In 1989 a Washington diplomat raised concerns that the Soviets would use a Cork dockyard for military purposes

The US feared that the Russians could be plotting an undercover Cold War spy base in a disused Cork dockyard, newly declassified government documents suggest.

Files released under the 30-year rule show that a senior diplomat in the American embassy in Dublin raised Washington’s “worries” about the Soviets using Verolme docks for “military purposes” in May 1989.

The intervention came weeks after top-level meetings between Charlie Haughey, the taoiseach at the time, and Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the USSR, and his administration.

Mr Haughey and Mr Gorbachev met at Shannon airport in April that year.

Later the same month, returning from a trip to Japan, the taoiseach stopped off at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, for trade and closer co-operation talks led by Vladimir Kamentsev, deputy