MI5 ‘asked UVF to execute Irish prime minister’

MI5 asked a loyalist paramilitary group to assassinate the Irish prime minister during the height of the conflict in Northern Ireland, according to claims in newly-released government records.

The documents show that in 1987, Charles Haughey, the Taoiseach, was informed by a letter sent from the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force that British Intelligence wanted him dead. In it, they told Haughey that “in 1985 we were approached by a MI5 officer attached to the NIO [Northern Ireland Office] and based in Lisburn, Alex Jones was his supposed name,” the UVF said. “He asked us to execute you.” The letter was among the Irish government archives released today.

The UVF told the Taoiseach: “We refused. We were asked would we accept responsibility if you were killed. We refused.” The letter was on Uvfheaded paper. The UVF warning to Haughey came two years after Margaret Thatcher signed the landmark Anglo-irish Agreement, which laid the foundations for the 1998 Good Friday deal. Most Northern Ireland unionists and loyalists opposed the 1985 agreement.

Other Irish archive papers released today suggested that despite tensions over Northern Ireland, Thatcher and Haughey had a warm relationship.