10 things we have learned so far from the State papers
Censors Ago, Over Reveal Papers His 'suggestive 60 State Dancing' Presley About Abdominal Years Elvis Warned
Taoiseach Jack Lynch expressed confusion after the family of James Joyce sought to have the famous author’s remains returned to Ireland and questioned what exactly they expected of the Government.
The Government wanted to find out exactly what was involved in the proposal to bring home the body of the Dublin-born poet, novelist, and literary critic who had died in Zurich in January 1941, at age 58, following complications from surgery.
Though deeply tied to Dublin, the city that inspired much of his work, Joyce spent most of his life abroad in Europe.
In 1968, the health minister, Seán Flanagan, wrote to the taoiseach to explain how writer Ulick O’Connor had recently informed him that the author’s son, Giorgio Joyce, “would be glad to have his father’s body brought back to Ireland if the Government would formally approve it”.
Lynch replied that he did not understand the reference to “formal government approval”, before adding: “Unless, of course, it is his intention that the Government would make all the arrangements for the repatriation.”
Ultimately, Joyce’s body remained at Zurich’s Fluntern Cemetery — where he was buried after a modest ceremony in 1941.
Fears that the “exuberance” of Irish soccer fans might create negative publicity was one of the main reasons why the government decided that Ireland’s qualification for the 1994 World Cup finals in the US should not be used to mount a campaign to promote the country.
Newly released files from the National Archives show there was concern among senior civil servants that the antics of “boisterous but well-behaved” supporters of Jack Charlton’s team might be misunderstood.
Confidential documents show consultants strongly recommended against using the tournament “as a vehicle for the promotion of Ireland”.
Instead, they advised the government that state agencies should target specific events such as the “corporate entertainment of carefully chosen executives”.
Members of a fishing co-op in Bantry, Co Cork, were to receive interim payments up to a maximum of IR£80,000 for every incident of pollution damage, under a confidential agreement reached in 1990 with the operator and owner of the oil terminal at Whiddy Island in Cork.
The agreement arose out of concern of local fishermen in Bantry Bay regarding the resumption of activity at the oil terminal after the French-owned oil tanker, Betelgeuse, caught fire and exploded at the Gulf Oil-operated terminal jetty on Whiddy Island on January 8, 1979.
The explosion and resulting inferno killed 50 people — 42 French, seven Irish, and one British national — while only 27 bodies were ever found.
The emergence of reports about a high-level British secret agent in the IRA, known as ‘Stakeknife’, left republican leaders in Northern Ireland “paralysed and damaged” in 2003, according to newly released State papers.
Confidential files made public by the National Archives reveal the disclosure about the British spy — who was widely believed to be the late IRA member Freddie Scappaticci — rocked Sinn Féin and the wider republican movement at a critical point in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Scappaticci ran the IRA’s internal security unit, which was involved in torturing and murdering informants.
The revelation that ‘Stakeknife’ was a double agent working for the British authorities sent shockwaves through republican ranks.
Declassified documents now show the contents of private conversations between British and Irish officials about the matter, which they regarded as changing “the political landscape”.
The documents also highlight how the revelation sparked widespread conspiracy theories within the republican movement, with allegations that ‘Stakeknife’ had been used to eliminate opponents of the peace process.
An internal document from the Anglo-Irish Division in May 2003 noted that the Stakeknife affair had “convulsed the republican movement,” which was already reeling from the British government’s decision to postpone Northern Ireland Assembly elections, along with the failure of Sinn Féin’s statements to meet government expectations.
Benjamin Netanyahu visited Dublin years before he became Israeli prime minister, in a bid to establish a diplomatic presence in the capital.
The Israeli embassy is now in the process of closing.
In February 1990, Netanyahu was the deputy foreign minister in the Likud government and Ireland held the presidency of what was then the European Community (EC).
Files released by the National Archives in Dublin show that the Department of Foreign Affairs prepared a brief resume of his career so that officials could familiarise themselves with a man who would become a defining figure in Israeli politics.
His meeting with Irish foreign affairs minister Gerry Collins took place in Dublin on February 21, 1990.
Netanyahu suggested there was a "natural feeling of sympathy towards Israel among the Irish people", but relations had not been helped by Irish soldiers who had been killed in Lebanon while serving with Unifil.
Many of these attacks had been blamed on Lebanese militias supported by Israel.
Netanyahu told Mr Collins that 95% of the Israeli people were against Palestinian aspirations, and defended Israel's refusal to withdraw from the territories it had occupied since 1967.
He was also questioned about settlements in the Occupied Territories and responded by saying only a fraction of a percentage of Jewish immigrants to Israel lived there.
