Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography

by Charles Moore

  CHAPTER 21: HUNGER IN IRELAND

  1. Papers relating to the compilation of Lady Thatcher’s memoirs, The Thatcher Papers, Churchill College, Cambridge, THCR 4/3. 2. Ibid. 3. Interview with Lady Colnbrook. 4. Interview with Lord Gowrie. 5. Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster. 6. THCR 4/3. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Private information. 10. Note, 8 June 1979, The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO) PREM 19/80. 11. Hunt to PM, 4 May 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/80. 12. Cartledge to Lever, 10 May 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/79. 13. O’Neill to Carter, 22 June 1979, UK 3–7/79, Box 77, NSA: Country File UK, Carter Library, Atlanta GA. 14. Alexander to Walden, ‘Prime Minister’s Visit to the United States’, 19 Dec. 1979, TNA: PRO FCO 82/991. 15. Note of conversation between Atkins and PM, 23 Aug. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/80. 16. Paisley to PM, 11 June 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/80. 17. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 18. Note of discussion, 28 Aug. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/81. 19. Pattison to Pilling, 28 Aug. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/79. 20. Atkins to PM, 31 Aug. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/79. 21. Note of meeting between Thatcher and Lynch, 5 Sept. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/79. 22. Note of plenary meeting, 5 Sept. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/79. 23. Interview with Dermot Nally. 24. Hunt to PM, 16 Oct. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/82. 25. Gow to PM, 27 Nov. 1979, TNA: PRO PREM 19/83. 26. Ian Gow, note on Utley note, Nov. 1979 (undated), THCR 2/6/2/116. 27. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 28. Stowe record of meeting with Powell, 15 Apr. 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/280. 29. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 30. Whitelaw to PM, 30 Apr. 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/280. 31. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 32. Lever to Alexander, 1 Apr. 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/283. 33. Interview with Sean Aylward. 34. Frank Dunlop, Yes, Taoiseach, Penguin, 2004, p. 209. 35. Interview with Noel Dorr. 36. Interview with Dermot Nally. 37. Haydon telegram, 27 May 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/283. 38. Interview with Lord Gowrie. 39. THCR 4/3. 40. Whitelaw to PM memo, 5 June 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/280. 41. Ibid. 42. OD minutes, 10 June 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 43. Ibid. 44. Stowe to Sanders, 12 Aug. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 45. Haughey to PM, 23 Oct. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike at the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 46. Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 23 Oct. 1980. 47. Amstrong to PM, 7 Nov. 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/282. 48. Ibid. 49. Armstrong to Alexander, 24 Nov. 1980, TNA: PRO PREM 19/282. 50. Haughey meeting with Thatcher, 1 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 51. Record of conversation between Haughey and Thatcher, 8 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 52. The account that follows, unless otherwise stated, is based on private information. 53. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 54. Ibid. 55. THCR 4/3. 56. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 57. Interview with Sean O’Callaghan. 58. THCR 4/3. 59. Interview with Sean Aylward. 60. Briefing paper on UK objectives, 25 Nov. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 61. Record of conversation between Haughey and Thatcher, 8 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 62. Figg to Alexander, 9 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 63. Dunlop, Yes, Taoiseach, p. 216. 64. Figg to Alexander, 9 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 65. THCR 4/3. 66. Irish Times, 13 Dec. 1980. 67. Alexander to Lyne, Mar. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 68. Interview with Dermot Nally. 69. Armstrong to PM, 18 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 70. Ibid. 71. Whitmore to PM, 19 Dec. 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 72. Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster. 73. Interview with Sir Kenneth Stowe. 74. Interview with Sir Robert Wade-Gery. 75. Ibid. 76. Joint Study Terms of Reference, 27 Jan. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 77. Gow note of Powell meeting with PM, 10 Feb. 1981, THCR 2/6/2/116. 78. Wade-Gery to Armstrong, 12 Mar. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike at the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 79. Alexander to Walden, 19 Mar. