Discipline in schools: The use of corporal punishment in the education system, banned since 1982, was already seen as one of Ireland's "image problems" in senior government circles in 1969.
In a letter to a colleague in London dated June 24th of that year, an official of the Department of External (later Foreign) Affairs reports on an interdepartmental advisory committee meeting where the subject was mentioned. "There was some discussion of 'image problems' and several members remarked that this question of corporal punishment now seemed our most vulnerable area. Of course corporal punishment also survives in Britain so we are not quite so vulnerable as in most countries, where it has long since disappeared."
Along with the letter was enclosed a statement from the then-Minister for Education, Brian Lenihan, responding somewhat belatedly to an article about corporal punishment in primary schools, entitled "Irish discipline" and written by the journalist Jill Tweedie, which had appeared in the Daily Telegraph the previous April.
In his statement, the Minister claims that: "Most of the complaints made in regard to the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure are of a trivial nature."
The covering letter comments that, although it contains some "useful" material, "the Department of Education statement is one which any good polemicist would remove some strips from". ... Deaglán de Bréadún
Paras threaten leading Jesuit
Allegations of the ill-treatment of a prominent Irish Jesuit, Dr Michael Hurley SJ, dominated a meeting between two priests and the British Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 1973, according to confidential files now released in Belfast.
The meeting was held on April 18th, 1973, between priests Father Myles Kavanagh and Father Michael Hurley, representing the Ardoyne People's Assembly, and the Conservative Minister, William van Straubenzee, at Stormont Castle. Father Kavanagh said the Ardoyne People's Assembly had delegated the two clerics to meet the Minister about the behaviour of the Third Battalion of the Paratroop Regiment in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast. However, the Minister said the regiment would remain in the area for their full term and handed the priest a graph which showed that terrorist activities had declined markedly since their arrival.
Father Kavanagh suggested that the Provisional IRA had decided to reduce operations as the paratroops were causing trouble among the community and "thus doing the IRA's work for them". For his part, the Minister maintained that the paras were containing the violence but Father Myles felt that the population did not venture out at night to participate in the social life of the area. "There was a feeling abroad that if you were seen by the paras, you were liable to be shot."
Father Hurley outlined his allegations of ill-treatment on March 23rd, 1973, to the Minister and Colonel Spacer of the Third Paratroops. However, the colonel said his soldiers claimed Father Hurley had been acting in a provocative manner and this was why he had been taken to Flax Street Mill with other suspects. As the case was now in the hands of the proper authorities, the Minister felt that there was no further point in discussing it. ...Eamon Phoenix
Amin's 'delusions' noted
On May 30th, 1974, the Foreign Secretary, James Callaghan, advised Harold Wilson's office to acknowledge President Idi Amin's offer of help to the British government in its search for a settlement in Northern Ireland. However, at the same time it was considered imperative that such an acknowledgement should not give encouragement to Amin's "delusions of statesmanship".
McGuinness arrest urged
The importance attached by the North's Chief Minister, Brian Faulkner, to the arrest of Martin McGuinness, the former Provisional IRA commander in Derry (then aged 23), is revealed. At a meeting of the Northern Ireland Executive at Stormont on January 17th, 1974, the Chief Minister reported on his recent meeting with the Taoiseach at Baldonnel.
Mr Faulkner told his colleagues: "He had made it clear to Mr Cosgrave that the apprehension of prominent IRA men like Martin McGuinness would do more to satisfy Northern Ireland people than anything else." A few weeks later, on February 11th, 1974, Mr McGuinness was arrested by gardaí at Buncrana, Co Donegal, and was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin at the end of the month. ...Eamon Phoenix
Gaddhafi aid
The possibility that the Libyan leader, Col Gaddhafi, was providing material assistance to the IRA was raised in a document sent by the British Embassy in Dublin to the Department of Foreign Affairs as early as May 1972.
The paper, entitled "Revolutionary Movements and the Sinn Féin/IRA" highlights a speech by the Libyan leader the previous month where he said: "We consider the struggle in Ireland a national one and we help the free Irish to free themselves from Britain; we do not say how we help them as it is not necessary to do so. People need only know our general position." A year later, in 1973, a cargo of five tonnes of arms and explosives from Libya on board the vessel Claudia was intercepted off the coast of Waterford. Much larger shiploads from Libya are believed to have arrived in Ireland in the period 1986-87 when the Panamanian- registered Eksund was intercepted by French Customs officials. ... Deaglán de Bréadún
Mother Teresa nuns recalled
A file released in Belfast recalls the decision of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to recall four of her nuns from Ballymurphy in west Belfast in October 1973. At the time The Irish Times described the nuns' removal as "the most significant Irish ecclesiastical mystery of 1973". The nuns had used a local council house as a mission centre for two years and had worked with teenagers and the sick.
The people of Ballymurphy felt, the file notes, that the Sisters had left due to pressure from the church authorities, but this was rejected by the local bishop, Dr William Philbin.
A note on the file by a Stormont official notes: "The Civil Representative advises that discreet inquiries indicate no evidence to suggest that the nuns left because of any pressure. Their reason for leaving was that they wished to go back to India and this is generally accepted." ... Eamon Phoenix