1965 State Papers (page 2)

Stormont Spurned History of Ireland

THE Stormont Cabinet of Captain Terence O’Neill refused to support a new History of Ireland in 1965 in case the book would embarrass the Northern Ireland government.

On July 16, 1965, Minister of Education W. K. Fitzsimons circulated a memo to his cabinet colleagues supporting the idea of a new History of Ireland with the assistance of the Belfast and Dublin governments.

The Minister recalled that in 1963, Professor J. C. Beckett of Queen’s University Belfast had written to the Prime Minister informing him of a proposal to publish “an authoritative history of Ireland with the help of historians in all the Irish universities and scholars from Great Britain.

“The professor said the committee in charge of the project intended to approach both Irish governments for financial assistance and suggested that, from many points of view, it was better that financial support should come from both governments rather than from one alone.

The issue was revived by a request from Professor F. X. Martin, secretary of the editorial committee, who sought financial assistance for a three-volume history. The minister informed the Stormont cabinet: “If the work was prepared in accordance with exacting standards of scholarship, it would be very valuable. At the present time, no work of this nature on Irish history exists. It would probably be the basis for all school textbooks for many years.”

Several members of the committee, he added, were known to the Ministry of Education’s inspectors as “historians of repute.”

The minister said that the Dublin government had agreed to support the scheme in principle to the amount of £8,000 over five years.

Mr. McConnell added: “Clearly, the production of a history of this nature might lead to embarrassment for the government. I think there is, however, some force in the suggestion made by the proposers that if there is to be support from public funds, it would come better from both governments than from one alone.”

Accordingly, the minister sought cabinet approval to the principle of cooperation and to the opening of joint talks between the Ministry of Finance at Stormont and the Irish government departments on the details of funding.

The issue was raised at a full cabinet meeting on August 11, 1965, at Stormont Castle. The minister said the experts accepted the need for such a history. It was felt that the editorial committee would be reasonably objective and would produce a work of value.

While parts of the work might well prove unwelcome in tone or content to the Northern Ireland authorities, on the whole he considered that it would be difficult not to agree to participate, particularly as the government of the Republic had already promised support. The financial implications were comparatively trivial in any case.

However, the proposal provoked a hostile response from his cabinet colleagues. Prime Minister Captain O’Neill, Mr. Faulkner (Minister of Commerce), Mr. Kirk (Minister of Finance), Mr. McConnell (Minister of Home Affairs), and Mr. West (Minister of Agriculture) all opposed involvement in a project which the government would have no control over and whose result might be badly received in Northern Ireland. There was no real precedent for direct government support of a work of scholarship of this kind.

In the end, the cabinet decided that the projected history should not be supported from public funds.

Cabinet files on 1965 are released

THIS week, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland released to the public, under the 30-year rule, 2,000 cabinet files, mostly relating to 1965.

The files include some dating from earlier periods, mainly the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. British government files were also released in London.

A small number of files have been closed for a 10-year period from their cover dates on grounds of sensitivity. Among these is a cabinet file dated 1964–65 called International Relations, including those with the Republic of Ireland. Another embargoed file deals with Exploration and Exploitation of Mineral Resources, 1960–65.

The Northern Ireland Cabinet of 1965 was headed by Captain Terence O’Neill and included several figures destined to dominate Unionist politics in the 1960s and 70s. Among these were Brian Faulkner (Minister of Commerce), Herbert Kirk (Minister of Finance), Brian McConnell (Minister of Home Affairs), W. J. Morgan (Minister of Health and Social Services), Harry West (Minister of Agriculture), W. K. Fitzsimmons (Minister of Education), William Craig (Minister of Development), and E. W. Jones, Q.C. (Attorney General).

Dr. Eamon Phoenix, who compiled these, is Senior Lecturer in History at Stranmillis College, Belfast. He is the author of Northern Nationalism and editor of the recently published A Century of Northern Life, 1890s–1990s (Ulster Historical Foundation).

Parliament Wanted Trading Concessions

THE O’Neill Cabinet sought special concessions for Northern goods entering the Southern market in the run-up to the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement of 1965.

At a Cabinet meeting on 11 August 1965, Minister of Commerce Brian Faulkner reported on discussions with the Dublin authorities on the possibility of tariff reductions for some Northern Ireland industries at a faster rate than that envisaged under the Anglo-Irish trade proposals. The reaction of the Irish government, he added, had been most favourable.

The Dublin authorities had asked, however, for direct talks between the Irish government and its Northern counterpart.

Mr. Faulkner had told the Board of Trade that the Stormont government could not negotiate in a field in which it had no powers, and the Board of Trade had agreed to allow the Northern Ministry of Commerce to act as their agent.