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike at the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 80. PM note, 3 May 1981, attached to Joint Studies drafts of 28 April 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike at the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 81. Atkins to PM, 23 Feb. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 82. Interview with Sean O’Callaghan. 83. Speech in Belfast, 5 Mar. 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104589). 84. Armstrong to Sanders, 22 Apr. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 85. Ibid. 86. Atkins telephone conversation with PM, 25 April 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 87. Record of meeting between Hume and PM, 13 May 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 88. Record of meeting with Foot and PM, 14 May 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 89. B. Ingham to C. Whitmore, 19 May 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 90. Interview with Sir Robert Wade-Gery. 91. Armstrong to PM, 19 May 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 92. Alexander to Boys Smith, 27 May 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 93. Atkins, ‘Northern Ireland: The Need for Movement’, 12 June 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 94. Armstrong to PM, 17 June 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 95. Comm. Brownie [Adams] from Bik, 29 June 1981, quoted in David Beresford, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, HarperCollins, 1987, pp. 272–3. 96. The most bitter disputes in this respect have taken place between Republicans themselves: see Irish Times, 31 December 2011, and Belfast Telegraph, 3 January 2012. 97. Rickett to Boys Smith, 3 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 98. Ibid. 99. For a full account of this see Padraig O’Malley, Biting at the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strike and the Politics of Despair, Beacon Press, 1990, pp. 90–91. 100. Record of telephone conversation between Alison and PM, 4 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 101. O’Malley, Biting at the Grave, p. 93. 102. Sunday Times, 5 Apr. 2009. 103. Record of telephone conversation, 6 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 104. Message to be sent through the Channel, 6 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 105. Rickett to Boys Smith, 7 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 106. Whitmore to Boys Smith, 8 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 107. Brownie from Bik, 7 July 1981, see Beresford, Ten Men Dead, pp. 295–6. 108. Interview with Sean O’Callaghan. 109. Ibid. 110. Alexander to Boys Smith, 14 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze P
rison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 111. THCR 4/3. 112. Note for the record, 18 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 113. Ibid. 114. Boys Smith to Alexander, 21 July 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 115. Interview with Dermot Nally. 116. Interview with Stephen Boys Smith. 117. Interview with Sean O’Callaghan. 118. Interview with Lord Prior. 119. Ibid. 120. Irish Times, 30 December 2011. 121. Gow to PM, 6 Oct. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Hunger Strike in the Maze Prison (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 122. Ibid. 123. Ibid. 124. Interview with Lord Prior. 125. Interview with Sean O’Callaghan. 126. THCR 4/3. 127. Ibid. 128. Ibid. 129. Armstrong to Alexander, 4 Nov. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 130. Alexander to PM, 4 Nov. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 131. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 132. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 133. Gow to PM, 29 Oct. 1981, THCR 2/6/2/115. 134. See Garret FitzGerald, All in a Life, Macmillan, 1991, p. 382. 135. Hansard, HC Deb 10 Nov. 1981 (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/nov/10/anglo-irish-bilateral-talks). 136. Gow to PM, 16 Nov. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 137. Prior to PM, 21 Dec. 1981, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 138. Gow to PM, 15 Feb. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 139. Gow to PM, 23 Mar. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 140. Armstrong to PM, 24 Mar. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: The Situation in Northern Ireland (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 141. Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 1 Apr. 1982. 142. Gow to PM, 2 April 1982, THCR 2/6/2/117. 143. Interview with Lord Prior. 144. Interview with Sean Aylward. 145. Aylward, 26 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taoiseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 146. Hansard, HC Deb 29 July 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105009). 147. Armstrong to Coles, 6 Aug. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Ireland: Meetings with the Taioseach (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 148. Gow to PM, 15 Nov. 1982, THCR 2/6/2/117. 149. Interview with Sir David Goodall.