Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography (169 page)

*
Unknown to Mrs Thatcher and indeed to everyone else involved with the pipeline outside a tiny circle of Reagan advisers, the CIA had managed to insert a bug into the software the Soviets had acquired to operate the pipeline. According to Thomas Reed, then an NSC staffer, when this faulty software eventually came online US satellites detected ‘the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space’ deep within the Soviet Union. (Thomas C. Reed,
At the Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold War
, Presidio Press, 2004, p. 269.) Knowledge of this capability may also have played some role in Reagan’s decision to lift the sanctions.

*
In a speech to the Ulster Unionist Council in 1978, Neave had argued for a regional council or councils, but said these ‘should not be regarded as a substitute for eventual devolved government’. This seems to indicate gradualism rather than pure integrationism.

*
John (Jack) Lynch (1917–99), educated Christian Brothers’ Schools, North Monastery, Cork, University College, Cork and King’s Inns, Dublin; Fianna Fáil TD (Member of Dáil), 1948–81; Leader of Fianna Fáil, 1966–79; Taoiseach, 1966–73, 1977–9.

*
Ian Paisley (1926–), educated Ballymena Model School, Ballymena Technical High School, South Wales Bible College and Reformed Presbyterian Theological College, Belfast; ordained, 1946; moderator, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, 1951–2008; Protestant Unionist MP for Antrim North, 1970–74; Democratic Unionist MP for Antrim North, 1974–2010; Leader of Democratic Unionist Party, 1972–2008; Member of Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998–2011; First Minister of Northern Ireland, 2007–8; created Lord Bannside, 2010.

*
James Molyneaux (1920–), educated Aldergrove School, Co. Antrim; Ulster Unionist MP for Antrim South, 1970–83; for Lagan Valley, 1983–97; Leader, Ulster Unionist Party in House of Commons, 1974–9, and Leader of the party, 1979–95; created Lord Molyneaux of Killead, 1997.

†
Mrs Thatcher never ceased to pay close attention to the victims of terrorism and to be strongly affected by their suffering. In October 1981, the IRA blew up the dismounting Tower of London Guard near Chelsea Barracks, wounding twenty-three Irish Guardsmen and killing two civilians. The commanding officer, Robert Corbett, recounted Mrs Thatcher’s visit to the injured the following day: ‘When she saw how terribly injured many of them were she turned to one side so deeply affected that I had to take her out of the ward for a brief moment. She was in tears.’ Weeks later, she invited Corbett and his wife to No. 10. ‘The most striking thing about her was that she knew precisely the state of health and progress of each of those injured soldiers.’ (Correspondence with Major-General Sir Robert Corbett.)

*
Dermot Nally (1927–2009), Deputy Secretary to the Department of the Taoiseach, and head of Northern Ireland Affairs, 1973–80; Secretary-General to the Department of the Taoiseach (and Cabinet Secretary), 1980–93.

*
Charles Haughey (1925–2006), educated St Joseph’s Christian Brothers’ School, Fairview, Dublin, University College, Dublin and King’s Inns, Dublin; Fianna Fáil TD, 1957–92; Leader, Fianna Fáil, 1979–92; Taoiseach, 1979–81, March–December 1982 and 1987–92.

†
In view of Haughey’s subsequent exposure for corruption, he may, in this phrase, have been thinking of himself.

*
Mrs Thatcher refused to mention this tentative offer in her memoirs because she considered that by relaying it she would be breaking the privacy that Haughey had demanded (THCR 4/3).

*
John Hume (1937–), educated St Columb’s College, Derry and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth; Leader of SDLP, 1979–2001; MEP, Northern Ireland, 1979–2004; SDLP MP for Foyle, 1983–2005; joint winner of Nobel Peace Prize, 1998.

†
The dirty protest always provoked in Mrs Thatcher a reaction of extreme disgust.

*
‘Civilian-type’ clothes were different from ‘civilian’ clothes, because the former, though not uniform in style, were issued by the prison authorities rather than the personal property of the prisoners. This point, it was argued, allowed control to be maintained.

†
The Provisional IRA was formed out of the split in the IRA in 1969. The Official IRA effectively foreswore violence. PIRA supported it.

‡
Shortly after this, Armstrong drew Alexander into détente with the Republic by using him as the conduit for messages from Haughey’s office about the hunger strike, thus making him a party in the process of concession.

