The Intelligence War against the IRA

by Thomas Leahy

10 ‘It’s the Primacy of Politics That’s Important’: Alternative Reasons for the IRA’s Ceasefires in August 1994 and July 1997

  1. The quote in this chapter’s title is taken from an interview with Gerry Adams in January 1989. See LHL NIPC, PH861, Gerry Adams interview with Living Marxism, January 1989, p. 37.

  2. Cf. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 579–83; McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 142–3.

  3. Brian Rowan, ‘Spy Killing, a Dirty War, and Denis Donaldson’s Death’, 24 April 2012: http://eamonnmallie.com/2012/04/spy-killing-a-dirty-war-and-denis-donaldsons-death-by-brian-rowan/; David McKittrick, ‘The Spy’s Tale: The Life and Death of Denis Donaldson’, The Independent, 6 April 2006: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-spys-tale-the-life-and-death-of-denis-donaldson-6104526.html.

  4. The term quoted in the section heading, ‘Irish peace initiative’, is used by Martin Mansergh, the Fianna Fáil government’s chief advisor on Northern Irish policy and part of their negotiating team meeting Sinn Féin. See Martin Mansergh, ‘Mountain-Climbing Irish-Style: The Hidden Challenges of the Peace Process’, in Marianne Elliott (ed.), The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002), p. 106.

  5. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 269, 277.

  6. Mansergh, ‘Mountain Climbing’, pp. 108–9.

  7. TNA, FCO 87/1582, P. R. Whiteway, ‘Sinn Fein Bodenstown Commemoration’, 23 June 1983, p. 2.

  8. Mulroe, Bombs, Bullets and the Border, p. 1–8.

  9. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 277–9.

  10. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 70–1, 87–102, 106–14.

  11. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 59–60.

  12. John Hume, Personal Views: Politics, Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland (Dublin: Town House, 1996), p. 109; see similar comments by Sean Farren, ‘The SDLP and the Roots of the Good Friday Agreement’, in Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen (eds.), A Farewell to Arms? From ‘Long War’ to Long Peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 52.

  13. Martin Mansergh, ‘The Background to the Irish Peace Process’, in Cox, Guelke and Stephen (eds.), A Farewell to Arms?, pp. 12–14.

  14. Albert Reynolds with Jill Arlon, My Autobiography (London: Transworld Ireland, 2009), pp. 215, 236, 280.

  15. O’Brien, Long War, p. 13; O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 59–61.

  16. See Appendix A.2.

  17. NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/213, SDLP Newsline, May 1998, pp. 1–2.

  18. Mansergh, ‘The Background’, p. 13.

  19. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 67–8.

  20. Interview with veteran Troubles commentator, 22 May 2012.

  21. TNA, CJ 4/5511, J. A. Daniel, Meeting between the Secretary of State and John Hume on the political development in Northern Ireland, 17 June 1985, p. 1.

  22. TNA, CJ 4/5511, Northern Ireland quarterly assessment from 1 April to 30 June 1985, 30 July 1985, pp. 1–2.

  23. Mansergh, ‘The Background’, pp. 12–14.

  24. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 100–3.

  25. Reid letter to Haughey in May 1987 in Moloney, Secret History, p. 629.

  26. O’Brien, The Long War, pp. 173–76, 424–25; Hume, Personal Views, pp. 70–1; O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. xv, 1–10; Mansergh, ‘The Background’, p. 16.

  27. Mansergh, ‘The Background’, p. 16; O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. xv, 1–10.

  28. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, 65–102, 106–9, 190–203.

  29. Interview with Danny Morrison, Belfast, 22 May 2012.

  30. LHL NIPC, PP3394, Gerry Adams letter to John Hume, 14 August 1988, pp. 1–5.

  31. Hume, Personal Views, p. 109.

  32. Interview with former British civil servant, 25 March 2014.

  33. For examples, see Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick, The Fight for Peace: The Secret Story Behind the Irish Peace Process (London: Mandarin, 1996), p. 380; O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 65–102, 106–9, 190–203; Reynolds, Autobiography, pp. 13, 216, 360.

