WHEN CHARLES Haughey became taoiseach for the first time in 1979, a strong expectation existed among some of his supporters that he would adopt a strongly nationalist approach to Northern Ireland. They hoped this would be reflected in his dealings with the British government and with Irish-American supporters of the nationalist cause in Northern Ireland.
In the US, that cause was articulated vocally by allies of Sinn Féin and the IRA and their proxy organisations there, Noraid and the Irish National Caucus.
This greatly irritated Jack Lynch, Haughey’s predecessor as taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, as well as Garret FitzGerald, foreign minister in Liam Cosgrave’s 1973 to 1977 Fine Gael-Labour coalition government and successor to Cosgrave as leader of Fine Gael. Lynch and FitzGerald sought to counter the influence of Noraid and the INC whose politics and version of events in Northern Ireland they saw as undermining official Irish government policy on the North.
Not long after Haughey took office, the more pro-Sinn Féin/IRA activists in the US looked to him for a change of policy, in their favour. Haughey’s response brought him into conflict with Seán Donlon, Ireland’s ambassador in Washington.
The ensuing struggle between Haughey and Donlon was the subject of speculation at the time and has long been known in political and diplomatic circles, as well as to chroniclers of Haughey’s first two governments, 1979-1981 and 1982.
Now, 30 years later and for the first time, Donlon tells the story himself.
- Peter Murtagh