Parts of the British government and disgruntled members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were responsible for a series of major leaks during and after the establishment of the 1998 Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, according to claims in newly released Irish government archives.
An Irish department of foreign Affairs official focusing on justice and security created a report and list of the leaks in October 2002. They included attempts to undermine Sinn Féin, the republican political party linked to the IRA, and expose the position of the then Northern Ireland secretary, Mo Mowlam.
In a reminder of the fragile situation in the wake of the historic peace deal, the report described how “disgruntled Special Branch officers in Northern Ireland” were blamed by the British government for a series of releases about the IRA that were designed to damage Sinn Féin in the 2001 general election in Northern Ireland.
Details of an IRA intelligence database containing the names of leading Conservative politicians – described at the time as a “hit list” – was also passed to the BBC in April 2002 and, the briefing note continued, this was followed “days later by a leak to the Sunday Telegraph which alleged that senior IRA commanders bought Russian special forces rifles in Moscow last year”.
Special Branch leaks were also said to be associated with the 2002 IRA break-in at the RUC headquarters in Castlereagh in east Belfast.
Other leaks included the disclosure in February 1998 of papers related to preparations for the Drumcree Orange Order march on 6 July 1997, which had been plagued by standoffs and clashes as nationalists opposed the procession down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
The gameplan document showed that Mowlam, who was publicly expressing a desire for a negotiated solution to the 1997 parade, advocated “finding the lowest common denominator for getting some Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road”.
In 1997, a large number of security forces were sent to the area to allow the march to proceed. The incident sparked heightened tension and a wave of rioting.
Elsewhere in the newly released Irish archives, papers emerged showing how the UK government was lobbied to do more to assist former paramilitaries to get jobs and integrate back into society months after being released from prison in 1998 after the Good Friday agreement.
The Northern Ireland office minister, Adam Ingram, resisted the pressure by stating society was “not yet at the stage where all of the shutters could go up”, expressing concerns that ex-prisoners could end up teaching the children of their victims.
There were details of an embarrassing affair when a piece of moon rock gifted to the Irish president by Nasa after an Apollo mission and kept at the Dunsink Observatory was destroyed in a fire in 1977.
And in 2002, when the queen was celebrating her golden jubilee, a unionist minister in the Stormont government rebuffed a suggestion that there could be an extension of pub opening hours. Correspondence showed that lord lieutenants in Northern Ireland – representatives of the queen – were not pushing for the more celebratory licensing hours either.
“Lady Carswell in particular believes that it would be difficult for Lord Lieutenants to encourage such activities without appearing political,” one newly released email showed.