  34. For example see Moloney, Secret History, pp. 47–52; O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 1–80.

  35. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 74–79, 287–88; Mulroe, Bombs, Bullets and the Border.

  36. Taylor, Provos, pp. 64–6; see also General Order Eight in the Green Book in Dillon, Dirty War, p. 487.

  37. See The Green Book in Dillon, Dirty War, p. 488.

  38. Reference numbers 2268, 2589–90 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  39. Interview with veteran Troubles commentator, 22 May 2012.

  40. Dillon, Dirty War, p. 487.

  41. Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Remarks by Sinn Fein spokesmen which indicate that destabilisation of the South is a Sinn Fein/IRA objective, p. 2.

  42. Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Remarks by Sinn Fein spokesmen which indicate that destabilisation of the South is a Sinn Fein/IRA objective, p. 5.

  43. Gerry Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom (Kerry: Brandon, 1986), pp. 66–7.

  44. Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, 13.

  45. TNA, CJ 4/3967, Northern Ireland Security Coordinator, 17 December 1981, pp. 1–2.

  46. See similar points in Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, 9–10, 16; O’Brien, Long War, pp. 13, 301–2.

  47. TNA, FCO 87/1379, N. C. Abbott, Access to Government by Sinn Fein assembly members, 4 November 1982, p. 1.

  48. TNA, FCO 87/1379, B. A. Blackwell, Access to Government by Sinn Fein assembly members, 29 October 1982, pp. 1–2.

  49. TNA, CJ 4/4868, S. G. Hewitt, Whiterock leisure centre, 14 September 1984, pp. 1–2; this event was not an isolated example of the difficulties of avoiding the attendance of Sinn Féin elected representatives at local events. See also TNA, CJ 4/4868, R. J. Andrew, Mr G. Adams Sinn Fein, 19 September 1984.

  50. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. xvii, 52, 58, 72–3, 102.

  51. Major, Autobiography, p. 439.

  52. Powell, Great Hatred, pp. 14, 17.

  53. O’Brien, Long War, p. 297; Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, pp. 8–13.

  54. David Bloomfield, Political Dialogue in Northern Ireland: The Brooke Initiative 1989–92 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998), pp. 15–18.

  55. Taylor, Provos, pp. 315–19.

  56. O’Brien, Long War, p. 297.

  57. Setting the Record Straight, p. 12.

  58. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 119–21.

  59. Setting the Record Straight, pp. 18–21.

  60. See Danny Morrison letter to David McKittrick, 29 September 1991 in Danny Morrison, Then the Walls Came Down: A Prison Journal (Cork: Mercier Press, 1999), pp. 234–6.

  61. Cf. Michael Cunningham, British Government Policy in Northern Ireland 1969–2000, 2nd edition (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), pp. 88, 160.

  62. Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, pp. 11–12.

  63. Mansergh, ‘Mountain-Climbing’, p. 111.

  64. Former British civil servant, interview with author, 25 March 2014.

  65. Neumann, Britain’s Long War, pp. 166–8.

  66. Text of a speech delivered by Sir Patrick Mayhew MP at the Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster at Coleraine, 16 December 1992, CAIN online: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/nio/pm161292.pdf.

  67. ‘Report of a meeting with British Government Representative’, December 14 1992, in Setting the Record Straight, p. 22.

  68. LHL NIPC, PH1364, Sinn Féin press release, Adams responds to Mayhew, 21 December 1992, pp. 1–5.

  69. See Setting the Record Straight.

  70. Major, Autobiography, pp. 431.

  71. Owen Bennett-Jones, ‘What Fred Did’, London Review of Books, 37.2 (22 January 2015), pp. 3–6.

  72. Cf. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 117–19.

  73. Niall Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Go-Betweens’, London Review of Books, 37.3 (5 February 2015).

  74. Cunningham, British Government Policy, pp. 88,
160.

  75. Aldrich and Cormac, The Black Door, pp. 388–409.

  76. Holland and Phoenix, Phoenix, pp. 265–6.

  77. Taylor, Provos, pp. 328–9.

  78. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 138–9.

