Dr FitzGerald said he was convinced a deal between the prisoners on hunger strike and the British Government could have been struck to prevent the last six of 10 deaths, but that it was vetoed by the IRA leadership.
The 83-year-old former Taoiseach revealed the behind-the-scenes activity during a brief window of opportunity which could have saved the lives in an interview with the Irish News for a series the Belfast newspaper is publishing about the hunger strike.
There has been deep division within republicanism about the hunger strike since the publication of a book, Blanketmen, by former IRA prisoner Richard O’Rawe, in which he suggested the Sinn Fein leadership blocked a deal for political purposes.
Sinn Fein always denied the claim, but Dr FitzGerald said: “O’Rawe’s account seems to me to be, within his framework of knowledge, honest and accurate.”
Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who has admitted having being in the IRA, also revealed for the first time that he was one of the conduits for the offer from the British Government, but he disputes, said the newspaper, that there was a deal on the table acceptable to the prisoners.
He accused Sinn Fein’s opponents of trying to portray the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as someone anxious to solve the hunger strike when she was what he called “a ruthless hypocritical enemy”.
Dr FitzGerald, who started the first of his two terms as Irish Prime Minister during the hunger strike, said the IRA prisoners in the Maze were ready to accept a deal if they had been allowed to by Sinn Fein.
“They were keen to accept that. We knew that. We had our sources within the prison.”
He declined to elaborate and say whether the mole was a member of the prison staff or a prisoner.
When Dr FitzGerald came to power the Catholic Church’s Irish Justice and Peace Commission (IJPC) was working towards a possible resolution of the standoff between republicans prisoners in the Maze and the British government over the concession of ‘prisoner of war’ type status.
Dr FitzGerald was briefed on the efforts by the IJPC and told the newspaper he believed at the time they would lead to a solution before the next death.
At his request the IJPC was granted a meeting with Northern Ireland Office minister Michael Allison who gave the impression he wanted to be conciliatory.
Mr Allison cleared the way for the IJPC to visit the prisoners and afterwards the inmates issued a statement which was also more conciliatory than the messages that had been issued from outside the prison by Sinn Fein.
At around the same time Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was contacted by MI6 and a deal parallel to that of the IJPC worked out, said Dr FitzGerald.
“He was delighted the British were running to him and he did get an additional offer to the IJPC offer. It is my recollection that he got an offer (prisoner access) to the Open University which was not in the IJPC offer,” said the former Taoiseach.
Eventually the whole deal collapsed and another six men died before an end was brought to the hunger strike.
Dr FitzGerald told the newspaper that if it had been left to the IJPC a resolution could have been reached.
He said: “If the British had not intervened and brought the IRA back in again a deal could have been done.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article