The US government offered to use its satellite surveillance systems to verify whether IRA arms dumps had been concreted over during discussions about decommissioning.
According to new government files released by the national archives in London, a White House official put forward the idea to the British in 2000 when the issue of putting arms beyond use was one of the most contentious topics between all sides.
In a phone call with Bill Jeffrey, the political director of the Northern Ireland Office, the idea was put forward by Dick Norland, a senior US diplomat.
“Norland said that he had raised with [Irish civil servant] Dermot Gallagher whether US satellite surveillance could conceivably have a part to play in verifying that IRA weapons dumps had been sealed, eg by concreting over,” said Mr Jeffrey in a memo of the call.
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“This might be a bit off the wall, but seems worth exploring.”
At the time, Mr Gallagher had also raised the idea of using satellites to replace surveillance from security towers in south Armagh.
“We were pretty clear that would not work. Norland agreed,” wrote Mr Jeffrey. “When Gallagher had raised the idea with [deputy national security adviser Jim] Steinberg, ‘Jim laughed it out of the room’.”
The newly released documents contain substantial correspondence about decommissioning and illustrate how the British became increasingly frustrated at the slow pace of the process.
About 14 months after the Norland call, the British ambassador to Ireland, Ivor Roberts, said he was sceptical of decommissioning and “wish we had never got into the game”.
“As Sinn Féin have reminded Fianna Fáil, the latter never decommissioned, they merely buried their arms and stood down their army,” he wrote in a memo.
“I actually believe that it would be more productive if we had been on that tack and if we, the Irish government and the US had been at one in getting the IRA to transmogrify themselves into a retired serviceman’s league.”
His note came in February 2002 when there were worries that a failure of the IRA to make a move on decommissioning would prompt another crisis in the peace process. “We do indeed seem to be drifting towards the shoals without a clear idea of how to keep ourselves afloat,” wrote Mr Roberts.
British civil servants had argued that they needed to see a significant move towards decommissioning by the IRA in response to demilitarisation in Northern Ireland.
John Sawers, prime minister Tony Blair’s foreign affairs adviser, wrote in another memo the British had to retain the ability to crack down on racketeering and smuggling, and highlighted the role that prominent republican Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy played in it.
“The Irish are better placed to pursue the Al Capone route against PIRA and RIRA on their side of the border (though whether they would ever put Slab Murphy in the dock on smuggling charges is doubtful),” he wrote.
Murphy, whose farm at Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, Co Louth, straddles the Border with Northern Ireland, was found guilty in 2016 of nine charges of failing to comply with tax laws in the Irish Republic for the years 1996-1997 to 2004. He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment.