  79. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 108–9; Moloney, Secret History, pp. 414–15.

  80. See table 3 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, p. 1554.

  81. Reference numbers 3508 and 3509 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  82. Taylor, Provos, pp. 338–40.

  83. English, Does Terrorism Work?, p. 112.

  84. For a comprehensive discussion of external factors influencing the peace process see English, Armed Struggle, pp. 303–6.

  85. Adams, Before the Dawn, p. 281.

  86. Morrison, Then the Walls, pp. 287–92.

  87. Frampton, Long March, pp. 81–2.

  88. English, Armed Struggle, p. 307.

  89. English, Does Terrorism Work?, pp. 121–46; Frampton, Long March, pp. 84–5; O’Brien, Long War, pp. 195–200.

  90. See Appendix A.2.

  91. O’Brien, Long War, pp. 198–9.

  92. Gerry Adams, Hope and History: Making Peace in Ireland, updated edition (Kerry: Brandon, 2004), p. 38.

  93. Reference number 2893 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  94. Reference numbers 3383 and 3390 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  95. Interview with Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Cork, 9 September 2013; see also reference number 3389 in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives.

  96. See Adams in McKittrick et al., Lost Lives, p. 1096.

  97. Patterson, ‘Sectarianism Revisited’, pp. 337–56.

  98. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 117–18, 140.

  99. See similar points in English, Does Terrorism Work?, pp. 120–1.

  100. O’Brien, Long War, p. 124.

  101. Adams, Politics, p. 46.

  102. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 102–3.

  103. Adams, Hope and History, p. 64.

  104. LHL NIPC, PH913, Address by Seán Mac Manus National Chairperson to Ard Fheis, February 1990, p. 2.

  105. O’Brien, Long War, p. 106.

  106. Mulroe, Bombs, Bullets and the Border.

  107. Frampton, Long March, pp. 7, 45–6.

  108. McKearney, Provisional IRA, pp. 103–05.

  109. Collins with McGovern, Killing Rage, p. 177.

  110. LHL NIPC, P1659A, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams speech to Ard Fheis at Mansion House in Dublin, 4 November 1984, p. 18.

  111. LHL NIPC, P2890, President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams’s address to Ard Fheis at Mansion House in Dublin, 31 October 1987, pp. 1–3.

  112. LHL NIPC, PH913, President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams’s address to Ard Fheis at Mansion House in Dublin, February 1990, p. 24.

  113. See 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster General Election statistics for Northern Ireland, CAIN online: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/election/elect.htm.

  114. Moloney, Secret History, p. 241.

  115. Hume, Personal Views, pp. 42–8, 92–3, 112.

  116. Neumann, Britain’s Long War, pp. 142–5; see also Jennifer Todd, ‘Thresholds of State Change: Changing British State Institutions and Practices in Northern Ireland after Direct Rule’, Political Studies 62.3 (2014), 522–38.

  117. Interview with Laurence McKeown, Belfast, 16 May 2011.

  118. Interview with Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Cork, 9 September 2013.

  119. Taylor, Provos, p. 317.

  120. Interview with veteran Troubles commentator, 19 April 2011.

  121. McKearney, Provisional IRA, p. 158.

  122. Interview with Michael Culbert, Belfast, 22 May 2012.

  123. Cf. Frampton, Long March, pp. 63–4, 74–7, 82–7, 184.

  124. Moloney, Secret History, pp. 615–30.

  125. Reynolds, Autobiography, p. 279.

  126. Cf. Frampton, Long March, pp. 58–65, 73–5, 184.

  127. Mallie and McKittrick, Fight for Peace, pp. 373–7.

  128. Cf. Frampton, Long March, pp. 84–6.

  129. Interview with Danny Morrison, Belfast, 20 January 2014.

  130. Adams, Politics, p. 154.

  131. LHL NIPC, PH861, Gerry Adams interview with Living Marxism, January 1989, p. 37.

  132. LHL NIPC, P3529, Gerry Adams speech to internal Sinn Féin conference, ‘A Bus Ride to Independence and Socialism’, 1986, p. 13–18.

