State Papers: Mayo man demands State help to secure IR£8m for Czarist bonds

A Mayo businessman threatened to take out injunctions to stop commercial relations between Ireland and the Soviet Union, including the possible sale of the Verolme shipyard in Cork, if the government did not support his claim. Picture: Denis Scannell

The Government was asked to put pressure on the Soviet Union in 1989 by a Mayo businessman who was trying to redeem IR£8m held in bonds that had been issued by the Czarist government during World War I.

State files released under the 30-year rule show Eamon McEnery from Ballycroy, Co Mayo, threatened to take out injunctions to stop commercial relations between Ireland and the Soviet Union, including the possible sale of the Verolme shipyard in Cork, if the government did not support his claim.