BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Tony Blair wanted to “race through” meetings with unionist politicians in 2004, but his office conceded he would have to listen to their “whinges”.

State records released this month show that, at a meeting in London in March 2004, Blair expressed a desire to rush through upcoming meetings with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

The document, which was previously confidential, detailed the content of a meeting between Irish and British officials at Downing Street on 19 March 2004. 

Blair himself was not present at the meeting, but his advisor Jonathan Powell said the then-British PM wanted to “race through” meetings with unionists the following week so he could concentrate on talks with Sinn Féin.

“The Governments would inevitably have to “listen to the whinges” of the UUP and the DUP,” the file notes.

“Powell doubted that the latter would seriously engage on bottom line positions at Hillsborough.

“In terms of public presentation, we should not build up expectations; the message should be that the Prime Ministers were reengaging with a view to moving things forward — they were not looking for a negotiation.”

Ian Paisley, then-leader of the DUP, speaks to journalists outside Downing Street after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in March 2004 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

At the time, a review of the Good Friday Agreement was being carried out by Irish and British officials. Both governments were putting pressure on Sinn Féin in an effort to get the IRA to decommission its arms.

Blair, then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other officials were due to meet Northern Irish parties in Hillsborough the following Tuesday, 23 March.

The document notes that Michael Collins, an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs, told the Downing Street meeting that Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were “clearly unsettled” by recent developments.  

Collins noted that Ahern wished to “up the ante” at the meetings the following week, without suggesting that a failure to meet a June deadline “would precipitate collapse”.

‘Naming the Army Council’

Officials at the meeting in London also discussed the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which was tasked with reporting on the activities of paramilitary groups in the North and operated from 2004 until 2011.

Tim Dalton, who served as Secretary General at the Department of Justice from 1993 to 2004, “expressed concern that the Commission might not fully understand the nature of the relationship between Sinn Féin and the IRA”.

“It seemed to believe that the former could always deliver the latter. This was not necessarily the case. He felt it might be helpful if the senior officials on both sides might meet the Commission to clarify this issue,” the file notes.

In addition, he expressed strong concern that the Commission was apparently considering naming the membership of the Army Council in its forthcoming report.

“Such a course would be totally counter-productive.

“Powell agreed that such a naming would be “daft” and it was agreed that [civil servant Jonathan] Phillips would avail of contacts to let it be known that the British Government was averse to this course of action.”

Notes detailing what was discussed at the meeting were compiled by Adrian O’Neill, an official at the Department of Foreign Affairs who would later become the Irish Ambassador to the UK.

State Papers / Department of Justice State Papers / Department of Justice / Department of Justice

In a comment at the end of his notes, O’Neill wrote: “There was an interesting apparent divergence of approach between Powell and Phillips at the meeting.

“Clearly reflecting the impatience of [Blair], Powell was pressing for a strategy that involved imposing a summer deadline on the republican movement to end paramilitarism or else move to an alternative (non-inclusive) approach.”

On the other hand, Phillips recognised “that the prospects of such a strategy being successful would require that the DUP reciprocate by way of signing up for an inclusive deal”.  He said the DUP would likely “not be ready for such an accommodation in advance of the European Elections”  which were due to happen that June.

Downing Street was “focused on a summer deadline”, but the Northern Ireland Office “seemed to believe” that autumn was more realistic. 

‘Social control by the IRA’

At the meeting, Dalton also “agreed that it would be a useful lever of pressure for Sinn Féin to show good form during the marching season”, O’Neill noted.

“While it was obviously right to keep up the pressure on Sinn Féin to end all forms of paramilitarism, it brought into relief the need to crack policing.

In the absence of a policing service that is acceptable in republican areas, the local community expected the IRA to exercise the necessary “social control”.

Dalton reportedly said the “practical effect of this” is that people living in certain areas “tend to depend heavily on the threat posed by the IRA when it comes to monitoring (whether modifying or inciting) the behaviour of young republican tearaways, during the marching season”.

The IRA formally ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons a year later in 2005.

In November 2024, Powell was announced as the UK’s National Security adviser, serving under current British prime minister Keir Starmer.

In general, State Papers – official documents from Government departments and the President’s Office – are declassified and released to the public 30 years after the fact.

However, some records are released before or after that timeframe for various reasons. For example, records related to the peace process in Northern Ireland are now typically released after 20 years.

State Papers reference number: 2024/112/3