  133. NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/234, ‘Compromise Is Needed to End the Conflict, Says Adams’, Irish Times, 14 November 1991 (italics mine).

  134. See joint declaration drafts in Mallie and McKittrick, Fight for Peace, pp. 371–80.

  135. LHL NIPC, PH1364, Sinn Féin press release, Gerry Adams’s reply to Patrick Mayhew’s speech, 21 December 1992, pp. 1–6; see similar comments in LHL NIPC, PP3394, Sinn Féin’s response to the SDLP, 2 May 1988, pp. 10–11.

  136. LHL NIPC, PH1621, Towards a Lasting Peace: Address by Sinn Fein Ard Chomhairle member Martin McGuinness, 25 February 1995, p. 5.

  137. Adams, Hope and History, pp. 117–18.

  138. LHL NIPC, PH905, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’s speech to the Ard Fheis, 1991, pp. 3–4.

  139. LHL NIPC, PH365, Sinn Féin presidential address by Gerry Adams to Ard Fheis, 26 February 1994, p. 6.

  140. Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, 5.

  141. NUIG, Brendan Duddy Papers, Pol 35/266, Meeting between British intermediary and Republicans, May 17 1993; Setting the Record Straight, pp. 31–2.

  142. Frampton, Long March, p. 76.

  143. Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Longest Negotiation’, 2.

  144. Powell, Great Hatred, pp. 162–3.

  145. O’Brien, Long War, pp. 319–22.

  146. Frampton, Long March, p. 93.

  147. Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, p. 380.

  148. ‘Britain “Will Never Be Neutral” on Northern Ireland, says Theresa May’, Irish Times, 29 March 2017: www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/britain-will-never-be-neutral-on-northern-ireland-says-theresa-may-1.3029077; for earlier comments on the alleged Britishness of Northern Ireland from Margaret Thatcher, see ‘Confidential Files Give Insight into Margaret Thatcher’s View of Northern Ireland’, BBC News Online, 1 August 2013: www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-23534780.

  149. O’Brien, Long War, pp. 319–22.

  150. O’Brien, Long War, pp. 319–22; for more detail on Sinn Féin and SDLP relations in this period see Murray and Tonge, Sinn Féinand the SDLP, pp. 136–95.

  151. See draft ten in Mallie and McKittrick, The Fight for Peace, p. 380.

  152. LHL NIPC, PH365, Sinn Féin presidential address by Gerry Adams to Ard Fheis, 26 February 1994, p. 10.

  153. This acronym either stood for the ‘Tactical Use of Armed Struggle’ or ‘Totally Un-Armed Strategy’. Moloney, Secret History, p. 423.

  154. See the TUAS document in Mallie and McKittrick, Fight for Peace, pp. 381–4.

  155. Adams, Hope and History, p. 273.

  156. See the TUAS document in Mallie and McKittrick, Fight for Peace, pp. 381–4.

  157. O’Donnell, Fianna Fáil, pp. 75–7.

  158. Adams, Hope and History, p. 354.

  159. Adams, Hope and History, pp. 164–5.

  160. LHL NIPC, PH365, Sinn Féin presidential address by Gerry Adams to Ard Fheis, 26 February 1994, pp. 8–12.

  161. See Appendix A.2.

  162. Reynolds, Autobiography, pp. 366–410.

  163. O’Brien, Long War, pp. 318–22.

  164. Interview with Laurence McKeown, Belfast, 16 May 2011.

  165. Cf. Bew et al., Talking to Terrorists, pp. 130–41; Frampton, Long March, pp. 95–107.

  166. De Baroid, Ballymurphy, p. 362.

  167. Harnden, ‘Bandit Country’, pp. 347, 418–25.

  168. Interview with former British soldier 1, 26 June 2012.

  169. Matchett, Secret Victory, pp. 232–4.

  170. Taylor, Brits, pp. 353–6; Harnden, ‘Bandit Country’, pp. 416–2
5.