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These documents were scanned, collated and catalogued by Ruth Murray, Annabel Harris, Isha Pareek, Eleanor Williams, Antoine Yenk, Harriet Carter, Oliver Nicholls, Kieran Wetherwick, and Cerys Griffiths.
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PAB/6705/DGMcN/RG
FROM: DG McNEILL, PAB DATE: 5 DECEMBER 1990
DESK IMMEDIATE Copy No [2] of 9 cc PS/PUS (B&L) [1&2] Mr Ledlie [3] Mr Pilling [4] Mr Alston [5] Mr Deverell [6] Mr Thomas [7] Mr marsh [8] File [9]
Note for the Record
POLITICAL MOVEMENT AND THE PROVISIONALS: PRISON CHAPLAINS
Both Reverends Murphy came to see me on 4/12/90. They requested the meeting. Following my last meeting with them on 22/11/90 they have had a further meeting with their two Provisional Army Council contacts.
The two priests told me that they had discussed the Secretary of State's British Presence speech with the PAC contacts. The priests made the point to the PAC that the Secretary of State's speech was something which they regarded as a signal to PIRA aimed at encouraging them to seriously consider ending violence. The two PAC contacts said that initially they had read the speech that way but when the PAC debated the speech others on the PAC had said that that was not the case and those others pointed to media coverage which they claimed did not support the argument that it was a signal from the Secretary of State. The PAC contacts did not explain why that perception was held. The two PAC contacts told the priests that those arguments had swayed the PAC to take the view that there was nothing new in the Secretary of State's speech. However, showing some inconsistency, the two PAC contacts told the priests that had the messages in the Secretary of State's speech been conveyed directly by Government to them it would have "gone a long way" to achieving peace.
A further significant area in the discussion with the PAC contacts concerned the relationship between Sinn Fein and the PAC. The priests said that the PAC contacts became quite frustrated when one of the priests inadvertently linked Sinn Fein and PIRA. Their contacts took pains to tell them that they were not the same organisation, that the Government was misreading the situation if it thought that it could work solely through Sinn Fein and that while direct talks with Sinn Fein may produce peace eventually it would take a long time but that direct talks with PIRA would produce an end to violence almost immediately.
I confessed that I was puzzled about that and offered the personal view that, even if by some almost incredible chance, talks with PIRA were to begin, Government could not continue to have dialogue with anyone other than elected representatives. The priests assured me that the PAC contacts realised this and (although this was after considerable probing by me which may have produced a wishful thinking response) they offered the view that the PAC would be content with telling the Republican Movement that it rather than Sinn Fein had produced the conditions under which meaningful political dialogue with Sinn Fein could be embarked upon.
The meeting between the priests and PAC ended without any further commitments being entered upon. However the priests thought that the mood of the PAC contacts was more positive and they detected some signs that the PAC saw significance in the dialogue that the priests had had with the NIO.
However, it is quite clear that the priests are becoming frustrated. They have set themselves a deadline of the end of December and say if nothing has happened by then they will seek no further dialogue - though it was clear that their heart was not in that statement. Nonetheless they keep reminding me that they have been at this for almost two years without producing any results from the NIO. I gave them an assurance that I would contact them again next week even if I had nothing to say. I thought it prudent to give them that assurance since they are reluctant to break off dialogue and I can hold them at this stage by that sort of assurance.
Comment
(SIGNED)
D G McNEILL Political Affairs Division SH Ext 2238
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1990-12-05
This document provides an account of the meeting between Danny McNeill, Father Will Murphy and Father John Murphy on 4 January 1990 where both Murphys relayed their conversation with two PIRA contacts. Topics of discussion included PIRA's response to the Peter Brooke's Whitbread speech from 9 November 1990, the relationship between PIRA and Sinn Féin, and the possibility and advantage of contact between the British Government and PIRA directly. Some text on the first page has been underlined.
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Unless otherwise specified, this material falls under Crown Copyright and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The National Archives of the UK (TNA), digitzed by the Quill Project at https://quillproject.net/resource_collections/351/.