Jean Kennedy Smith, the former United States ambassador to Ireland, turned against Sinn Féin after the 9/11 attacks over delays in IRA decommissioning, according to UK files released on Tuesday.
In a May 2003 letter to British prime minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, the historian Alistair Horne relayed details of conversations that “our very old friend” had when she visited him.
“I thought I should perhaps pass on, in confidence, a piece of information that I feel might be of interest, and even some use, to the upper reaches when the PM goes to Washington,” Mr Horne wrote in the letter, which is heavily redacted.
“Recently, we had our very old friend, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, to stay. I always try to keep off Ireland, but was quite taken aback when she – and with no prompting – came out with the following two remarks.
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“One, Tony Blair should be much tougher with the IRA – and with all paramilitaries. The British should stop ‘pussyfooting around’ with Gerry Adams, etc, and the United States would support this.
“Two, Tony Blair should tell Congress, using his enormous current authority there, that Americans should stop sending any money to the IRA.
“I was quite staggered, knowing how close she was to Gerry Adams, but this seems to be just one more example of how American views have changed so radically since 9/11.
“Although Jean was very explicitly speaking as a private person, she does of course have the constant ear of brother, Teddy, who she telephones at least once a day.
“I assume these two sentiments would represent him, too. If you know this already, please forgive me; it just came to me as quite an eye-opener.”
Mr Horne, who died in 2017, worked for British intelligence in the 1950s and 1960s and he was extremely well connected in top British circles.
The IRA had destroyed some weaponry 18 months before Mr Horne’s letter.
In October 2001, the International Independent Commission on Decommissioning’s head, Canadian general John de Chastelain, reported that the IRA had put weapons “completely and verifiably beyond use”.
This timing – coming just six weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States – has been linked by some commentators to Sinn Féin and IRA concerns about US support.
The tranch of UK files, most of which cover 2005, contain numerous instances of officials and politicians struggling to overcome logjams blamed on the pace of decommissioning or on the demands for it.
In May 2003, according to the files, Mr Adams told Mr Blair during a meeting in Chequers, where he was accompanied by Martin McGuinness, that British demands for a definitive IRA statement were impossible to meet.
“Adams said of course republicans had said some stupid things, and in private he could say so, but we could not get the IRA to say words that were dictated to them,” Mr Powell recorded in a note sent to a Northern Ireland Office official.
The letters bears an instruction that no further copies should be made of it, with Mr Powell saying that the two Sinn Féin leaders “were very keen that we keep the fact of our meeting quiet”.
In one of the files, the Belfast priest, Fr Alec Reid, who along with the former Methodist moderator, Harold Good, later witnessed the IRA’s final acts of decommissioning, suggested that IRA weapons be stored in an Irish Defence Forces base “north of Dublin”.
