Govt wanted UN peace-keepers in North

The Government wanted a United Nations peacekeeping force sent in as the North slid into chaos in 1969 – but the British would have none of it, according to official papers made public today.

External Affairs Minister Patrick Hillery raised the matter at a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart on August 1.

He raised the matter again two weeks later with junior foreign office minister Lord Chalfont, this time proposing as an alternative a joint Anglo-Irish force.

But each time he was told that the British regarded the matter as for its own internal jurisdiction, according to the papers, published by the National Archives, formerly the Public Record Office.

Mr Stewart wrote in a memo to the British Embassy in Dublin: “HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) have considered the request of the Government of the Irish Republic that they should apply to the United nations for the despatch of a peacekeeping force to Northern Ireland.

“They take this opportunity of reaffirming that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom and that events there are consequently an internal matter.”

The papers also reveal concerns of the ambassador to Dublin at the time, Sir Andrew Gilchrist, about movements of Irish troops near the border.

In a message to London on August 14, he reported Dublin evening paper headlines such as “Irish troops on the border”.

He reassured London with the comment: “Most of the above now dis-confirmed by government information bureau statement that no movement of troops other than necessary to set up medical units and ancillary services.”

But the matter was raised at Lord Chalfont’s meeting with Dr Hillery the next day, and a record of the conversation shows that the Irish minister agreed that Lord Chalfont could say that, as a result of their discussion, he was satisfied that the mobilisation in the south presented no cause for alarm to the people of Northern Ireland.

The papers also include Sir Andrew Gilchrist’s musings on the deteriorating security situation in Dublin.

On August 14 he wrote to London: “All in all we are in for a fairly difficult time with the Irish ... if I were a fire insurance company I would not like to have the British embassy on my books. (Fortunately, though highly inflammable, it isn’t ours).”

The next day he wrote: “After prolonged exhortations, the mob went into action with stones and we have lost some glass, most of it in my office. At 14.10 an athletic young man shinned up a drainpipe and tore down the flag, which was then ceremoniously burnt in the street.”

He added: “The Garda put up a half-hearted performance.”

But on August 17, after a crowed again marched on the embassy he noted: “The Gardai did a smart and forceful job.”