Gerry Adams asked Dublin government for preferential treatment for IRA prisoners soon after 1994 ceasefire Gerry Adams sought the release of IRA prisoners in 1994. Picture by Pat Maxwell 30 December, 2020 00:01
Sir John Chilcott
GERRY Adams privately asked the Dublin government to give preferential treatment to 11 IRA prisoners just days after the 1994 ceasefire, declassified files reveal.
A five-page confidential memo sent on September 19, 1994 detailing a meeting between NIO permanent secretary Sir John Chilcott and Timothy Dalton, a senior official in the Republic s Department of Justice, shows Dublin effectively negotiated with the IRA, which gave certain “undertakings” if prisoners were treated more favourably.
Sir John said that one of the main topics Mr Dalton wished to discuss was prisoners, telling the NIO official that “there would be a review of republican prisoners’ cases with a view to marginal easement in their earliest d
Among other considerations, he said there was a âprobabilityâ of being âfaced soon with more evidenceâ from the families or the Irish government and âif we are going to edge in their direction, it could make more sense to do it then rather than move now and having nothing left to offer laterâ.
Holmes suggested, instead, that Mayhew meet the families but âessentially in sympathetic listening modeâ. The then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Patrick Mayhew was âdistressedâ at Majorâs refusal to sign the letter expressing regret on the 25th anniversary of the British armyâs killing of civilians in Derryâs Bogside. Photograph: Frank Miller
Irish officials raised concerns about Billy Wright s move to the Maze months before LVF leader s murder Former LVF founder and leader Billy Wright was killed inside the Maze prison by the INLA in December 1997. Picture from Pacemaker Éamon Phoenix 29 December, 2020 00:01
Irish officials raised concerns about LVF leader Billy Wright s move from Maghaberry jail in Co Antrim to the nearby Maze prison months before he was shot dead.
Portadown-based LVF and former UVF leader was moved from segregated accommodation at Maghaberry to the Maze for his own safety .
Newly-released files show Irish officials voiced concerns about the move.
At a delegation meeting of the Anglo-Irish Secretariat on April 17, 1997, the Irish Joint Secretary, David Donoghue raised Wright s transfer with his British counterparts.
John Hume tried to restore IRA ceasefire through an initiative with Protestant church leaders John Hume in 2004. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Éamon Phoenix
The IRA ceasefire was broken in 1996 by the Canary Wharf bombing
State papers, mainly from 1997, have been released by the Public Records Office today. Historian and Irish News columnist Dr Éamon Phoenix looks at files which undercover attempts to restore the IRA ceasefire, the ongoing fall-out from the Drumcree parading dispute and the murder of LVF leader Billy Wright in the Maze prison.
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SDLP leader John Hume tried to restore the IRA ceasefire through an initiative with Protestant church leaders.
John Major blocked Irish famine event over apology A typical rural Irish house in the 19th century Éamon Phoenix
Former British Prime Minister John Major. Picture by Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire
Proposals to mark the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine with an ecumenical service in Liverpool to coincide with President Mary Robinson’s first visit to the UK were vetoed in 1996 by Prime Minister John Major.
Newly-released files show the service had been mooted for several years.
The possibility of a British event to mark the Famine was raised by Chris MacCabe from the Northern Ireland Office on August 15, 1994 in a note to officials.