*
Martin McGuinness (1950–), educated Christian Brothers’ Technical College, Londonderry; Vice-President, Sinn Fein, from 1983; Sinn Fein MP for Mid-Ulster 1997–2013; Member, Northern Ireland Assembly, from 1998; Minister of Education, 1999–2002; Deputy First Minister from 2007; Sinn Fein candidate in Irish presidential election, 2011.

†
Gerard (Gerry) Adams (1948–), educated St Mary’s Christian Brothers’ School, Belfast; Vice-President, Sinn Fein, 1978–83, and President from 1983; Sinn Fein MP for Belfast West, 1983–92 and 1997–2011; Member, Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998–2010; TD for Louth from 2011.

*
Brian Lenihan (1930–95), educated St Mary’s College (Marist Brothers), Athlone and University College, Dublin; Fianna Fáil TD, 1961–73, 1977–95; Minister of Foreign Affairs, January–March 1973, 1979–81 and 1987–89; Tanaiste, 1987–90.

*
An issue which had just returned to public view because of MPs’ angry reception of the idea of ‘leaseback’, by which sovereignty of the islands would be ceded to Argentina – see
Chapter 23
.

*
Powell took a different view: ‘He said that if he was contemplating lending his lawn mower to his next door neighbour, when his next door neighbour was claiming that the lawn mower was his, and not Mr Powell’s, he, Mr Powell, would find it difficult to continue discussions as to whether he, Mr Powell, should lend the lawn mower to his neighbour.’ (Gow note of Powell meeting with Thatcher, 10 Feb. 1981, THCR 2/6/2/116.) The analogy is, untypically for Powell, inexact. The dispute was over the ownership not of the lawn mower but, as it were, of the lawn.

*
See
Chapter 22
.

†
While there was plenty of criticism for Mrs Thatcher’s stance in the US Congress, President Reagan and his close advisers never joined this chorus. ‘We do not wish to place any pressure on Britain regarding the situation there,’ the National Security Advisor Richard Allen wrote to Reagan during this period. ‘It is up to Mrs Thatcher’s government to work with its own citizens in Northern Ireland and with the government of the Irish Republic.’ (Allen to the President, 26 May 1981, UK: Prime Minister Thatcher, Box 35, Exec Sec, NSC: Head of State File, Reagan Library.)

*
Following the release of the state papers in 2011, the McCreesh family said that ‘the statements attributed to family members in the recently released report of a prison officer are untrue, inaccurate and falsified’ and that the claims had been made as part of an attempt by the British state to ‘vilify’ the family. (
Irish Times
, 31 December 2011.)

*
Michael Alison (1926–2004), educated Eton and Wadham College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Barkston Ash, 1964–83; for Selby, 1983–97; Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, 1979–81; Department of Employment, 1981–3; PPS to the Prime Minister, 1983–7.

†
Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011), educated Coláiste na Rinne, Waterford, Belvedere College, University College and King’s Inns, Dublin; PhD; Irish Senator, 1965–9; Fine Gael TD, 1969–92; Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1973–7; Leader of Fine Gael, 1977–87; Taoiseach, June 1981–March 1982, December 1982–March 1987.

*
Danny Morrison (1953–), director of publicity for Sinn Fein during the hunger strikes; Member, Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982–6. He was a prisoner between 1990 and 1995.

†
In 2009, Martin McGuinness confirmed that he had been in contact with Duddy, though not that the British had made any concessions (
Irish News
, 28 Sept. 2009).

*
In 2005 the former prisoner Richard O’Rawe published a controversial memoir of the hunger strike,
Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike
, New Island Books, 2005. In this account O’Rawe revealed that the prison leadership, including McFarlane, had wanted to accept the British offer but that their decision had been overruled by the Republican leadership outside the prison, specifically by a committee which included Gerry Adams. O’Rawe alleged that the Sinn Fein leadership wanted to delay the ending of the hunger strike for political gain. This account is neither corroborated nor repudiated by the evidence contained in the state papers, but there is a bitter debate within the Republican movement about where responsibility lay for the decision to continue the strike. See also Richard O’Rawe,
Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer that Changed Irish History
, Lilliput Press, 2011. Danny Morrison disputes O’Rawe’s account of events; see the
Andersonstown News
, 12 January 2012.

*
Philip Woodfield (1923–2000), educated Alleyn’s School, Dulwich and King’s College London; Deputy Secretary, Northern Ireland Office, 1972–4; Home Office, 1974–81; Permanent Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office, 1981–3; knighted, 1983.

*
See
Chapter 22
.

