State Papers

State papers published this week include confidential records showing what civil servants really thought about political leaders

State papers: Election of new US president raised fears among Irish officials in 2001 that the White House shamrock ceremony would be scrapped

State papers: UUP leader David Trimble was seemingly unaware of meetings being held in 2001 with members of his own party

Prime minister’s private secretary wrote that Blair ‘sees little scope for bi-communal support for a change to the law’

State papers: Tony Blair wanted Wimbledon FC to move to Northern Ireland but senior civil servant warned it could be ‘another focus for sectarianism’

There were calls for decontamination units to operate at capacity while protective clothing and supplies of antidotes, needles and syringes must be ‘built up’, top civil servant urged

President Kennedy’s widow made the call less than 24 hours after her husband’s assassination in Dallas

Veronica Sutherland was alarmed that the depiction of a female British ambassador in Ireland might lead viewers to believe it was based on her

Department of Foreign Affairs official told his British counterpart that as far as he was aware the prime minister and the royal family had ‘received nothing but praise for their gestures of sympathy’

State papers: Gerry Adams wrote to Irish and British governments about the TG4 issue in 2000, citing commitments in the Belfast Agreement

Newly released State papers shed light on the years immediately after the Belfast Agreement, so much of which is still in dispute or open to interpretation

Official records from Dublin, Belfast and London cover years dominated by planning scandals, the dawn of the Celtic Tiger and a new start for Northern Ireland

State papers: British officials also raised issue of prisoner release, saying ‘life of a Garda’ could not be valued differently from that of a UK policeman

State papers: Higher age of consent for homosexuality was ‘optimum’ to avoid it being seen as ‘perfectly normal’, AG’s office said in 1993

State papers: ‘British intelligence are reportedly fearful that this disclosure could dwarf the Rosemary Nelson scandal,’ note Department of Justice files

State papers: Former NI first minister grew increasingly frustrated during 2000 and 2001 as the IRA refused to decommission

Credit card pioneer had plans to create a new town in Northern Ireland in 1972

Declassified State papers detail the journey to the Belfast Agreement, a deal some wholeheartedly endorsed but others reluctantly accepted

Constitution gives the name of the State as Éire or in the English language, Ireland

Economic link between NI and Clinton’s home state was rejected on grounds Arkansas was ‘too poor’

NI secretary favoured review with ‘overriding limitation that no soldier or other crown servant should be placed in jeopardy of legal action’

Declassified papers show British officials considered three options for addressing the problem

Peter Mandelson was singled out by the British Northern Secretary for having ability to ‘resist the pressures from both sides’, declassified papers show

Newly released state papers show how optimism around the Belfast Agreement in 1998 quickly gave way to stagnation

Ulster Unionist leader expressed concerns over protection provided at Stormont and on visits to London

Northern secretary Mo Mowlam also vowed no stone would be left unturned in inquiry into solicitor Pat Finucane’s killing

Legislation raised issue of ‘Church/State domination’ at sensitive time in Northern talks, Dermot Nally told taoiseach

All 269 passengers and crew on board the flight were killed when the plane was struck by a missile

IRA spectacularly ended its ceasefire in February 1996 with a massive explosion in London’s financial district

Despite disagreement on proposals, Jack Lynch Tunnel eventually opened in May 1999 at a cost of £70m

Representatives were more interested in travel expenses than negotiations, Northern Ireland Office civil servant complained

Many voters ‘cannot recall Gerry Adams wearing anything but Armani’, senior NIO official wrote

Official warned partisanship, ‘culture of dependency’ and ‘permanent opposition mode’ would complicate process

Galway curate travelled countywide on a motorbike during the 1930s recruiting young men into IRA

Details of negotiations around Drumcree Orange parade in 1998 and response of emergency services to Omagh bombing in newly-released files

Gerry Collins said Libya could have retaliated against Margaret Thatcher by transferring trade to Ireland rather than smuggling arms to the IRA

A decision by Michael D Higgins to lift the broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin when he was minister for arts in 1994 caused tension between the British and Irish governments

Advice followed from the success of a gay rights case at the European Court of Human Rights

Wilson’s call for no loyalist reprisals following Enniskillen bomb atrocity made world headlines, and he was later appointed to the Seanad

Parties considered creating statue like Christ of the Andes as a means of overcoming decommissioning stand-off