British ambassador rebuked after Margaret Thatcher questioned Ireland’s will to defeat IRA

The UK’s ambassador in Ireland received a governmental rebuke after Margaret Thatcher questioned the state’s commitment to defeating the IRA.
Margaret Thatcher’s comments sparked a diplomatic rowMargaret Thatcher’s comments sparked a diplomatic row
Margaret Thatcher’s comments sparked a diplomatic row

National Irish archive papers revealed Taoiseach Charles Haughey ordered a senior official to make clear to the ambassador his displeasure at Mrs Thatcher’s remarks.

The diplomatic row unfolded in the wake of an IRA attack on Air Chief Marshall and former Governor of Gibraltar Sir Peter Terry and his wife Lady Betty Terry. The couple both survived despite being shot through the window of their Staffordshire home in September 1990.

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The attack was a revenge bid by the IRA because two years earlier Sir Peter, as governor of Gibraltar, sanctioned the SAS operation that led to the shooting dead of three IRA members on the British overseas territory.

In a media interview in Budapest following the shooting in Staffordshire, Mrs Thatcher said the IRA was engaged in “guerrilla warfare”.

She said there was also a question whether “we can assure ourselves that the Republic of Ireland is doing all it can to track down terrorists, their sources of weaponry and their stores of weapons”.

The comments provoked the ire of Mr Haughey and he requested Secretary to the Government Dermot Nally to make contact with British ambassador Sir Nicholas Fenn to raise the issue.

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In a previously confidential Department of the Taoiseach internal document, released after 30 years, Mr Nally wrote: “On the Taoiseach’s direction, I asked Ambassador Fenn to call about the remarks attributed to the Prime Minister in Budapest. I said that this type of remark could be of assistance only to the Provos and would discourage those working against terrorism.”

Mr Nally said he had highlighted to the ambassador the attack took place in the UK.

“There was no way that anything Gardai could have done could have prevented or deflected it,” he wrote. “What we really want to know was what the comments were all about.”

Mr Nally wrote there had been a recent cross border meeting of government ministers and Mrs Thatcher’s apparent concerns were not raised.

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“Nothing said then has given any grounds for anticipating the statement,” he said.

Mr Nally relayed that ambassador Fenn explained Mrs Thatcher had been speaking with a “certain sense of exasperation”.

He added: “In tiredness there was often truth.”