Haughey in difficulty, Ahern under pressure and Reynolds ‘not impressive’

Among this year’s releases from Belfast from the early 1990s are files containing despatches from the British embassy in Dublin on the Irish political situation and, in particular, the last days of Charles Haughey’s premiership.

In a despatch to the foreign and commonwealth office (FCO) in London, dated October 30th, 1991, the British ambassador, David Blatherwick referred to the mounting difficulties facing Haughey. The taoiseach had faced “an intensive campaign” by the minister for finance, Albert Reynolds to unseat him but “was no quitter”. However, the ambassador wrote: “[Albert Reynolds] is not an impressive figure and his supporters are old-style Fianna Fáil and have little appeal in the larger cities.” Of the other challengers, he noted that Bertie Ahern, (Minister for Labour) was “self-confessedly too inexperienced to stand but may hope to become Minister of Finance ... He is influential in Dublin and seen as a king-maker.”

By the envoy’s next despatch to the FCO, dated February 5th, 1992, Haughey was set to resign. Blatherwick felt that Reynolds was now “the clear favourite”, backed by Ahern: “The key factor behind Ahern’s decision”, he informed Douglas Hurd, the British foreign secretary, “appears to have been that his soundings with Fianna Fáil convinced him that he did not have enough votes for a convincing win”. Personal factors also influenced Ahern, he added: “There have been heavy hints in the press that if [Ahern] stood, his personal life would become an issue and there are reports that he lived in a house bought for him by his supporters”. However, Ahern was being criticised by party colleagues for his indecision.

The files contain details of a discussion between the British ambassador and Dermot Nally (secretary to the Government) on March 2nd, 1992. Nally declared himself unclear on Reynolds’s views on Northern Ireland. The new taoiseach, he said, “believed that the EC context might be a help in moving towards a solution in that it would allow relationships to be re-defined, North/South and East/West.” By encouraging co-operation along these lines, Reynolds told him, it might be possible “to bypass the politicians in the North who were stuck in old moulds . . . As a businessman, he expected problems to have solutions”.

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Nally informed Blatherwick that John Hume and other SDLP leaders had seen the taoiseach that morning. It had been a good meeting. “No Taoiseach could disregard the SDLP and he expected the Taoiseach to echo that.” Reynolds had also “looked for encouraging signs from the Sinn Féin conference in Dublin on 22 February, but found none”.