†
Lord Gowrie recalled that he asked to go to Northern Ireland with Prior because he, Gowrie, had been born in Ireland and was becoming increasingly concerned about the hunger strike (interview with Lord Gowrie).

*
Armstrong himself was not enthusiastic about the Prior proposals because they pressed forward without consultation with the Republic (from February, governed once again by Charlie Haughey). He did not mind if they eventually failed, but he did not want them replaced in government by more Unionist policies.

†
See
Chapter 23
.

‡
Nicholas Budgen (1937–98), educated St Edward’s School, Oxford and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, February 1974–97; resigned as government whip in 1982 over devolution to Northern Ireland; a leading Eurosceptic and, in the 1990s, rebel against the Maastricht Treaty.

§
Robert Cecil, later 7th Marquess of Salisbury (1946–), educated Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; Conservative MP (as Viscount Cranborne) for Dorset South, 1979–87; Under-Secretary of State for Defence, MOD, 1992–4; Lord Privy Seal and Leader of House of Lords, 1994–7; Leader of the Opposition, House of Lords, 1997–8.

*
For full details of this see
Chapter 24
.

†
This reply led to an unfortunate misunderstanding on the part of Enoch Powell, who believed that Mrs Thatcher was ‘putting on ice’ her administration’s discussions with the Irish government. He spoke of a ‘real prospect’ of bringing the Official Unionists into communion with the Conservative Party. Ian Gow, noting Powell’s ‘passion for logic’, was well aware that Mrs Thatcher’s answer ‘does not have the implication Enoch thinks it does’. (Gow to PM, 2 Aug. 1982, THCR 2/6/2/117.)

*
David Goodall (1931–), educated Ampleforth and Trinity College, Oxford; diplomat; head of Western European Department, FCO, 1975–9; Cabinet Office, 1982–4; Deputy Under-Secretary, FCO, 1984–7; High Commissioner to India (1987–1991); knighted, 1987.

†
In fact, she was an O’Sullivan. The descent was on her father’s side. She is believed to have been descended from Colonel Sir John William O’Sullivan, Quarter-Master General to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) in the rising of 1745. (Correspondence with Iain Thornber.)

*
David Willetts (1956–), educated King Edward’s School, Birmingham and Christ Church, Oxford; Prime Minister’s Policy Unit, 1984–6; director of studies, Centre for Policy Studies, 1987–92; Conservative MP for Havant from 1992; Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service, Cabinet Office, 1995–6; Paymaster-General, 1996; Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills, 2005–7; for Innovation, Universities and Skills, 2007–10; Minister of State for Universities and Science from 2010.

*
On this important and busy day, Mrs Thatcher also delivered a speech to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, for which she had prepared very extensively. Her private secretary, Nick Sanders, drew her attention, in the preparation, to an essay by Sir Peter Medawar in which he quoted Hilaire Belloc on the fate (electrocution) of the peer who did not recognize ‘the duty of the wealthy man / To give employment to the artisan’. Medawar wrongly named the peer as Lord Norwich. Mrs Thatcher was attentive and knowledgeable enough to alter it, correctly, to Lord Finchley. (Interview with Nick Sanders.)

*
To illustrate how bad the situation was, it should be borne in mind that, for the next thirty years, a deficit of 3 per cent of GDP was considered the maximum desirable. Towards the end of Gordon Brown’s administration in 2010, however, it was more than 11 per cent.

†
In other words, departments would no longer agree the need for
x
number of helicopters, hospitals or whatever, and then find the money needed. Instead, they would negotiate the amount of money needed and then buy only as much as they could afford.

*
Mrs Thatcher was conscious of some of these losses. At the beginning of 1982, she sought unsuccessfully to persuade Richard Ryder to return. She told him that she was worried by Alan Walters’s lack of political feel and wanted Ryder to ‘ride shotgun’ for him. (Interview with Lord Ryder of Wensum.)

*
Ken Livingstone (1945–), educated Tulse Hill Comprehensive School and Philippa Fawcett College of Education; Greater London Council, Member for Norwood, 1973–7; for Hackney North, 1977–81; for Paddington, 1981–6; Leader of Council and of Labour Group, 1981–6; Labour MP for Brent East, 1987–2001; Mayor of London, 2000–2008.

†
François Mitterrand (1916–96), Interior Minister of France, 1954–5; Justice Minister, 1956–7; candidate of the left in presidential elections of 1965 and 1974; President of the French Republic, 1981–95.