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Charlie Haughey pictured in 1989 RollingNews.ie

Charles Haughey asked Britain not to fly three IRA bodies through Dublin in 1988

The Taoiseach “made it clear that he would not admit to this request in public,” new documents show.

THE REACTION OF the-then Taoiseach Charles Haughey to the SAS killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar in March 1988, and his appeal to the British to avoid the return of their bodies to Dublin, is disclosed in previously confidential State Papers released today in Belfast.

Three unarmed IRA members on active service – Sean Savage, Daniel McCann and Mairead Farrell – were shot dead at point-blank range by the SAS in the British territory on 6 March 1988.

Haughey’s views are the subject of a confidential dispatch to the British Foreign Office by the British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir Nicholas Fenn, dated 11 March 1988. Fenn reported on a ‘sombre’ hour-long meeting with the Taoiseach, saying:

He is suspicious, resentful and hyper-cautious on devolution [in Northern Ireland] but he seems still to be looking for a way forward. He stresses his high personal regard for the Prime Minister [Margaret Thatcher].

Referring to the recent catalogue of violence in the North, including the shooting of a young Catholic man, Aidan McAnespie at a border checkpoint, Fenn informed his boss, the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe:

I spent an hour with the Taoiseach. He was preoccupied by the recent catalogue of horrors and was unable to rid himself of the notion that someone somewhere in the British government machine had been orchestrating this scenario. I told him roundly that this was nonsense and asked what motives we could possibly have.

The Ambassador explained to Haughey why it had been ‘impossible’ for the British government to respond to his demands over the Stalker/Sampson report [into allegations of a ‘shoot to kill’ policy in the RUC killing of six men in Armagh in 1982] and the rejection of the Birmingham Six appeal by the Court of Appeal.

Haughey said he understood this but contrasted the treatment of the Birmingham Six with the case of Private Ian Thain, a British soldier convicted of the murder of a civilian but released to rejoin his regiment after serving only two years in prison.

The two discussed the Gibraltar shootings, the Prevention of Terrorism Act and exclusion orders, with the Taoiseach telling Fenn: ”This series of events had to be set against the background of historic distrust.” In response, Fenn “urged greater efforts of both sides to nurture the Anglo-Irish relationship” and sought means to avoid “being taken by surprise” by the tyranny of events in the future.

As Fenn informed Howe:

The Taoiseach listened intently and nodded approval of the talks about talks with the Unionists.’ He made little comment on NI politics but ‘accepted the whole of the Agreement which he construed as leaving the initiative over devolution with the British government and the NI parties.

On the killing of the three IRA suspects at Gibraltar by the SAS on 6 March 1988, the Ambassador noted, Haughey was “impressed by the magnitude of the bomb and understood the fear that it might be detonated. He wasted no sympathy on the terrorists, but made the point that if ever it was allowed to appear that the security forces have sunk to the level of the terrorist, then the IRA have won that round.”

In conclusion, Haughey asked Fenn not to make an official report of their discussion. “He wanted to think aloud with me … This meant that he wanted to air his grievances. He is suspicious and distrustful but… seems still to be casting about for salvaging a relationship he knows he needs,” Fenn wrote.

The Gibraltar issue

Haughey’s hostility to any return of the remains of the Gibraltar Three to the Republic was the subject of correspondence between Charles Powell, private secretary to the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and RN Culshaw, his opposite number in the Foreign Office.

Writing to Powell on 10 March 1988, Culshaw revealed that Haughey had that afternoon “implored us personally through HM Ambassador in Dublin to ensure that the bodies of the three PIRA terrorists, shot in Gibraltar, were kept out of the Republic at all costs. He made it clear that he would not admit to this request in public.”

The Taoiseach’s first idea, the official revealed, was that, rather than the charter firm with which the victims’ families were negotiating, the RAF might fly the bodies direct to Belfast. “This proposal is clearly designed to solve a problem confronting Mr Haughey,” Culshaw quipped.

In response, Powell felt that, for the British, Haughey’s proposal had the attraction of scuppering the relatives’ plans. The three families wished the bodies of their loved ones taken to Dublin by chartered aircraft “in order that they might secure the maximum political advantage for Sinn Fein”.

Moreover, once the bodies were in the Republic, the families might secure a second post-mortem and, perhaps, induce the Irish authorities to instigate an inquest which could become a separate inquiry into the events at Gibraltar. However, both officials recognised it as ‘inconceivable’ that the services of the RAF could be used.

In a brief response, Culshaw ruled out the use of the RAF to fly the bodies home. “The problem with how to manage any issues in the Republic must be for Mr Haughey himself; after all, he has done a good deal to create them.”

The official added that he had discussed the matter with then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher “who entirely agrees”.

Dr Éamon Phoenix is a political historian, journalist and broadcaster and a member of the Taoiseach’s Expert Advisory Group on Centenaries

Read: The original GUBU: How the Malcolm MacArthur killings rocked Ireland

Read: Uno duce, una voce: The story behind THAT infamous PJ Mara remark

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    Mute Rob
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    Nov 5th 2020, 1:38 AM

    All this does means is that in 30yrs we have to go through all this again. It’s time the air was cleared, no more secrets.

