MARGARET THATCHER Ireland and the Iron Lady - RTÉ Documentary 2013
Allthings Irish
2013-12-02
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the insight was made to a trusted colleague during a private dinner in Downing Street to celebrate the British victory in the Falklands War.
Thatcher: Ireland and the Iron Lady tells the story of Thatcher's relationship with Ireland. During her premiership, nowhere was Margaret Thatcher's influence on world affairs more complex, contentious and turbulent than on the island of Ireland. Thatcher's 12 years of dictating British policy produced a legacy of bitterness and entrenched division that continues to spark impassioned responses to this day.
The documentary examines her relationship with Taoisigh Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald and provides an insight behind the scenes to key events such as the IRA hunger strikes and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.
During the 1980s David Goodall was one of the most senior British diplomats involved in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. After the British victory in the Falklands he spoke to the British Prime Minister at a private dinner.
In the documentary Sir David Goodall says: "I said in the course of this conversation: Relations between Ireland and Britain are complicated by the fact that so many of us are in this country are of Irish descent, and although they don't like to say so, so many people on the island of Ireland are actually of British descent."
"Mrs. Thatcher listened to that and then she said: I am completely English. So I said: Well, I'm not. I mean, one of my grandfathers was born in Ireland and there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country like me. And she said: H'mm, now you mention it my great, great grandmother was O'Sullivan, so perhaps I'm one 16th Irish"
"At the end of this conversation she said reflectively: H'mm, if we get back again I think I'd like to do something about Ireland."
Thatcher: Ireland and the Iron Lady features interviews with former Labour leader and Tánaiste Dick Spring, Michael Lillis, a senior Government's negotiator during the Anglo-Irish Agreement and Martin Mansergh, Charles Haughey's special advisor on Northern Ireland.
It also includes contributions form many of Thatcher's former British cabinet ministers and key advisers including Charles Powell, her former Private Secretary, Douglas Hurd, former British Foreign Secretary and her press officer and staunch ally, Sir Bernard Ingham.
Thatcher: Ireland and the Iron Lady tells the story of Thatcher's relationship with Ireland. During her premiership, nowhere was Margaret Thatcher's influence on world affairs more complex, contentious and turbulent than on the island of Ireland. Thatcher's 12 years of dictating British policy produced a legacy of bitterness and entrenched division that continues to spark impassioned responses to this day.
The documentary examines her relationship with Taoisigh Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald and provides an insight behind the scenes to key events such as the IRA hunger strikes and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.
During the 1980s David Goodall was one of the most senior British diplomats involved in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. After the British victory in the Falklands he spoke to the British Prime Minister at a private dinner.
In the documentary Sir David Goodall says: "I said in the course of this conversation: Relations between Ireland and Britain are complicated by the fact that so many of us are in this country are of Irish descent, and although they don't like to say so, so many people on the island of Ireland are actually of British descent."
"Mrs. Thatcher listened to that and then she said: I am completely English. So I said: Well, I'm not. I mean, one of my grandfathers was born in Ireland and there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country like me. And she said: H'mm, now you mention it my great, great grandmother was O'Sullivan, so perhaps I'm one 16th Irish"
"At the end of this conversation she said reflectively: H'mm, if we get back again I think I'd like to do something about Ireland."
Thatcher: Ireland and the Iron Lady features interviews with former Labour leader and Tánaiste Dick Spring, Michael Lillis, a senior Government's negotiator during the Anglo-Irish Agreement and Martin Mansergh, Charles Haughey's special advisor on Northern Ireland.
It also includes contributions form many of Thatcher's former British cabinet ministers and key advisers including Charles Powell, her former Private Secretary, Douglas Hurd, former British Foreign Secretary and her press officer and staunch ally, Sir Bernard Ingham.
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