Mayhew was criticised by both sides over shoot-to-kill decision
British colleagues also perplexed by ‘national security’ reason for lack of prosecutions
Patrick Mayhew. Photograph: Frank Miller
Among the most controversial politicians of 1988 was then British attorney general Patrick Mayhew. On January 20th that year, Irish diplomat Richard Ryan reported to Dublin that he had “run into” Mayhew in the House of Commons the previous evening and found him in a state of high indignation over extradition. Mayhew said it was “all most distressing!”
Were he to maintain such a confrontational attitude, Ryan believed that he “just might try the patience of Cabinet members who are indeed concerned about extradition, but in its context in the overall Anglo-Irish relationship”. Ryan found “the waspish tone of Mayhew’s comments” to be “quite unattractive” and lacking in “any ring of statesmanship”.