A British official sounded out a leading member of the IRA after Bloody Sunday about the political options facing Edward Heath's government, it emerged today.
British Cabinet papers for 1972 released to the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule have revealed that a British Government official met secretly with a senior IRA man identified as Mr Frank Morris just days after the killing of 14 civilians by the army in Derry.
In a memorandum dated February 9th, 1972, just 10 days after the shootings, the official reported "the minimum concessions which the Provisionals would expect are an assumption by Westminster of responsibility for law, order and security of Northern Ireland and a guarantee that internment (without trial) would be phased out."
On March 24th, the Heath government ended over 50 years of unionist rule in Northern Ireland by introducing direct rule and suspending the North's Assembly.
Direct rule was only imposed, however, when Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Faulkner and his Ulster Unionist Government at Stormont opposed the return of law and order powers to Westminster.
The document released today firmly establishes direct contact took place between the British government and IRA before already known secret talks in a Co Derry farmhouse between two British Government officials and the IRA in June 1972.
The officials discussed a ceasefire with the IRA at that meeting.