Among them is an account of the trenchant views of a former Northern Ireland secretary Jim Prior. Prior had reluctantly taken the Northern Ireland job and it was to be his last cabinet posting. Not all of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ “intelligence” on Northern Ireland was gleaned in London. Teasdale also expressed his belief that Peter Brooke, then chairman of the Conservative Party, would succeed Tom King as Northern Ireland Secretary. The British cabinet secretary Robin Butler insisted that any attempt to generalise what had come out of the Guildford cases to the other controversial cases “would be seen as the greatest insult”.

Source: The Irish Times December 30, 2019 01:07 UTC