BRITISH EMBASSY REQUEST:THE BRITISH embassy consulted the Department of Foreign Affairs in June 1979 on the advisability of appointing an embassy official from "the security service" and was told the move would be "highly undesirable".
A lengthy handwritten note by a senior official in the department describes how the embassy sought advice from him on a proposal to appoint a member of staff “with a security background” whose function would be to “advise on security of premises and staff and maintain contact with the gardaí”.
“I spoke with the minister about the matter on June 11th and subsequently, with his approval, with Mr A Ward, secretary, Department of Justice, and only with him,” the note continues.
The British ambassador at the time was Robin Haydon (1920-99), whose immediate predecessor, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, was killed, along with civil servant Judith Cooke, when an IRA land-mine exploded under their car outside the ambassador’s official residence at Sandyford, Dublin, on July 21st, 1976.
The ambassador was informed, by telephone and over dinner at his residence, “that our response was that the proposal was a highly undesirable one, and one to which we were opposed – this on the basis of a reaction to this effect from Mr Ward, whose minister wished such a response to be made”.
