Sir Patrick Mayhew, who was Northern Ireland’s Secretary at the time, remarked in 1997, according to confidential records.
According to private documents, the British government will not apologize for Bloody Sunday since to do so would be to concede liability.
In January 1972, members of the Parachute Regiment shot and killed thirteen civil rights demonstrators on the streets of Derry.
Documents from the Irish government now describe a February 1997 conversation between former Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew and Ireland’s deputy prime minister Dick Spring.
During the three hours of discussions at Lancaster House, the British secretary of state stated that his government, led by the conservative Prime Minister John Major, may not have a problem expressing “profound regret” for what occurred, but that apologizing for it would be to “accept liability,” which “could not be justified” based on the “available evidence.”
Sir Patrick added that there was “little chance” that Lord Widgery’s Bloody Sunday report, which exonerated the soldiers and was harshly criticized in 1972, would be overturned.
An Irish official’s memorandum stated that the talk was extensive and primarily focused on negotiations and the peace process, but Sir Patrick brought up the incident and described it as “an unmitigated disaster.”
Sir Patrick maintained his assessment despite the minister for Northern Ireland, Michael Ancram, suggesting that “tragedy” would be a more appropriate term.
Mr. Spring, the Irish representative, informed him that Bloody Sunday was a “very delicate topic” that he wished to “end respectfully.” However, he noted that new evidence was developing and questioned whether the British government could respond without launching a fresh investigation.
Sir Patrick stated that he want justice for both the bereaved families and the soldiers. However, he claimed not to have seen any of the new information that had been presented, and one Irish official observed that he did not appear very impressed by what he had heard about it.
The Irish official noted, however, that the process of criminal prosecution might be initiated in reaction to convincing new evidence.
Lord Saville conducted a second investigation in 2010 that decided there was no basis for shooting any of the deceased or injured. David Cameron delivered a public apology for the killings, describing them as “unjustified and reprehensible.”
Trimble’s ‘resentful complex’
Other Irish official data from the 1990s have also been released, including the Irish ambassador to the United States’ condemnation of former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.
Dermot Gallagher asserted that the late Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was instrumental in the Good Friday Agreement and later became Northern Ireland’s first minister, had “a resentment complex” toward the Republic of Ireland and “little vision of the kind of leadership that is urgently required in Northern Ireland at this time.”
Another document revealed the Irish government’s worry about loyalist bombs in the country after the IRA ceased hostilities in 1996 by describing a conference held shortly after the London Docklands bombing in February 1996, which killed two and injured more than 100.
And still, another showed that the then-prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern, had advocated for the abolition of rubber bullets in his nation, stating that he thought this would put pressure on the British government to decrease their usage in Northern Ireland.
A call between an Irish official and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was then the deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, was one of the more peculiar records to be released.
Mr. Johnson advised the Irish government to take a “hard egg” attitude to the Northern Ireland peace process and to “let the nationalists go to hell,” adding, “Let them use the bomb and the bullet, we should not give in, and we will eventually beat them.”
The official, who described the talk as “somewhat weird,” stated that he “emphasized” that a hard egg approach “can only lead to shattered heads” and that “the priority must now be to reduce the likelihood of another act of violence.”