He maintained they were not being incentivised or encouraged to live there.
At the time of the meeting, Ireland was one of the few states in Europe which did not have an Israeli embassy and did not have an embassy in Israel either.
The newly unsealed documents show details of a threat to poison English water supplies which British authorities took seriously as it appeared technically feasible.
The British Embassy and the Papal Nunciature in Dublin received the threat in June 1999 on behalf of what was called the "Republican Revenge Group".
It threatened to introduce weed killer into the water supply in England unless the British government announced its intention to withdraw from "occupied Ireland" by the following day.
The letters said an improvised chemical weapon would be attached to fire hydrants in England, forcing the chemical — a commonly available weedkiller called "New Pathclear" — into the water supply, potentially poisoning hundreds of thousands of people.
Although the threat might appear far-fetched, the British authorities took it seriously because the technical processes had been checked and were feasible because the threatening letter was "cohesive and literate", and because it had been sent to the right people in Britain, including the appropriate water authorities.
However, the British Embassy in Dublin thought the letter might be a dirty trick by loyalists designed to smear republicans.
Irish officials made extensive efforts to convince British authorities to return extremely rare bronze cannons after claiming they were "illegally smuggled" from a Waterford shipwreck and sold to the Tower of London, records show.
A decades-long dispute over the ownership of the cannons raised concerns that they could be targeted by the Provisional IRA.
The cannons, each measuring nine-foot-by-six-foot, were allegedly removed in the early 1970s from a shipwreck off the southeast coast of Ireland, near the Metal Man at Tramore Bay.
They were then displayed as a tourist attraction at the Royal Armouries and Tower of London with no reference to Ireland.
Irish authorities began investigating the case after reports in the and alleged the cannons had been smuggled out of Irish waters by a "gang of British treasure hunters" before being sold in an Essex scrap garage at the "knock-down price" of £3,250 to a senior Tower official who did not ask where they came from.
A 1993 report from Eamon P Kelly, the Acting Keeper of Irish Antiquities of the National Museum of Ireland, shows that, following initial representations, Tower officials had become "defensive" in 1974, claiming there was "no evidence" the cannons had been "removed recently from the sea bed", that they "may have been found off the Sussex coast", and "that the original story of Irish provenance was spread as a cover".
After receiving Mr Kelly's report which concluded that it "seems clear" British officials were "aware the guns had been found off the Irish coast" and were therefore the property of the Irish State under Irish law, Ireland's embassy to the UK wrote to Britain's foreign and commonwealth office seeking immediate return of the cannons.
Tony Blair once suggested that nationalists in Northern Ireland could support England in the World Cup after Ireland was knocked out, according to reports on a 2002 meeting.
The former prime minister and architect of the Good Friday Agreement was said to be "crestfallen" after the gaffe.
Ireland were knocked out in the second round of the World Cup, jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea, following a penalty shootout with Spain on June 16.
The next day, Blair attended a meeting with SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Northern Ireland Secretary of State John Reid to discuss policing and a recent Criminal Justice Bill.
On entering the room, Blair is said to have commiserated on Ireland's defeat and "offered, apparently genuinely, that the SDLP were now supporting England."
The revelation, revealed in a footnote, continues: "Blair was a bit crestfallen to hear Durkan express himself in a very non-committal manner on the matter of England's likely fortunes."
The awkward moment could have been avoided altogether had the meeting occurred just five days later, given that England were knocked out in their quarter-final with eventual champions Brazil on June 21.
Ireland’s film censor felt the need to warn the Government over 60 years ago about a concerning trend where the US and UK film industries were constantly developing “newer gimmicks and different slants on human depravity to be exploited".
Liam O’Hora recorded that he had rejected issuing a certificate for 54 films while noting that film producers had “by and large departed from all their old standards".
He rejected films featuring many leading Hollywood stars including James Stewart, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra and Anthony Quinn.
In one document the film censor wrote: “I have had much trouble in the past, particularly from headmistresses of girls' schools regarding the antics of Elvis Presley with his most suggestive abdominal dancing".
Confidential government files have revealed that taoiseach Albert Reynolds felt in April 1992 that a courtesy call by President Mary Robinson to Queen Elizabeth “should not be encouraged".
Newly released files from the Department of the Taoiseach under the 30-year rule hint at the Government’s unease at being pressed by Ms Robinson later that year to approve of her paying such a call to the Queen in May 1993 as part of a proposed visit to accept an honorary degree from Oxford University.
Files show that President Robinson went ahead with the proposed courtesy call on Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace on May 27, 1993, where they spoke for around 30 minutes.