Irish anger is made public

THE UK’s ambassador in the Republic of Ireland received a governmental rebuke in 1990 after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher questioned the state’s commitment to defeating the

IRA.

Irish national archive papers revealed Taoiseach Charles Haughey ordered a senior official to make clear to the ambassador, Sir Nicholas Fenn, his displeasure at Mrs Thatcher’s remarks.

The diplomatic row unfolded in the wake of an IRA attack on Air Chief Marshal and former Governor of Gibraltar Sir Peter Terry and his wife, Lady Betty Terry. The couple both survived despite being shot through the window of their Staffordshire home in September, 1990.

The attack was a revenge bid by the IRA because two years earlier Sir Peter, as Governor of Gibraltar, sanctioned the SAS operation that led to the shooting dead of three IRA members on the British overseas territory.

In a media interview in Budapest, Hungary, following the shooting in Staffordshire, Mrs Thatcher said the IRA was engaged in “guerrilla warfare”.

She said there was also a question whether “we can assure ourselves that the Republic of Ireland is doing all it can to track down terrorists, their sources of weaponry and their stores of weapons”.