Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson advocated a quarter century ago a tougher approach in London's relations with Northern Ireland in a belief that nationalists from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) could be defeated in combat, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing declassified documents
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th December, 2022) Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson advocated a quarter century ago a tougher approach in London's relations with Northern Ireland in a belief that nationalists from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) could be defeated in combat, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing declassified documents.
In 1996, Johnson, being the deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph at the time, exchanged a conversation with an unnamed Irish diplomat who then communicated what he heard to the Irish government in a confidential note. It was declassified by the Irish National Archives among several other state papers earlier this week, according to the report.
"Let them use the bomb and the bullet, we shouldn't give in and we will beat them eventually," the Irish diplomat quoted Johnson as saying a few days after a devastating IRA bombing attack in London, as quoted by The Guardian.
Johnson wanted the UK government to take a "hard egg" approach with Northern Ireland as he believed the IRA was on the brink of defeat in 1994, when it called a ceasefire, the Irish diplomat wrote, as quoted in the report. The February 1996 bombing of London's docklands ended the ceasefire.
Johnson told the Irish diplomat that Daily Telegraph, edited by Charles Moore at the time, shared the dominant Conservative opinion of considering then-UK Prime Minister John Major's approach with the Irish government too emollient in that he chose the path of negotiations, which, nevertheless, ended up laying the foundation of a peace treaty two years later.
On April 15, 1998, in Belfast, the British government and the leaders of Northern Ireland's main political parties signed the Good Friday Agreement to transfer power to local governments and hold a referendum to determine the status of Northern Ireland.
