Declassified Files: Thatcher gave Northern Ireland Secretary of State job to '˜unspectacular' MPs

The former prime minister is said to have always picked what was described as an “unspectacular appointment” which was designed to “keep things ticking over” in Northern Ireland.

Irish State papers revealed that top officials in the British Government said Mrs Thatcher had modest expectations of improving the situation in Northern Ireland in 1988.

In July of that year, during a lunch between Ferdinand Mount, a former head of the Policy Unit at No 10, and an Irish government official, the pair discussed Mrs Thatcher’s position on Northern Ireland.

After the meeting the Irish government official wrote to Dermot Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Anglo-Irish Division, and outlined the main points which Mr Mount raised.

He said: “The Prime Minister, however, has never focused for very long on the Northern Ireland problem, despite the assiduous efforts of (Thatcher’s adviser Charles) Powell and (Peter) Utley over the years to interest her in it.”

According to the documents released under the Irish 30-year rule, Mr Mount, told the diplomat that Mrs Thatcher had “very modest expectations” about her chances, or any other Prime Minister’s chances, of bringing about a “fundamental improvement on the situation” in Ulster.

The letter continued: “When the draft (Anglo-Irish) agreement was put to her, she accepted it, but, had it not been, she probably would have steered clear of any initiative on Northern Ireland during her period in office.

“Having committed herself to the agreement, she will not ‘rat on it’. However it is very unlikely that she will ever build on it, or expand it, in any way.

“An illustration of her essentially pessimistic approach to Northern Ireland is that she will never appoint as Secretary of State anyone with a promising political future e.g. John Major.

“Rather she will always go for an unspectacular appointment designed to ‘keep things ticking over and no more’.”