Richard Ryan

Why is winning a seat on the United Nations Security Council a big deal? The 15-member UN Security Council is the most powerful body in the UN system(...)

Presumably the Anglo-Irish desk at the Department of Foreign Affairs was a clearing house for gossip, insights and even some kites, leaks and scoops t(...)

Margaret Thatcher felt “quite natural” with Charlie Haughey and there was “a lot to be played for between them”, a senior Conservative adviser told an(...)

It was not a high-profile year in Anglo-Irish relations. Everything seemed becalmed in 1989. Yet Charles Haughey was constantly being asked questions (...)

The British government was reluctant to release the Birmingham Six because of pressure from Tory hardliners and concerns it would cause a “scandal” in(...)

An Irish diplomat who went to Tripoli in the wake of the discovery of a huge arsenal of Libyan arms destined for the IRA was met with claims that Irel(...)

Among the most controversial politicians of 1988 was then British attorney general Patrick Mayhew. On January 20th that year, Irish diplomat Richard R(...)

Charles Haughey was a “dreadful person” who “seized every opportunity to get under the Border”, an influential Tory backbencher fumed at an Irish dipl(...)

Northern Ireland was at its “greatest moment of peril” because its political leaders were no match for the Dublin government, a close personal friend (...)

That the official records from the Department of the Taoiseach and of Foreign Affairs for 1988 are becoming available only now after 30 years leaves t(...)