FitzGerald warned Thatcher on security ties over Maze
The then taoiseach, days after being elected to office, told the British prime minister his government’s view of her handling of the crisis was starting to converge with that of the IRA.
“This is naturally the last position in which we would wish to find ourselves,” he said in a secret letter, just declassified under the 30-year rule.
In a signal of the deteriorating relations, Mrs Thatcher threatened a “sharp and bitter” response if there was any suggestion of less than full co-operation in the fight against the IRA.
With tensions at an all-time high, Mr FitzGerald said the stability of Ireland and its relations with Britain had come under direct threat.
Five people had died on the hunger strike by July 10, 1981, when Mr FitzGeraldwrote the letter. But the imminent death of Kieran Doherty, who had been elected to the Dáil, was particularly striking fear into the Fine Gael leader.
The Government was extremely frustrated with Downing Street intransigence over a proposed solution by the Catholic Church-established Irish Commission for Justice and Peace, which had mediated between prisoners and the British. Mr FitzGerald told Mrs Thatcher his newly elected coalition was unable to do or say anything to counter the lack of public confidence in the Britishgovernment’s handling of the crisis.
“We are thus faced with the danger of a serious and progressive deterioration in bilateral relations,” he said.
The Government had “up until the present” believed there should be nopolitical status for prisoners.
“In these last few days, however, the deplorable situation has been reachedthat the points of view of the government and the Irish Commission for Justiceand Peace are seen to converge with that of the Provisional IRA in criticism of your authorities’ handling of these events,” he said.
Mr FitzGerald then urged his counterpart to accept the commission’s suggested resolution “without any loss of time.”
Five days later on July 15, during which time another hunger striker, MartinHurson, died, Mrs Thatcher responded with her own stark warnings.
“I cannot believe your government will wish in any way to diminish the scaleor intensity of the [security] co-operation,” she wrote.
“I appreciate the importance of local opinion; but the reaction of publicopinion here [in Britain] to any suggestion that the authorities in the Republicwere offering less than full co-operation in the detection and apprehension ofterrorists would be sharp and bitter and there must be a risk that it would have an adverse effect on wider Anglo-Irish relationships.”
