Many of the events of 1979 are revisited by the recent release of hitherto secret documents which were released at the end of 2009, under the 30 year rule. It is hard to believe that all of these occurrences happened a generation ago. For it seems, to me at least, it is as though they happened yesterday.
Margaret Thatcher entered 10 Downing Street early in May 1979 and had the neck to quote the Prayer of Saint Francis, which seeks to put peace and conciliation before strife and division. There was little in the way of peace or conciliation in the eleven years or so for which she was to serve as Prime Minister. Her predecessor the Labour PM, James Callaghan, had been sustained in office by two Irish nationalist MPs Gerry Fitt and Frank Maguire, but they and their constituencies had become affronted by the belligerent attitude of the Secretary of State Roy Mason. The new Secretary of State was Humphrey Atkins.
It was said that at Atkins first security briefing the Stormont securocrats spread out a map of Northern Ireland before the new supremo: the Loyalist areas were shaded in orange, the Republican areas in green, neutral territory in yellow, and so on. Atkins enquired about the large area in the centre coloured in blue. He was told, "That, sir, is Lough Neagh."
John Hume, and the Irish Embassy in Washington, had enlisted as allies a group of Irish-American politicians known as 'The Four Horsemen': Ted Kennedy was the best-known of these figures along with Tip O'Neill and Daniel P Moynihan and another was Hugh Carey, the governor of New York state. On hearing that Governor Carey was to visit Ireland Mrs Thatcher prevented Atkins from meeting him, after reading reports that Carey was planning to pressurise the British over Northern Ireland. Mrs Thatcher, according to the recently-released papers, went on to add that she, "Would not think of discussing with President Carter, for example, US policy towards their black population." Four days later Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people were killed when his boat blew up at Mullaghmore in Co Sligo, at the end of August. On the same day eighteen British soldiers died in an ambush near Warrenpoint. Relations between Dublin and London sank to a new low.
Mrs Thatcher had earlier threatened taking the vote away from Irish citizens living in the UK and after the assassination of Mountbatten, went on to consider the possibility of taking further sanctions against Ireland unless it gained better co-operation on security. In the summer of 1979 it was announced that Pope John Paul II was to make a visit to Ireland at the end of September. This was a month after the killings at Mullaghmore and Warrenpoint and feelings ran high amongst Northern loyalists. Ian Paisley threatened to orchestrate opposition, and so dangerous had the situation become that British security forces told the Vatican that they could not guarantee the Pope's safety, were he to come North of the Border. The Pope got no further north than Drogheda, part of the Archdiocese of Armagh, where he made an impassioned plea for peace. The cancellation of the visit to the North was viewed by Taoiseach Jack Lynch as a "Victory for Paisley" a view which was shared by the SDLP leader Gerry Fitt.
In November Fitt was replaced by John Hume as leader of the SDLP. In the June of that year Hume had been elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the first direct elections to that assembly. Paisley had topped the poll, as he was to do in the next five elections, up until 2004. James Moyneux replaced Harry West as the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
By the October of 1979 Mrs Thatcher believed that she had made some headway on the security issue. In that month she told Dr Paisley that she had achieved a better deal on security than any British Prime Minister and urged Paisley not to say anything that would jeopardise Anglo-Irish relations. She also reminded him that Mr Lynch had "his own problems".
Indeed he had. There had been a suspicion within certain elements of Fianna Fáil that Lynch had yielded too much ground to the British on the security question. There was disappointment that the Pope had not visited Cork, Lynch's own constituency, which wags dubbed 'The City of the Passover'. In November Fianna Fáil lost two by-elections in Cork. This was the final straw for the FF backbenchers and Lynch was ousted. He was replaced by Charles Haughey, who went on to lead the party for 12 years, for eleven of which Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister. But all of this was in the impenetrable future in the year of 1979.
In evidence the court heard that the plaintiff, who was described as an 'amateur astronomer' was claiming damages against an optics manufacturing company, claiming recompense after he had purchased what he deemed to be 'faulty goods'. He had bought, at considerable expense, a telescope, which, he claimed, had refused to function. The retailer had referred him to the manufacturer, who declined to refund him his money, claiming that there was no way in which they could be considered accountable. The purchaser had been flabbergasted, as the apparatus had never functioned to any degree. "He just" said the presiding judge, "Couldn't see through it."
The PSNI, in a press release on its website, disclosed how it had made a successful raid on a premises dealing in pirated videos and DVD. The raid was conducted in co-ordination with the British Pornographic Industry. In an amended notice this was corrected to the British Phonographic Industry.
Two interesting headlines from Saturday's 'Irish News'.
One announces "Support sought for tough dog controls."
There are a lot of tough dogs around.
Another reads: "Missing Teenager Found Safe."
Lots of things get mislaid over Christmas.
Twenty thousand people changed their names by deed poll in the United Kingdom last year.
One man changed his name to 'None of the Above'.
From 'The Weakest Link':
Q. What 'M' named after the Hebrew word for 'Institution' is the national intelligence agency of Israel.
A. Al-Qaeda.
The Midlands was the coldest part of Ireland over last weekend, according to the Irish Met Office at Birr.
