Declassified files: Top officials prepared detailed private briefing on Northern Ireland for Prince Charles

The June 2 1994 event was planned for over several months and involved both the then secretary of state, Sir Patrick Mayhew, and many of the most senior officials in the Northern Ireland Office and the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Fell.

The briefing – which is the subject of its own substantial file – was to be held in the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall and was scheduled to last for about an hour and a quarter.

The file, which is among those declassified at the Public Record Office in Belfast under the 20-Year Rule, only records preparations for the event and does not contain any material which clarifies what happened on the day.

The heir to the throne was to be given a slide presentation which would be introduced by Sir Patrick before a series of senior NIO officials each dealt with their area of expertise.

Communications with St James’ Palace about the event were classified as ‘secret and personal’, an unusually high classification.

The briefing was to have initially taken place in March 1994 but was postponed until June of that year.

The material to be explained to Prince Charles stated that “PIRA’s capabilities have been eroded somewhat in recent years and there are some signs of war-weariness and declining support”.

However, he was also to be told that despite that the IRA “remains dangerous, well-equipped and capable of striking at a wide range of targets”.

The main threats from the IRA were described as snipers, car bombs, Mark 16 horizontal mortars and Mark 15 ‘barrack buster’ mortars.

The prince was to be told that loyalist paramilitaries had been “very active in the 1970s” but that “during much of the 1980s they were more or less moribund”.

The briefing went on: “The last 3-4 years, however, has seen a sharp resurgence in loyalist violence, reflecting in part growing anxiety in loyalist working-class areas over perceived political gain by the nationalists.

“In 1985 they were responsible for only 11% of terrorist murders; in the past two years they have killed more people than republicans.

“While they have made efforts to target republican activists, the great majority of victims are random sectarian murders of ordinary Catholics uninvolved in politics, mostly by close-quarter shootings.”

The prince was also to be told: “It is regularly claimed that the security forces are in collusion with loyalist terrorists. In fact, the numbers of persons charged with terrorist offences demonstrates this is not the case. In the last two years, more loyalists have been charged than republicans.”

The briefing contained reference to the security services’ clandestine contacts with the IRA: “On the peace side, as is now well known there has for many years been a secret means of communication with the Provisional movement.” A note in the margin described these as “longstanding but unavowed contacts whose utility required secrecy” and that as part of that communications channel an “exchange of messages followed communication from Sinn Fein in February 1993 that ‘the conflict is over’.”

A note, perhaps in anticipation of a question from the prince, said that the “messages sent were consistent with HMG’s public positions”.