‘A FAILED
POLITICAL
ENTITY’
Dr Stephen Kelly is Lecturer in Modern History, Liverpool Hope University, and 2016–2017 Archives By-Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge University.
‘A FAILED
POLITICAL
ENTITY’
CHARLES HAUGHEY AND THE
NORTHERN IRELAND QUESTION
1945–1992
STEPHEN KELLY
First published in 2016 by
Merrion Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
County Kildare
Ireland
© 2016 Stephen Kelly
978-1-78537-097-7 (paper)
978-1-78537-098-4 (cloth)
978-1-78537-101-1 (Kindle)
978-1-78537-102-8 (epub)
978-1-78537-103-5 (PDF)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Interior design by www.jminfotechindia.com
Typeset in ITC New Baskerville 10.5/13.5 pt
Cover design by www.phoenix-graphicdesign.com
Cover/jacket front: Eamonn Farrell’s iconic image of taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey, 3 June 1989. Courtesy of RollingNews.ie
Cover/jacket back: Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey at Abbeville House, 1 Sept. 1981. Courtesy of RollingNews.ie
To Jenny
My best friend and the love of my life
Contents
2.‘We Can’t Stand By’: Haughey, the Arms Crisis and Political Abyss, 1966–1978
3.The Boss: Haughey as Taoiseach, 1979–1980
4.The Haughey–Thatcher Relationship: The Anglo-Irish Summit Meeting, May 1980
5.‘The Totality of Relationships’: The Anglo-Irish Summit Meeting, December 1980
6.Political Obscurity: Haughey, Anglo-Irish Relations and the Second Republican Hunger Strike, 1981
7.Anti-partitionist: Haughey, the Prior Initiative and the Falklands War, 1982
8.A Unitary State: Haughey and the New Ireland Forum, 1983–1984
9.Peacemaker? Haughey and the Search for Peace in Northern Ireland, 1985–1992
Acknowledgements
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following institutions and individuals: The Liverpool Hope University Research Funding Committee, in particular the Reverend Kenneth Newport, for funding the research stages of this project, the book’s images and indexing expenses.
I wish to thank the various archival institutions in Britain and Ireland; I am particularly grateful to the staff of the National Archives of the United Kingdom; the National Archives of Ireland; the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University; and the University College Dublin Archives.
I must also extend my appreciation to the numerous individuals who freely gave their time to discuss their own personal recollections of events central to my research; they include, Lord Robert Armstrong, the late Harry Boland, Mary Colley, Prof. Richard Conway, Seán Donlon, the late Pádraig Faulkner, the late Dr Garret FitzGerald, Dr Martin Mansergh, Micheál Martin, Dermot Nally and David Neligan.
I am also indebted to the following individuals: my close friend and colleague Dr Bryce Evans, Dr Michael Kennedy, Karen Quinn, Prof. Nick Rees, Derek Watson, Prof. Christopher Williams and my colleagues and friends within the Department of History and Politics, Liverpool Hope University. A big thanks also to the staff of Merrion Press, particularly Conor Graham and Fiona Dunne, Fionbar Lyons for his indexing skills and Eamonn Farrell of www.rollingnews.ie for permitting me access to his extraordinary collection of Haughey related photographs. I am likewise extremely grateful to Vincent Browne for writing a Foreword for this book.
To my family my warmest thanks are offered. My mother and father, Áine and Gerry and my younger brother Conor, are an inspiration. Finally, I wish to pay a special tribute to my fiancée Jenny Campbell. Not only has Jenny acted as my personal proof-reader throughout the production of this book, but more importantly she has continually encouraged and supported my academic career. Jenny I dedicate this