State Archives: Concern over claims of lawyers’ IRA sympathy

The Irish Government raised concerns over claims made by a British Conservative minister that some lawyers in Northern Ireland were “unduly sympathetic to the IRA”, weeks before Pat Finucane was killed.

In an official Irish Government note, released under the 30-year rule, it was revealed that then-taoiseach Charles Haughey and other senior members of his cabinet were worried about the implications of Douglas Hogg’s remarks in the House of Commons.