The Dublin government no doubt expected some political kudos from being able to claim that it had done something for “the North”, but equally it was both practically and politically important to secure advantages for Northern Ireland’s manufacturers. Ministers agreed that talks with Dublin should proceed.

No Salary for McAteer Who ‘Was Unwilling to Play Proper Part’

AVERAGE(THE O’Neill Cabinet rejected a request from the leader of the Nationalist Party, Eddie McAteer, for the payment of a salary to him as leader of the opposition following his party’s historic acceptance of official opposition status in 1965.

The matter was discussed at a cabinet meeting at Stormont Castle on May 21, 1965.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Kirk, informed the Cabinet that he had received a request from the nationalist leader for the payment of salaries to the opposition leaders and whips in both houses at Stormont. Previously, when the Northern Ireland Labour Party had been recognised by the Speaker as the official opposition, payment had been resisted on the grounds that the party represented a minority element of the opposition.

It has to be recognised, he stressed, that modern consumasath precedente favoured payment.

In the new circumstances, the Minister explained, refusal would have to be justified on other grounds; for example, that Leader in the Commons did not have very onerous responsibilities; that payment in the Senate would be an absurdity; and that the question was one on which two select committees had been unable to make any recommendation.

Other members might well point out that an opposition should be “loyal in the sense of being willing to form an alternative government under the constitution,” and that the present leader of the Nationalist Party had already displayed his unwillingness to play his proper part at functions.

Minister of Home Affairs Brian McConnell felt that, since payment of the Labour leader had been resisted for many years, any payment to the Nationalists would be misconstrued.

Prime Minister Captain O’Neill said the Nationalists had opposed the idea at a select committee. He also recalled the Unionist chief whip’s strong objections when the question of paying Mr. McAteer had been canvassed.

By such action as his refusal to meet the Governor in Derry (at a function attended by Nationalist councillors) and to attend a dinner for the British Home Secretary, Mr. McAteer had provided ample justification for the argument that he was not playing his proper part.

In the House it could be explained that the new dispositions were so recent that government could not yet consider any question of payment.

However, Minister of Education, Mr. Fitzsimmons, however, felt there was some difficulty in using one argument against the Labour opposition and another against the Nationalist opposition.

It was agreed, after further discussion, that the request for the payment of salaries should be resisted on the basis suggested by the Minister of Finance.

At a cabinet meeting on May 5, 1965, Stormont ministers agreed that the relay of Telefís Éireann programmes into Northern Ireland should be “totally resisted.”

Ministers Urged to Drop ‘Ireland’ from State Title

AVERAGE(THE use of the term “Ireland” to describe the Republic in official documents proved a major irritant to the Unionist government in the 1950s, according to cabinet papers released in Belfast.

In January 1955, W. N. McWilliams, a Stormont official, reminded departments of the government’s desire to avoid the use of the term Republic of Ireland in documents.

He wrote: “Republic of Ireland is a phrase which it is government policy both here and in Great Britain to avoid unless its use is absolutely unavoidable.”

The whole issue of terminology was the subject of a long memo circulated to the cabinet by Mr. Eric Montgomery, the Stormont Director of Information, in April 1959.

Referring to the South’s anti-partition propaganda, he wrote: “We, while vigorously denying their claim, yet often appear to contradict ourselves and even to support their case by our use of the word Irish. All this tends to make people in Great Britain and abroad think of the partition of Ireland as an artificial, ephemeral thing and emphasises the perils we may face at home if, as seems to be happening, the tensions between North and South begin to ease.”

The position, he went on: “was made worse by the attitude of the Local BBC television station which seems to view Irish cottage plays, jigs and reels, pipes and harps and colleens singing laments, as a picture of Ulster way of life.’’

“It would, however, be wrong to stress racial or national differences as a justification of the border. It does not keep the Scots and the English apart. Religion, not race, is the basic difference — a fact we should lose no opportunity to stress, for it knocks on the head Éire’s racial argument for a united and independent Ireland.”

The press chief argued that the use of “Ireland” to describe Northern Ireland organisations and sporting teams, including the Grand Orange Lodge, caused major ambiguity. He added: “We should do more to emphasise our separateness by ceasing to refer to Northern Ireland as a ‘province’ and finding a better description of our status.”

The “crux of the matter,” he argued, was the title of the state:“I believe it was a great mistake ever to have included the word Ireland in the title of our new state in 1921. It links us forever with the South and with the stage-Irish interpretation of our character of which we feel ashamed.

If only it were practicable, one of the biggest steps we could take towards cleaning up this confusion over our separateness from Éire would be to change the title of our state to something which would exclude the word Ireland.”

“Ulster” was a possible title, but he preferred one which would also imply a connection with Britain.

The matter was considered by the cabinet on April 17, 1959, but ministers agreed that there was no question of changing the official title of Northern Ireland.