Charles Haughey did not consider the “likely damage” to Anglo-Irish relations caused by Ireland’s stance during the Falklands conflict in 1982 because he wanted to protect his “precarious” Dáil majority and be seen as an international statesman, the British government believed at the time, according to newly released papers in London.
Dublin’s support for a Falklands ceasefire and negotiations infuriated British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, although Ireland had originally supported a United Nations motion that expressed concern about the invasion by Argentinian forces.
The British foreign office believed that by early May 1982, Mr Haughey was “fully in control of the Department of Foreign Affairs”, noting that minister Gerry Collins had told British ambassador Leonard Figg that he should “ask the taoiseach himself about Irish foreign policy”.
Mr Figg later told London that Mr Haughey had seen “Irish neutrality as a cloak for an anti-British attitude” that might be useful politically.
Another British embassy official reported that Ireland’s Falklands “volte-face” exposed differences between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Mr Haughey, since “DFA makes no secret of its view that his return is a disaster, they are for the most part Fine Gael sympathisers”.
'Ill-considered'
The official said the crisis in Anglo-Irish relations "could have been avoided if [Foreign Affairs] was involved earlier and more deeply", since policy was developed on the hoof, "hasty, ill-considered and badly timed, prompted by domestic considerations".
A tough line against the British was useful for Mr Haughey to “solidify [Independent Fianna Fáil TD] Neil Blaney’s support”, noted the ambassador, who added that it was clear the Department of Foreign Affairs “did not know what was going on”.
The British file accepts that the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano by a British submarine with the loss of 300 lives had caused "a wave of horror and revulsion" in Ireland and had inflamed resentment.