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    Mute Côte D’oherty
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    Nov 5th 2020, 12:17 AM

    The Catholic Church is one of the most despicable institutions that has ever been imposed on us. Shame on whoever facilitated they’re reign of terror

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    Mute Côte D’oherty
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    Nov 5th 2020, 12:18 AM

    @Côte D’oherty: their *

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Nov 5th 2020, 12:45 AM

    @Côte D’oherty: “we” facilitated it. They weren’t the Stasi, they weren’t the Gestapo, we flocked to them in our millions.

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    Mute Côte D’oherty
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    Nov 5th 2020, 1:07 AM

    @Tony Harris: agreed

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    Mute Trevor Donoghue
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    Nov 5th 2020, 4:37 AM

    @Tony Harris: Back then they were not the stasi or the gestapo, they were worse , The people feared the Stasi and gestapo because they were all afraid of them, they knew exactly what monsters they were and they would take your lives. The Church did worse because they were doing unspeakable evil disguised as God’s good work and people were good catholics, and we did not facilitate it, we were trying to save our very souls, not simply our lives. And you did not ever go against the church back then if you even wanted a life, or a job, or even to be part of the community you lived it. And the Church still need a long, long way to go to pay for the evil they have done.

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    Mute Tony Doran
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    Nov 5th 2020, 7:45 AM

    @Trevor Donoghue: Well said. People need to wake up and realise how oppressive it was for the Irish people living under those conditions, fearing the church and having to get in line, be good little Catholics or else!

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Nov 5th 2020, 8:02 AM

    @Tony Harris: From the; Cradle to the Grave, the Roman Church Brain washed people.

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Nov 5th 2020, 8:05 AM

    @Tony Harris: When I look back, and Remember Grown Men, Elected Representatives of Dáil Éireann, bending down on their; Knee Kissing the Hand Of the Bishops.

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    Mute Justin Gillespie
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    Nov 5th 2020, 9:13 AM

    @ÓDuibhír Abú: This is what happens when anyone gets unchecked power over someone else. What happened in church & state run institution’s was criminal & shameful & it need to be exposed but don’t think for one minute that abuse nó longer takes place.
    What goes on behind closed doors is equally horrific, the numbers of calls to Childline support this, & we need to beef up ways of allowing victims to reach out for help.

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Nov 5th 2020, 1:09 PM

    @Justin Gillespie: Difference is; an Organization claiming to be representatives of God on earth. Claiming to be protectors of the; Faith, but have destroyed it by their; Ungodly actions.

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    Mute paul mccoy
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    Nov 5th 2020, 12:55 AM

    Typical of this government. Bury it and it’s like it never happened so we don’t have to answer any nasty questions from the public.

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    Mute Bull McCabe
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    Nov 5th 2020, 12:17 AM

    Is there anything to be said to have another tribunal? That way it can be fully investigated and nobody will be prosecuted!

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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    Nov 5th 2020, 7:42 AM

    Shame of a Nation the land of sorrows.

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    Mute Gerry Ryan
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    Nov 5th 2020, 9:01 AM

    So Fine Gael have given the ok for comments

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    Mute Rathminder
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    Nov 5th 2020, 9:19 AM

    I have no connection to the homes but think the idea of a records centre on the site of the Magdalene Laundry is fitting. It could include a library of the books and documents written documenting the history which saw the Irish government’s pattern of discarding any responsibility for the unfortunate. It is fitting for the site, much as the work houses turned into museums. The survivors must have a say in this, however.

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    Mute Celtic Spirit
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    Nov 5th 2020, 9:18 AM

    Bye bye Catholic church. And not before time. An absolute dispicable, vile cult that were given control over our country after independence. From the British Empire to the Holy Roman Empire of the Vatican.

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    Mute Brendan Greene
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    Nov 5th 2020, 10:01 AM

    @Celtic Spirit: it is very naive to imagine that these abuses are in some way related to Catholicism specifically rather than human nature. We now know that similar things occurred all over the world in settings that were entirely secular. All societies like scapegoats to avoid acknowledging our complicity in what happened.

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    Mute Celtic Spirit
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    Nov 5th 2020, 1:04 PM

    @Brendan Greene: I wouldn’t agree with what you’ve said. The Catholic church as an institution were given free reign to do as they pleased without any retribution for their actions. They rules this country with an iron fist. People were conditioned plain and simple. The Irish people were too afraid to question the church in case they went to hell. That is the mark of a cult. Some of the victims then went on to abuse others making their victims secondary or proxy victims of the church.

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    Mute Rob Duggan
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    Nov 5th 2020, 9:16 AM

    People and the state failed we still do. We used to blame the brits, now we project blame to the church. Families shunned their daughters. Aethiest regimes are as brutal as those led by a theocracy(ccp/ussr etc) . We need to look at the ugly truth of our own human behavior and rule of law.

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