MILITARY:NEWLY RELEASED documents provide the first official confirmation that taoiseach Jack Lynch agreed in principle to a proposal from Margaret Thatcher to provide an air-corridor for British army helicopters on the southern side of the Border in 1979.
Mr Lynch and his deputy, tánaiste and minister for finance George Colley, “had no basic objection” to the British prime minister’s proposal. The discussions took place in the aftermath of the IRA attacks which killed Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Sligo, and 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint, Co Down on the same day, August 27th, 1979.
The informal agreement was the subject of newspaper reports at the time. However, the first official written confirmation of the deal has now emerged in papers released under the 30-year rule.
Objections to British over-flights were raised by Mr Lynch’s critics within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, and helped to precipitate his downfall as taoiseach in December. Charles Haughey defeated George Colley in the election for the leadership.
The issue was initially raised by the British prime minister in a private meeting with Mr Lynch at Downing Street on the day of Lord Mountbatten’s funeral on September 5th, 1979.
The meeting was also attended by a senior official from both sides. The note of the meeting by Irish official Dermot Nally records that Mrs Thatcher had a number of proposals on cross-Border security, including closer Garda co-operation with the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
“Her fourth suggestion concerned the use of helicopters. The words ‘hot pursuit’ had been used, but this was a wrong phrase. What she wanted was that helicopters should be able to fly from 10-15km across the border, without having to obtain specific permission.
“This sort of facility would enable anybody fleeing across the Border to be kept in view, and their position notified to the Irish security forces through the ordinary channels, if necessary.
“There were other additional purposes which could be served by this permission, relating to the laying of explosives.”
The note continues that, “The taoiseach [replied] that there were well-recognised procedures for helicopter overflights which, on his information, were working well. He certainly had no objection to examining the prime minister’s suggestion sympathetically.”
Mrs Thatcher went on to say that “too much of recent violence was happening on or near the Border”. When Mr Lynch questioned that view, she replied: “Some of our chaps feel very strongly on this.”
Ten minutes after the discussion, a plenary meeting of the Irish and British delegations began at 3.55pm. Mr Colley, minister for foreign affairs Michael O’Kennedy, foreign secretary Lord Carrington and Northern Ireland secretary Humphrey Atkins were among the attendance.
The newly released Irish note of the proceedings states Mrs Thatcher repeated her proposals, including: “General or blanket permission for surveillance overflights by helicopters of either party for a distance of up to 15km, on either side of the Border.”
The taoiseach said, “In relation to helicopter overflights, facilities were extended on application, but it was possible that the prime minister’s idea of overflights at will might present problems.”
There were “further exchanges” on cross-Border security and “on possible difficulties in our legislation dealing with helicopter overflights”.
Finally, the note goes on to say, “The taoiseach indicated that, in relation to overflights, the Irish side would look at the legislation and consider whether it would be possible to give general permission for overflights during specific periods, subject to renewal.
“He and the tánaiste indicated that they had no basic objection to the idea put forward by the prime minister in this respect.” It was agreed at the end of the meeting that, in response to press queries on security issues, both sides “would not enter into detail or specifics in any way”.
Two days later in Dublin, British ambassador Robin Haydon handed over an aide-memoire at the Department of Foreign Affairs which stated that the Downing Street meeting had agreed that a number of suggestions “would be actively followed up”.
Among the items listed was: “Standing authority [to] be given for British helicopters to patrol over the Republic’s territory to a depth of 10-15km. Similar facilities would be made available to the Irish security forces on the northern side of the Border.”
Power to permit overflights was vested in the minister for foreign affairs but, up to then, permission was granted (or refused) on a case-by-case basis. Legal advice in the department was that “a limited quota of overflights could also be provided for without specifying the exact location, but in that case some general area within which the permission would operate would need to be specified”.
In an unguarded moment at a Washington press conference during a US visit on November 9th, Lynch said the position on overflights had been altered “very, very slightly, but there is no question of an air corridor North or South”.
This was taken at the time as verification that British helicopters had been given free access.
In Yes, Taoiseach, his 2004 memoir of the Lynch-Haughey era, former government press secretary Frank Dunlop writes: “It had been quietly agreed by the two governments that while the Irish Army and the Garda would patrol the southern side of the Border, the British army would patrol from the air and would communicate with the Irish authorities if they suspected that an individual or vehicle had crossed from North to South in suspicious circumstances. The fact of the matter was that the British would operate an air patrol whether the Irish Government agreed to it or not.”
Fianna Fáil dissidents at the time do not seem to have been aware that, prior to the Downing Street meetings, permission for security overflights of the Border was granted regularly.
