A close adviser to the then Prince Charles suggested that Princess Diana may seek to visit Ireland in order to “upstage” a similar trip her estranged husband made in 1995.
The May 1995 visit by Charles – the first official visit to the Republic of Ireland by a member of the British royal family since Irish independence – was largely seen as a success.
Documents released by the Department of Foreign Affairs to the National Archives give an insight into Irish and British officials’ reflections on the visit.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992, but did not finalise their divorce until 1996. The dissolution of their marriage garnered huge media attention, culminating in Diana’s contentious BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in late November 1995 in which she discussed her and Charles’s marriage.
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In one document analysing the British press coverage of Charles’s visit to Ireland, DFA officials Colin Wrafter and Helena Nolan noted there was “an ongoing debate, at least in some establishment circles in Britain, on the future of the monarchy”.
The document is based on observations by Irish diplomatic officials as well as conversations with Charles’s team following the visit to Ireland.
According to the file, Charles’s camp saw coverage of the visit to Ireland “as part of a long-term public relations strategy to rehabilitate the prince in the eyes of the British public”.
[ Prince charming: First Irish visit by Charles was ‘turning point’ in history ]
Charles’s press team, led by press secretary Alan Percival and his successor Sandy Henney, told Irish officials they felt the visit to Ireland was “the best public outing the prince has had in a very long time”.
In another document, signed by the DFA’s Joe Hayes, Ms Henney is described as being “a colourful east Londoner” who is “fiercely loyal” to Charles and “alive to every opportunity to advance his cause”.
Ms Henney reportedly suggested Diana might like to pay Ireland a visit in response to the one undertaken by Charles.
“Henney (who would have been less aware of the political dimension than the more restrained Percival) told me that if she had any say in it the prince would be here again before the summer was out,” the file stated.
“She also remarked that if practice to date was any guide we could shortly expect an approach from Princess Diana.”
Mr Hayes said he “took this as a joke” until Ms Henney “repeated it and assured me that in the media battle between the two, the princess was by far the more predatory and skilled and her staff devoted a great deal of time to finding ways and means of upstaging St James’s Palace [Prince Charles’s official base]”.
Elsewhere in the documents, there is detail about the planning for a banquet held in Dublin Castle for Charles hosted by John Bruton, then taoiseach, and his wife Finola.
During the banquet, Mr Bruton praised Charles, stating: “Your courage, your innovation and your initiative in coming here has done more in symbolic and psychological terms to sweep away the legacy of fear and suspicion that has lain between our two peoples than any other event in my lifetime.”
