In a year marred by violence, the relationship between Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sank to a new low in 1988, just three years after the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.

The Troubles in Northern Ireland claimed 104 lives that year, the highest number of fatalities since 1982.

The confidential State Papers, which were released today, show the pair held a meeting on the fringes of the European Council meeting in Brussels in February 1988.



Mr Haughey said there was "deep, deep anxiety and emotion in Ireland" over two recent events.

Firstly, in the aftermath of the Stalker-Sampson inquiry into accusations that the British Army and the RUC were operating a shoot-to-kill policy, the British government announced that no RUC officers would face prosecutions.

Secondly, despite a massive civil and political campaign, the Court of Appeal in London rejected a plea by the Birmingham Six to have their convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings overturned.

Mrs Thatcher defended the decision not to publish the Stalker report and said she read the judgment in the Birmingham Six appeal case and it was "extremely impressive".

She made it clear that the British legal system was independent and there could be no government interference.

When the Taoiseach emphasised that "a very keen sense of injustice was rampant in Ireland", Mrs Thatcher asked how long these emotions have lasted for? To which the Taoiseach said: "700 years in our country."

Correspondence between the two leaders throughout 1988 shows that the British Prime Minister pressed Mr Haughey for more co-operation on security between police forces on both sides of the border.

Extremely tetchy exchanges characterised a meeting between the two leaders in Hanover on 28 June.

On the issue of security co-operation, Mr Haughey outlined that after the seizure of IRA arms shipments from Libya, such as the interception of the Eksund vessel off the coast of France in late 1987, over 50,000 homes in Ireland were searched.

He said that a number of IRA arms bunkers had been found.

Read more:

18 things we learned from the 1988 State Papers

But Mrs Thatcher said the British authorities would never have searched 50,000 homes and instead used its intelligence service to fight the IRA.

She said the border is ineffective as the IRA plan attacks from the south.

Scathing of An Garda Síochána, she said: "We do not get intelligence from the gardaí. They are not the most professional force."

She explained that they deal with police forces in Amsterdam, France and Brussels and they are "highly professional".

She pointed out that "Israel is a small country, yet it has one of the best police forces in the world".

She asked the Taoiseach to consider better training for the gardaí and added: "What we need is concerted systematic intelligence. If we don’t defeat the IRA, I don’t know what I am going to do. We can’t have the border open as it is now. We rely on intelligence."

Depressed about the violence in the North, Mrs Thatcher pointed out that British troops were originally welcomed into Northern Ireland but "it has all been so useless".

She added: "Whatever we have done so far just is not enough. There is the greatest concentration of terrorists anywhere in the world in this area. We are not winning the battle: they have become much more professional."

Mrs Thatcher was adamant that she "will never be prepared to walk out and let the terrorists win" and she said the Irish Government talk about a united Ireland, but "would that be better? I say no, there would be the worst civil war in history. And it would spread to the mainland."

"Your people come over to us. I wish they wouldn’t. They come looking for housing and services. It’s the same in Northern Ireland. If there was a vote tomorrow they would vote to stay with us. They have better conditions in Northern Ireland and in England."

"I have one objective: that is to beat the IRA. For that we need the latest intelligence," the prime minister added.

The Taoiseach said he was sorry his opposite number was so disappointed and despondent.

He pointed out that the Irish authorities get no credit even though they were putting "immense resources" into the fight against the IRA.

By September, a letter from Mr Haughey to Mrs Thatcher outlined that he has made efforts to improve the gardaí’s pre-emptive intelligence and training in intelligence gathering. FBI instructors were coming over from Washington to run training course for up to 30 selected gardaí.

Further specialised training was sought from police forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada.

Gardaí were offered places on a Special Search Techniques course run by British military personnel.

There were also plans to create extra Special Surveillance Units dedicated to intelligence gathering in the gardaí.

Reporting by Mícheál Lehane and Conor McMorrow