Peter Brooke: Death of former Northern Ireland Secretary who coined phrase 'Britain has no selfish or strategic interest in NI' and believed IRA was unlikely to be beaten by force

He was aged 89.

He served as the Tory government’s top representative in Northern Ireland for almost three years from July 1989, taking over from Tom King.

According to a short biography on the CAIN website (the Conflict Archive on the Internet, run by Ulster University), he was educated at Oxford and Harvard Business School, and had initially embarked on a career in business.

He had been a local councillor, but his frontline political career began in earnest in 1977 when he was elected as MP for the City of London and Westminster South.

He went on to be the chairman of the Conservative Party during the late period of Margaret Thatcher’s government, 1987-89.

Politics ran in his family – he was the son of Henry Brooke, a former Conservative home secretary.

• ‘HARD TO SEE MILITARY DEFEAT OF IRA’ •

Early in his tenure as NI secretary, he earned the ire of some when he told journalists “it is difficult to envisage a military defeat” of the IRA, suggesting that the best that could be hoped for was “a policy of containment to enable, broadly speaking, normal life to go on within the Province”.

But he also insisted that paramilitarism, whether loyalist or republican, would never win out either.

In a speech to the Commons in March 1990, he told MPs: “As the House will need no reminding, terrorism, both republican and loyalist, continues at a significant level, not only in Northern Ireland but in Great Britain and on the European mainland.

"Statistics indicate a welcome improvement in the security situation in Northern Ireland, but there is no consolation to be had in the loss of 62 lives last year or in the 800 or so injuries…

"Let me make it clear, unequivocally, that the eradication of terrorism, green or orange, remains the Government's top priority in Northern Ireland.

"There is no acceptable level of murder; we shall continue to work unreservedly for the defeat of terrorism with all the means at our disposal that are compatible with the letter and spirit of the rule of law.

"Let there be absolutely no doubt on this point: terrorism will never prevail.”

Arguably the thing which Lord Brooke is most remembered for is the famous adage (infamous for some) that the UK government had "no selfish, economic, or strategic interest" in Northern Ireland.

He made those comments in a speech in London on November 9, 1990.

It was a remark that was later remembered as “famously unhelpful” by Prof Graham Gudgin, a key aide to David Trimble.

• TALKS THAT PRECEDED PEACE PROCESS •

By the time John Major had taken over as prime minister in late 1990, a backchannel to the IRA had been opened up (as the former Tory leader later acknowledged publicly).

CAIN goes on to add that “Brooke was also prepared to authorise secret talks with the republican movement in order to try to discover if common ground could be found to initiate further discussions”.

CAIN said that “in spite of the obvious difficulties” he faced at the time, “Brooke pressed ahead with his efforts to create the conditions to allow for a new round of political negotiations to take place”.

These ran from April 1991 to July “without any real breakthrough”.

Crucially however, they were credited as helping to “form the basis of further negotiations in the late 1990s”.

His reputation suffered a blow when, on the day of the IRA’s Teebane bombing of January 1992 – when it blew up a Transit van carrying 14 civilian building contractors, killing seven and a nearby soldier – he went on RTE’s 'Late Late Show' where he was persuaded to sing 'My Darling Clementine'.

He was accused of insensitivity, and in his statement to the Commons the following Monday, Mr Brooke told MPs although his actions were “innocent in intent” they were “patently an error”.

He announced that he had placed his resignation at the prime minister’s disposal. However, Mr Major voiced full confidence in Mr Brooke after refusing his resignation.

He went on to leave the post in April 1992.

He left the government altogether in the prime minister’s reshuffle in the summer of 1994, and was given a life peerage in 2001.

He was twice married, and had four sons from his first marriage, one of whom died before him.

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