Tony Blair’s celebrated Famine message ‘was ghost-written by aides’

Tony Blair whose headline-grabbing admission of the British government's culpability over the Irish Famine was in fact hastily ghost-written by aides, previously classified documents reveal. Picture: Chris Bacon/PA Wire

Tony Blair’s headline-grabbing admission of the British government’s culpability over the Irish Famine was in fact hastily ghost-written by aides, previously classified documents reveal.

Private Secretary John Holmes told Mr Blair that he cleared the text because the former British prime minister was “not around at the time” the last-minute request was made for a message at a 150th-anniversary commemoration in Cork, weeks after New Labour swept to power in May 1997.