Fitzgerald 'pleaded with Reagan' over hunger striker

Ex-taoiseach Garret FitzGerald personally pleaded with US president Ronald Reagan to pile pressure on Margaret Thatcher for an urgent compromise over the Maze hunger strikes.

Ex-taoiseach Garret FitzGerald personally pleaded with US president Ronald Reagan to pile pressure on Margaret Thatcher for an urgent compromise over the Maze hunger strikes.

In a desperate sign of the gravity of the crisis, Mr FitzGerald – who had taken office only days beforehand – warned that Ireland’s democracy was seriously under threat while relations with Britain were plunging to dangerous depths.

And in an attempt to win over support from the US leader, he assured Mr Reagan that he could play a decisive role in ending the IRA prisoner fast.

While it was early in the leaderships of both Mr Reagan and British prime minister Mrs Thatcher, the pair would go on to be considered political soulmates during the West’s cold war tensions with the Soviets.

The letter, dated July 1981, was drafted after six Long Kesh prisoners had already died and the Irish government was on tenterhooks over the imminent death of Kieran Doherty, who had been elected TD for Cavan Monaghan.

Admitting he hesitated about imposing on the US president – who had survived an assassination attempt only a few months previously – Mr FitzGerald said it was his duty to seek the co-operation of “the leader of the greatest democracy on earth”.

“I would ask you to use your enormous influence with the British Prime Minister within the next twenty four hours in the interest of averting a death which would inevitably increase support for the terrorists and further undermine the stability of our democracy in a dangerous way and can only harm the interests of the British, Irish and American governments,” he wrote.

“I believe that an expression of your concern to Mrs Thatcher of the deterioration in the state of opinion among Americans of Irish extraction and among many other Americans and of the urgent necessity to avert the consequences which would result from Mr Doherty’s death could be of decisive importance.”

Mr FitzGerald said Ireland was facing a desperate crisis in the fight against support for terrorism, which he said was at an all-time high, particularly from America.

The then taoiseach evoked the help of past US presidents in speaking out against “misguided Americans” who backed IRA violence.

Their actions were decisive in saving many lives, he wrote.

If democracy was to be defended, there needed to be a turn in the tide, the Fine Gael leader insisted.

“The political stability of our own democracy is under serious threat and good relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom, so essential to solve the tragic problem of Northern Ireland and to fight terrorism, are endangered,” he wrote.

Mr FitzGerald said the British government was “understandably concerned” not to make concessions to IRA inmates which would give them a privileged status or cede control of the prisons.

But he warned that public confidence in the ability of the British to deal with the crisis “declined drastically” after failed attempts by the Catholic Church-established Irish Commission for Justice and Peace to forge an agreement between both sides.

The taoiseach said the imminently-expected death of Mr Doherty would have a more destabilising effect than any other hunger striker “for obvious political reasons”.

He believed the essence of a solution was already found through the commission’s mediation, which he said had resulted in conciliatory statements from prisoners to which the British must urgently respond.

Around the same time, the taoiseach also appealed directly to then West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, describing the hunger strikes as the best propaganda weapon the IRA ever had.

Mr FitzGerald wrote that he “would be most grateful if you could consider using your good offices with Prime Minister Thatcher” to pressure the British into accepting the understanding mediated by the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace before the death of Mr Doherty and “its very dangerous consequences”.

State files also show that some weeks later US senator Ted Kennedy and 17 colleagues wrote to Mr Reagan, seeking a meeting about the impact of the hunger strikes.

They said the protest was “damaging relations among Great Britain, Ireland and the United States”.

Mr Doherty died on August 2, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike, aged 25.

more courts articles

Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother
Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van
Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman

More in this section

Irish homelessness Government criticised for missing social and affordable housing targets
National Risk Assessment for Ireland Tánaiste urges Israel ‘to show humanity’ and allow more aid into Gaza
Lego set based on RNLI lifeboat could soon become a reality Lego set based on RNLI lifeboat could soon become a reality
War_map
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited