This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
*/
A TORY minister labelled loyalist paramilitaries “unruly horses” during peace talks in the north of Ireland in 1994, a new report has revealed.
The secretary of state for the region Patrick Mayhew expressed disappointment with loyalist groups during the talks, while the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was described as “a tightly disciplined organisation.”
The IRA implemented a ceasefire in the conflict in August 1994.
An Anglo-Irish Conference of British and Irish government representatives took place in September 1994 to discuss how they could build on the ceasefire and finally deliver peace for Northern Ireland.
Notes of the meeting, newly published, reveal their attitudes to republican and loyalist paramilitary groups, with Mr Mayhew stating: “While the IRA [is] a tightly disciplined organisation, this lot are all over the place — a more unruly horse.”
The papers reveal the politicians’ belief that the IRA was serious about maintaining the ceasefire.
The IRA ceasefire helped lay the foundations for today’s peace agreement.
