Ireland's OWN: History

 

7 January 2005 Government plans for invasion of the North —by Andrew Bushe, The Irish Post Documents released by Ireland’s National Archives after lying secret for 30 years reveal the Irish Government feared 1974 could see a British withdrawal from the North of the country. ANDREW BUSHE looks at the fascinating papers which give a snapshot of political life in Ireland three decades ago. The Irish Government drew up a series of top secret Doomsday contingency plans 30 years ago in case a British pull-out from the North of Ireland prompted a civil war, another partition of the island or forced an Irish Army takeover of the Six Counties. The newly-released National Archive documents reveal there was widespread alarm that British prime Minister Harold Wilson’s newly-elected Labour Government of 1874 [sic] would change policy and opt for disengagement. The report says senior Irish officials believed the British electorate was beginning to favour a withdrawal from the North of Ireland. The huge cost of British subsidies for the North and the continuing violence also heightened fears a pull-out might be under consideration in London. The fears led Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave’s Fine Gael/Labour coalition to establish a special unit to draw up emergency plans. According to the newly-released secret documents the laid down scenarios for a number of different border routes re-partitioning the island and established guidelines on how to deal with possible widespread civil strife in the North of Ireland triggered by any withdrawal. It also considered the capacity of the Irish Army to intervene in the North. A discussion paper said there was general agreement that an Army move into the North could only be contemplated if inter-communal fighting was already so widespread that intervention could not make matters worse. It was estimated A full takeover would involve over 100,000 troops compared to the Army’s 11,300 strength in 1974. The unit’s report said: “It is likely that a British withdrawal, if it is abrupt, would be followed by an attempt, possibly successful, to establish an independent state in Northern Ireland, initially over the entire six counties but ultimately over these areas now dominated by the majority there.” The report shows strategies were drawn up for dealing with a flood of Catholic refugees streaming south across the border, the economic implications of widespread civil strife and how any enlarged Republic would be financed after a re-partition. It also considered an approach to the United Nations to have the world body administer the North of Ireland under a trusteeship for a limited period of perhaps 10 years. A memo from the Department Of Foreign Affairs said: “The present situation is so full of menace that an examination of UN involvement might produce proposals preferable to any likely alternatives.” The papers show officials were unsure as to what economic effect a British withdrawal from the North would have. One document said: “The extent of damage to property, especially productive assets, would loom large but would not be susceptible to prediction on a rational basis — it could include damage to property in the Republic. “The extent of population movement would also depend greatly on the intensity of the violence and the extent of loss of life.” Of four partition scenarios drawn up, the minimum affected 161,000 Catholics and 132,000 Protestants if all of Co. Fermanagh, Derry, Newry and parts of Counties Armagh, Down and Tyrone became part of the Republic. In a maximum scenario that involved further parts of Counties Derry, Tyrone and Armagh becoming part of the Republic, it would have involved 249,000 Catholics and 252,000 Protestants who lived in the areas. The maximum scenario would have left 230,000 Catholics and 1.1million Protestants living in the remaining areas of the North. In any repartition between 25 and 60 per cent of the population might have wanted to move. Officials were also worried about IRA or Loyalist controlled areas emerging out of any chaos following British withdrawal. Main events 1974 January: Northern Irish Power Sharing Executive under Brian Faulkner takes office. Worst storm in 70 years leaves two dead, 30,000 without power and 10,000 phones out. February: The 215-year-old strike free record of the Guinness brewery is broken as fitters walk out. In the British General Election anti-Sunningdale Unionists win 11 of the 12 seats. March: First Catholic funeral takes place in Trinity College Fine Gael Senator Billy Fox found murdered near Clones in Co. Monaghan April: Local Government Minister James Tully orders that the new Central Bank building in Dame Street will have to be shrunk by 30 feet. Charles Haughey buys uninhabited Inishvickillane as summer home. May: National speed limit reverts to 60mph. Ulster Workers Council strike cripples North of Ireland with British Army taking over oil depots and petrol stations. June: Earl and Countess of Donoughmore kidnapped from their Clonmel home by IRA gang. Dr Rose Dugdale gets nine year prison sentence for receiving 19 stolen paintings from the home of Sir Alfred Beit. July: Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave leads six of his own TDs in defeating his own government’s proposed contraceptive law. Odeon closes down six cinemas, five of them in Dublin, Dun Laoghaire and Bray. August: Biggest manhunt in the history of the State after 19 Provos