This article is from page 17 of the 2011-01-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
CLARE TD of 20 years and former senior cabinet minister, Síle de Valera, was at the centre of AngloIrish storm over the hunger striking prisoners in the Maze Prison that was only calmed by an apology being issued to the British government by Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Irish State papers from 1980 released under the 30-year rule have revealed that Haughey stepped in to calm any discord in Anglo-Irish relations pertaining to Northern Ireland by sending a personal apology to British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, following remarks de Valera made in support of hunger strikers in the H-Blocks.
Deputy de Valera made her remarks at a bye-election rally, at which Charles Haughey was present, denouncing the conditions in the Maze, words that set in train a chain of events that ultimately forced the Taoiseach to issue a personal apology to Mrs Thatcher.
“I did refer to Mrs Thatcher at the time as being callous,” recalled Ms de Valera years later. “I still believe that she was in terms of her approach to that whole question of the hunger strikes. Even if you were to look at it from a purely humanitarian point of view, leaving aside the political aspects of that, I was very disappointed that she should take that stance. And it was interesting at the time that I was asked by some members of Fianna Fáil to apologise to Mrs Thatcher for calling her callous,” she added.
Ms de Valera’s support of hunger strikes led to her being part of a three-person Dáil delegation to visit Bobby Sands in the Maze when he was 51 days into his protest in 1981. The others were Dr John O’Connell and Neil Blaney.
“I think it’s important to remember – Bobby Sands said it to us that day we were there that he wasn’t just fighting for the demands of the Republican prisoners at the time, but those demands should be followed through to those who were Loyalist prisoners too, and that’s something that’s always forgotten,” said Ms de Valera.
Asked if she was moved by him, she said, “I think all of us were. From a human point of view, here was someone who knew they were very close to death. It was a horrible death. I think it could’ve been prevented, I think it could’ve been prevented by giving some of the demands”.
Meanwhile, Ms de Valera’s public show of support for the hunger strikers contrasts sharply with the British government’s view of what it called “unofficial” Fianna Fáil policy on the republican protests in the Maze.
Papers from the British National Archives have revealed that Mrs Thatcher told her cabinet colleagues that “Mr Haughey had regrettably not been willing to condemn the hunger strike in public, but he had made clear in private that he did so; he had not sought to argue that the strikers’ demand for political status should be met; and he accepted that there was nothing more that the British authorities could offer them”.
This claim by Mrs Thatcher has given added substance to the notion that it was Mr Haughey who privately insisted that Ms de Valera apologise for her remarks, but in the intervening 30 years she had refused to confirm or deny this.
“It wouldn’t be fair to name (them) but some senior members of the party,” Ms de Valera said in 2006 when announcing her decision to retire from frontline politics after the 2007 General Election.
When pressed further about whether Charles Haughey had asked her to apologise to Mrs Thatcher, she replied, “We’ll leave that to one side now”.
Ironically, it was Ms de Valera who played a crucial role in Mr Haughey’s rise to the leadership of Fianna Fáíl in September 1979 when she used the platform of the annual Liam Lynch Commemoration in Fermoy to launch a scathing attack on Taoiseach Jack Lynch’s policy on the north.
“If our political leaders are not seen to be furthering our Republican aspirations through constitutional means, the idealistic young young members of our community will become disillusioned and discontented. I look to our party and particularly our leader to demonstrate his Republicanism. If we are to be true Irishmen and Irishwomen we have a solemn duty to seek the freedom of our country,” she said.
Ms de Valera’s address, coupled with the attack of Dr Bill Loughnane TD on Jack Lynch’s leadership in July 1979, helped precipitate Lynch’s decision to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil in December of that year, with Charles Haughey beating George Colley in the subsequent leadership vote.