A coach arranged by Martin McAleese to transport senior loyalist paramilitaries to a social event was turned down by their leadership “because it would look too much like a UDA day-trip”, according to a newly declassified document released on Tuesday [December 30th] by the Northern Ireland state archives.
Security concerns were also an issue, and while “alternative transport in a fleet of mini-buses was agreed”, it noted “each vehicle was examined for ‘bugs and bombs’ before his guests boarded it”.
The detail was revealed in a confidential minute from September 2003 to the then British ambassador to Ireland, Stewart Eldon, from the senior Northern Ireland Office (NIO) civil servant Chris Maccabe following a lunch with McAleese – the husband of the then-president, Mary McAleese - at the ambassador’s residence.
Thanking the ambassador for facilitating the “private chat” with Martin McAleese, Maccabe – who at the time was the NIO’s political director − said “it allowed us to hear at first hand what Martin has been up to” and included “a few surprises”.
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McAleese was “very frank” about his contacts with senior loyalists, Maccabe noted, and described them as “impressive in both their breadth and depth”.
Summarising the meeting, he said McAleese was “well aware of the potential pitfalls but so far things have gone remarkably well. Determined to press on for as long as possible, expanding the list of his loyalist ‘friends’ at every opportunity.”
According to the minute, at lunch McAleese explained how he and president McAleese had been engaged in social outreach to unionists “for some years” but there had been nothing structured until February 3rd, 2003, when he had taken a call from the UDA’s South Belfast brigadier, Jackie McDonald.
“After a somewhat faltering start, McDonald had explained that he and his associates in the UDA/UPRG would be keen to develop relationships with influential people south of the border.”
McAleese “checked that there would be no political objection to such a personal initiative”, and subsequently set up an initial meeting. Since then, Maccabe observed, “the contacts seem to have taken on a life of their own” and included golf outings “in which some or all of the UDA Brigadiers and their associates were involved”.
There were “several meetings with the UDA Brigadiers” – including a “‘jovial’ Jim Gray and others during which Jackie McDonald was clearly primus inter pares”.
A meeting in Aras an Uachtaráin “involving “50 unionists/loyalists that focused on cross-community issues, there were “lunches/dinners/meetings in Dublin, Belfast and Armagh involving senior loyalists, members of the Irish business community and members of the DFA” and a “very successful visit” to Belfast by McAleese and the president which included a tour of a museum “in the company of members of the UDA”.
Examples
A visit to south and west Belfast by McAleese and senior civil servant Tim Dalton to see examples of deprivation in loyalist areas resulted in £250,000 for learning centres in those areas, “most of it coming from Irish business sources”.
Maccabe wrote that while McAleese admitted “to being a relative innocent abroad, he said he was struck by the sincerity of all those he had met, and would tend to take them at face value until he knew otherwise.
“For our part we commended his initiative and the progress that had been made. We said that, given the provenance of some of the characters involved, and the need for transparency, accountability and inter- and intra-community equality, we couldn’t hope to match his activities on this side of the Border. But this should not impede him, quite the contrary indeed,” the senior civil servant concluded.
Other documents released by the Northern archives shed further light on the “concerted efforts” by both governments to “engage positively with representatives of loyalists groupings”, as outlined in a draft paper prepared by the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister in October 2003.
The aim was to “attempt to address demonstrable need within that community and to create a climate conducive to political dialogue”.
However, the paper observed that “at this stage, the groups’ approach is not entirely clear and is best characterised as very much one of ‘pick and mix’, essentially seeking to maximise their current position, particularly given the attention … from Uachtarán na hÉireann and Martin McAleese.
“It is important for both governments to be clear about the collective and individual rules of engagement with loyalists, a shared understanding of the agenda being prosecuted and the rewards and the risks involved,” the report noted.
The Northern Ireland Office also welcomed the “steady stream of money” coming from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which “seemed to have increased in volume in recent years and to be aimed more than ever in a unionist/loyalist direction”, according to a November 2002 memo by Maccabe.
An attached list detailing the 2001 recipients came to “an astonishing £700,000”, he wrote, and while he did not have comparable figures for 2002, he knew “£15,000 was donated to Linfield Football Club at the request of Billy Hutchinson”.
Other prime recipients of Irish funding in 2001 were the Falls Community Council in Belfast, which received £110,000, and St Columb’s Cathedral in Derry, which benefited from £100,000.
“Naturally we are grateful for this cross-border contribution to our national running costs,” Maccabe observed.
“Any discomfort I’ve felt in watching the Irish take the credit for something I would like to have been doing myself has been more than offset by the looks of gratitude on the faces of the funds’ recipients!”
