RSF: IRA “Message to London” in 1978: No Basis in Fact
Press Release/Preas Ráiteas
IRA “Message to London” in 1978: No Basis in Fact.
Statement from Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin
As one who as President of Sinn Féin was involved in the 1974-76 talks between representatives of the British government and the Republican Movement, I am totally unaware of the purported IRA message to London “seeking talks” in early 1978, as reported from the British state papers and carried in the Irish Times of December 30.
Not alone do I doubt the authenticity of such a message but I believe that if it existed at all it was the work of some self-appointed “well-wisher” and had no basis in fact.
Further, the same report claims that for many Republicans “the truce of 1975 had also been seen as a mistake and that it had undermined Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s leadership”. If this was so how was it that I remained in the position of President of Sinn Féin for another eight years – up to 1983?
Another report in the same newspaper of December 30 quotes a document released through the National Archives in Dublin. It was a “secret intelligence assessment” dated February 15, 1977 and it mentioned “feelers” sent out at Christmas (1976) by the top PIRA leadership in another approach to the British government.
I do not believe that this report either had any basis in fact. The only development of this nature at Christmas 1976 was the commencement of the Boal-McBride talks which sought to marry Sinn Féin’s Éire Nua proposals for a four-province federation with the Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee’s project of an independent Six-County State with a view to a joint approach to the British government for its withdrawal from Ireland.
These discreet and confidential talks lasted until June 1977 but failed when Dr Conor Cruise-O’Brien exposed and criticised them on RTÉ radio.
END
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands