Margaret Thatcher's fury over Northern Ireland troop deaths, John Major's all encompassing love of cricket and MPs fears over unflattering camera angles. These are just some of the fascinating details revealed this week in official documents from the 1980s and '90s, newly declassified by National Archives in Dublin and London. The files were released under the "20 year rule" - 30 years in Ireland - which requires secret documents to be declassified after two decades unless there is a good reason not to. UK documents are revealed by the National Archives at Kew unless they would cause "damage to the country's image, national security or foreign relations". In the UK, documents are released twice a year in August and January - but they're still playing catch-up with declassifications, after the time limit was reduced from 30 years to 20 in 2010. Here's a round-up of the most interesting stories that emerged in this year's releases. 1. Nuclear weapons could be hidden inside a Northern Ireland mountain Nuclear weapons could be sited at underground facilities inside a mountain in Northern Ireland, Dublin’s most senior intelligence official advised the government. Colonel L Buckley, then Ireland’s Director of Intelligence, was asked for a briefing for Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Barry on the possibility of nuclear missiles being on the island in November 1983. In a response marked “Confidential”, Buckley complains that he doesn’t have “the monitoring or surveillance systems” to confirm the movements of UK ships, aircraft and support systems. “Suffice to say any such information would be given the highest security classification and only be available to UK or or other military personnel on the strictest ‘need-to-know’ basis at the highest level,” he added. But he said the harbour at Sydenham in Belfast could accommodate Royal Navy or Nato ships “equipped with nuclear missiles or weapons”. And he said a military base at Benbradagh Mountain, (Ben Bradaigh) overlooking Dungiven in Co Derry, the second highest mountain in the Sperrins which was used by US forces during the Cold War to communicate with its north Atlantic fleet, could hold nuclear weapons. “Ben Bradaigh NE (north east) of Dungiven has underground facilities, which were originally constructed by US forces for the storage of conventional high explosives but were subsequently redesigned and are understood to be suitable for the storage of nuclear weapons if so required,” he wrote. 2. Margaret Thatcher 'grabbed her handbag and stormed out' of talks in 'IRA' row Margaret Thatcher “grabbed her handbag” and “stormed out” of a meeting with the Belgian prime minister in a row over the extradition of an Irish priest wanted in London over alleged connections to the IRA A senior Tory adviser told an Irish diplomat about the incident by way of contrasting Thatcher’s “quite natural” way with then Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey, adding there was “a lot to be played for betwe
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Margaret Thatcher's fury over Northern Ireland troop deaths, John Major's all encompassing love of cricket and MPs fears over unflattering camera angles. These are just some of the fascinating details revealed this week in official documents from the 1980s and '90s, newly declassified by National Archives in Dublin and London. The files were released under the "20 year rule" - 30 years in Ireland - which requires secret documents to be declassified after two decades unless there is a good reason not to. UK documents are revealed by the National Archives at Kew unless they would cause "damage to the country's image, national security or foreign relations". In the UK, documents are released twice a year in August and January - but they're still playing catch-up with declassifications, after the time limit was reduced from 30 years to 20 in 2010. Here's a round-up of the most interesting stories that emerged in this year's releases. 1. Nuclear weapons could be hidden inside a Northern Ireland mountain Nuclear weapons could be sited at underground facilities inside a mountain in Northern Ireland, Dublin’s most senior intelligence official advised the government. Colonel L Buckley, then Ireland’s Director of Intelligence, was asked for a briefing for Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Barry on the possibility of nuclear missiles being on the island in November 1983. In a response marked “Confidential”, Buckley complains that he doesn’t have “the monitoring or surveillance systems” to confirm the movements of UK ships, aircraft and support systems. “Suffice to say any such information would be given the highest security classification and only be available to UK or or other military personnel on the strictest ‘need-to-know’ basis at the highest level,” he added. But he said the harbour at Sydenham in Belfast could accommodate Royal Navy or Nato ships “equipped with nuclear missiles or weapons”. And he said a military base at Benbradagh Mountain, (Ben Bradaigh) overlooking Dungiven in Co Derry, the second highest mountain in the Sperrins which was used by US forces during the Cold War to communicate with its north Atlantic fleet, could hold nuclear weapons. “Ben Bradaigh NE (north east) of Dungiven has underground facilities, which were originally constructed by US forces for the storage of conventional high explosives but were subsequently redesigned and are understood to be suitable for the storage of nuclear weapons if so required,” he wrote. 2. Margaret Thatcher 'grabbed her handbag and stormed out' of talks in 'IRA' row Margaret Thatcher “grabbed her handbag” and “stormed out” of a meeting with the Belgian prime minister in a row over the extradition of an Irish priest wanted in London over alleged connections to the IRA A senior Tory adviser told an Irish diplomat about the incident by way of contrasting Thatcher’s “quite natural” way with then Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey, adding there was “a lot to be played for betwe
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