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Home Page > News > Garret FitzGerald asked Ronald Reagan to intervene at height of hunger strike

Garret FitzGerald asked Ronald Reagan to intervene at height of hunger strike

US President was personally urged to contact Margaret Thatcher

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, December 30, 2011, 8:04 AM

Updated Friday, December 30, 2011, 10:44 AM

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Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald personally pleaded with US President Ronald Reagan to force British leader Margaret Thatcher to compromise on the Hunger Strikes according to state papers released on Friday

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“I would be most grateful if you could consider using your good offices with Prime Minister Thatcher to pressure the British into accepting the understanding mediated by the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace before the death of Mr Doherty and its very dangerous consequences.”

The Examiner also reports that State files show that some weeks later US senator Ted Kennedy and 17 colleagues wrote to President Reagan, seeking a meeting about the impact of the hunger strikes.

Kieran Doherty died on August 2, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike, aged 25.

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RedBranch | Jan 04, 2012, 04:03 PM EST

Free Leonard Peltier!

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IrelandNorth | Jan 04, 2012, 08:12 AM EST

What democracy was Garret talking about. The partition of Ireland was undemocratic. The Acto of Union annexing Ireland into a United Kingdom was undemocratic. The establishment of a neo-rprovincial statelet was undemocratic. How could any or all be thereatened if not democracies?

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 31, 2011, 02:40 AM EST

kilgara: Excellent post.

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Murph46 | Dec 31, 2011, 01:25 AM EST

Redmond also promised a Free Ireland for Irish who joined to fight the Hun!

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DaithiSuibhne | Dec 30, 2011, 09:09 PM EST

Fitz must have been hitting the sauce pretty good to have come up with that 'Idea' about 'Sir Ronald' helping the same people he considered 'Terrorist'

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Woodman | Dec 30, 2011, 07:08 PM EST

It's too bad Fitzgerald publicly supported the British position and was not man enough to say this out loud. Redmond warned the British privately not to harm the leaders of the 1916 rising too but they were murdered anyway.

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kilgara | Dec 30, 2011, 05:07 PM EST

I believe Reagan was basically a figurehead president. The policies he supposedly espoused were fed to him by his inner circle, {including very substantially his tres Anglo wife Nancy Davis}.Most of this inner circle had the same mindset as the British Foreign Office and that witch Thatcher.To believe that these people would feel any simpatico with the heroic hunger strikers is beyond naive.This administration went on to break the back of the air-traffic controllers strike which was a turning point and a catastrophe for the labor union movement in this country.Working people have been paying the price ever since.Reagan was a sham president and a sham Irishman

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joycean | Dec 30, 2011, 01:38 PM EST

I think FitzGerald must have made the assumption that someone with an Irish surname must feel an affinity with Ireland. Reagan was about as Irish as OBama.

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joycean | Dec 30, 2011, 12:30 PM EST

I remember Thatcher addressing Irish-Americans on television, warning them about getting involved in NI.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 30, 2011, 12:14 PM EST

Shows what a fool Fitzgerald was. Thatcher and Reagan were bosom buddies.

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Searlit | Dec 30, 2011, 11:53 AM EST

I remember this. Reagan and Thatcher have a cold-blooded history together.

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