blast their way out of Portlaoise Prison. Novelist Kate O’Brien dies in England. September: Britain reveals it is pumping £313million a year into supporting the North of Ireland. Two Northern Irish judges shot dead in their homes by IRA gunmen. October: Sean McBride is the first Irishman to get the Nobel peace prize. Major mop up after 650,000 gallons of oil spills in Bantry Bay from Gulf Oil terminal. November: Erskine Childers becomes the first President to die in office after he collapses at a Royal College of Physicians function aged 69. Powerscourt House in Enniskerry in Co. Wicklow is burnt to the ground. December: Breakaway from Official IRA leads to formation of Irish Republican Socialist Party. Cearbhall O Dalaigh is elected unopposed as the fifth President. [Poster's Note: Also in 1974 were Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Guildford bomb blasts; Long Kesh went up in flames; and the power-sharing Sunningdale collapses after loyalists strike. ]   One of the most valuable pebbles in the world A tiny piece of moon rock almost taken as a souvenir by President Erskine Childer’s widow when she was leaving Aras an Uachtarain 30 years ago has become one of the most valuable pebbles in the world. The newly-released State papers show Rita Childers asked if she could to take a number of items with her on leaving the Aras. They had been presented to her husband — who was the first President to die in office. The moon fragment had been part of rocks brought back by the American Apollo XVII astronauts. US President Richard Nixon presented the fragments as goodwill gifts to Ireland and 134 other friendly foreign nations in 1973. Three decades later the rocks have become valuable collectors items worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Government papers released by the National Archive show Mrs. Childer’s request to take the moon rock with her was refused. A government memo says the rock — encased in an acrylic shell and mounted on a plaque with the Irish flag — was the property of the State. It read: “Our file shows that this plaque was presented to the President for the people of Ireland. “The inscription on the plaque declares it was presented to the people of Ireland from the people of the United States of America.” Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo space flight missions brought back 842 pounds of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface. Castle no-go for TV programme Successive Governments gave the go-ahead for Dublin Castle to be used as a film-set for movies like the Blue Max and Barry Lyndon — but a request from the current Film Censor to video a TV discussion programme there was rejected. A memo from the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave’s Department said the State Apartments were not available as prestige studio accommodation. The request to use the Castle to film interviews for prestigious American television series Firing Line was made by John Kelleher — then a producer in RTÉ. Right-wing American TV presenter William F Buckley planned to interview Foreign Minister Garrett FitzGerald, former Health Minister Dr Noel Brown and writer Sean O Faolain on the programme. Students would have been involved in a panel to question the guests before an audience of about 100 people. RTÉ was asked to find a suitable venue and suggested Dublin Castle’s State Apartments. But the government memo says the TV show format: “Was not in keeping with the dignity of the Apartments.” A hand-written note on the memo says the use of a venue of such importance might tend to “give a standing to the views of Messrs O Faolain and Browne which they cannot command in any representative sense”. Macca’s protest The Irish Embassy in London helped secretly promote Paul McCartney’s 1972 protest song Give Ireland Back To The Irish after it was banned by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and ITV. The song — which called for British troops to get out of the North of Ireland — caused a storm of protest when it was released. It was apparently written after Bloody Sunday in Derry and was released by McCartney’s Wings group with his then-wife Linda playing the organ. The song questioned what Britain was doing in Ireland. The lyrics ran: Tell Me How Would You Like It If On Your Way To Work. You Were Stopped By Irish Soldiers Would You Lie Down Do Nothing, Would You Give In, or Go Berserk. Record label Apple Corps tried to buy advertising time on commercial TV in Britain to promote the record but were refused because of its political nature. [Poster's Note: See also Bloody Sunday (Lennon/Ono)] But the Irish Embassy in London tried to help sales of the single. A February 17, 1972 memo from T Feehan in the Embassy records he had a visit from Vincent Murphy from Cork who was promoting the song. “I gave him a list of Irish societies we have in the office,” read the memo. “Mr Murphy will write to the various Irish Societies and will also put an advertisement in The Irish Post and the Cork Weekly Examiner.” A hand-written note on the memo says: “The Embassy will not be mentioned". Instructing that a file should be opened on the matter a hand-written note says: “The Luck of the Irish — John Lennon. The same file might do.” Page last updated 29 Dec 2005 Ireland's OWN Logo by Eamann Website Design and Celtic Background by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh Copyright © 2005 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.