics in the North were "anti-authority and anti-everything", the late Archbishop of Armagh Cahal Daly said.

Minister for public service, Ruairí Quinn, objected 30 years ago to proposals for Ireland to sign a European Convention which would allow for the transfer of Irish prisoners held abroad back home because of the existing overcrowding problem in Irish prisons.

A former leader of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland encouraged his children to move away from Northern Ireland because he believed Britain would eventually pull out, according to just-released State papers.

Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald was at odds with his finance minister over how proceeds from the soon-to-be launched National Lottery should be distributed, cabinet papers from 1986 show.